The 30 greatest guitar riffs of all time

A Ramones’ classic makes it onto the list – but which is it? - Roberta Bayley/Redferns

We’re going to fall out about this, obviously. But here we go. Let’s just start with the idea that a riff is a short, repeated musical figure that can be melodic or rhythmic. We’ve allowed for a bit of progression – let’s call it prog – or we’re going to have all sorts of trouble getting some great guitarists in here (looking at you, Brian May).

And we’re going to demand that the riff is sort of the main hook of the song. We’ve tried to avoid bass riffs, unless they’ve clearly become the lead riff. And we’ve favoured electric guitar over acoustic guitar, with exceptions. It’s strictly one entry per guitarist in this list, too. Apart from that, it’s a bun fight. This could easily run to a hundred riffs – if your favourite isn’t there, let us know in the comments section.

As far as methodology goes, this was always going to be subjective, but hours and hours have gone into it, from scouring guitar mags to dredging the depths of online forums, polling everyone I know, listening to dedicated playlists, putting things in, taking things out, leaving out lots of my own favourites, accepting that every genre of music and every set of fans has its own hierarchy for this stuff and will know that this list is plain wrong.

There may be also be a slight Anglocentric bias that will wind up Strokes, Fontaines and Aerosmith fans, equally. But above all, guitar riffs ultimately tell a remarkable story of ongoing musical evolution. So here goes… (or skip to the top 10)

30. Nutbush City Limits – Ike & Tina Turner (1973)

This could just as easily have been in the top 10 but we needed something great to kick us off. I’ve only moved it here because this crunchy, funk stomper is actually two guitars melded together. It’s made more fun by the fact that there’s a mystery about who played them. Rock legend would have it that Marc Bolan, of all people, played the fuzz rhythm and James Lewis, from Ike’s backing band, the wah-wah that wreathes around it like a snake.

29. Human Fly – The Cramps (1983)

The Cramps’ Poison Ivy and Lux Interior - Hulton Archive

There’s really nothing special about this simple, twanging riff when you sit it next to some of the great rockabilly riffs of old, but it’s the way that Poison Ivy slows its descending run down, down, down to an inhuman crawl then stops its heart to lock on to some primal rock ’n’ roll force before the riff lurches forward... Then the band’s sound explodes around her. Monumental.

28. Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine – James Brown (1970)

Chikk-chikk-chingah, chikk-chikk-chingah – and repeat. The guitar riff isn’t the only thing powering this dance-floor classic, but it’s as knife-edged and clean as a karate chop. Guitarist Phelps “Catfish” Collins was eight years older than his baby brother, 18-year-old William “Bootsy” Collins, on bass, but they’re in immortal lockstep here, with Catfish sharp and tight to Bootsy’s loose funk.

27. Ace of Spades – Motorhead (1980)

Guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke lives up to his name with this thundering power-chord charge that draws on the energy and aggression of punk but retains a bluesy feel. It’s a precursor to thrash metal – Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth are only going to get faster and more aggressive from here.

26. Damaged Goods – Gang of Four (1979)

Andy Gill of Gang of Four in 1982 - Redferns

Andy Gill fired off a set of riffs on the album Entertainment! that shifted the axis of rock ’n’ roll in the post-punk era. They’re abrasive, angular, aggressive… and they set the template for the hybrid rock funk that would make superstars of Red Hot Chili Peppers (Gill produced their first album), and influence bands from The Rapture to Yeah Yeah Yeahs to LCD Soundsystem. Ether may be the purest, At Home He’s a Tourist the most extreme, but Damaged Goods deserves its place here as the driving force of the band’s best known song.

25. Where Is My Mind? – Pixies (1988)

Pixies’ songs are so chock full of great riffs, it’s hard to single one out. I almost chose the brutal U-Mass from Trompe le Monde (1991), but ultimately you can’t escape this “lazy arpeggio” that guitarist Joey Santiago sets in motion to worm its way through your brain towards your inner psyche – more than a billion streams can’t be wrong.

24. My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) / Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) – Neil Young (1979/1991)

A hymn to the evolution of a riff. Neil Young wrote it as part of a punk collaboration with Devo in 1977, recorded acoustic and electric versions of it on his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps with Crazy Horse, then turned it into a thermonuclear weapon on his 1991 live album Weld. The latter is its most unstoppable form but stripped down to its pure essence as an acoustic riff, it carries the sweet melancholy intrinsic to Young’s best work.

23. He’s the Greatest Dancer – Sister Sledge (1979)

Nile Rodgers is one of those guitarists whose harmonic and rhythmic mastery transforms everything he touches without ever overpowering it. From Chic’s Le Freak to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, Rodgers has been shaping the sound of unforgettable records for nigh on five decades. His Sister Sledge era is full of big hits and underrated riffs – Pretty Baby, for example – but this is the stand-out in which Nile is making difficult things seem effortless in service of an irresistible groove.

22. Mannish Boy – Muddy Waters (1955)

Or how a riff turned bad, in the best way. This stop-start blues strut begins life in 1953 as Willie Dixon’s Hoochie-Coochie Man, which he gave to Muddy Waters to record in early 1954. Bo Diddley was inspired by it to write I’m a Man in 1955, with a similar riff that he made rawer and more distorted. Muddy responded with what we’d probably call a diss track these days, Mannish Boy, aimed, at least in part, at the younger man. The riff on it, heavier, more rhythmic, all swagger and aggression, is the final boss.

21. Back in Black – AC/DC (1980)

Power and simplicity produced this great slab of a riff that chugs forward between a series of picked-out notes before it lands again. The band’s guitarist brothers Malcolm and Angus Young once talked about how it came to be – Malcolm wrote it but it was Angus who heard it and noted that it had a groove, telling him, “If you don’t like it, I’ll have it.” Too right.

20. Seven Nation Army – White Stripes (2003)

The White Stripes at Shepherds Bush Empire - Tabatha Fireman/Redferns

Proof that the simplest riffs can also be the catchiest. This is a bass riff played on a guitar that turns into a razor-sharp, slide-heavy, semi-acoustic repeat of itself. Guitarist Jack White thought it could have been a Bond theme, and its iconic status has survived 20-plus years as a football stadium chant.

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19. 20th Century Boy – T. Rex (1973)

Owww. Glam and guitar riffs are inseparable, and this is one of the very best. Bolan is underrated as a guitarist – his riffs are deceptively simple but have hooks to die for. Telegram Sam, Metal Guru, Children of the Revolution and King of the Rumbling Spires are all minor guitar epics. 20th Century Boy is a cocksure come-on for the ages.

18. Mr Brightside – The Killers (2003)

A distinctive descending arpeggio studded with points of light. This repeating riff creates a musical foundation that somehow carries the charged emotion of cheated-on singer Brandon Flowers – all his jealousy and desolation – without ever letting melancholia lapse into misery. Weirdly uplifting.

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17. I Wanna Be Your Dog – The Stooges (1969)

Raw, repetitive and threatening: this is the proto-punk riff. Guitarist Ron Asheton grew up in Washington DC playing violin, accordion and bass, before the influence of Ann Arbor, Michigan (and Iggy Pop) brought this primitive distorted sound out of him. Its influence is immense and lasting.

16. Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees (1977)

An awful lot of rock bands who have derided disco and all those who sailed in her never created a guitar riff as great as this. The Gibb brothers’ wrote the song on the staircase at Château d’Hérouville, near Paris, where Elton John had recorded Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Their lead guitarist Alan Kendall turned the idea of a repetitive bass line into a guitar lick, and a disco monster was born.

15. My Sweet Lord – George Harrison (1970)

It’s usually Lennon’s intro to Day Tripper that makes it into these lists, but Harrison’s lovely, yearning slide guitar riff on My Sweet Lord deserves its place for several reasons. First, it’s one of the most recognisable in rock and pop; second, it shows how a solo can also function as a riff, and third, oh, you know, it’s George. An awful lot of love went into making it so perfect, with producer Phil Spector reporting the hours and hours that Harrison put into getting this overdub just right. It is.

14. More Than a Feeling – Boston (1976)

This classic riff is doing some heavy lifting in this list, as representative of a whole genre of what America used to call AOR (Adult Oriented Rock), which could easily populate an outsize wedge of entries, from Toto’s Hold the Line to Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger (told you we’d fall out about this). From its spiralling beginnings to its hulking, chunking presence, this riff is big, it’s bold, it’s clean, and it’s great.

13. Blitzkrieg Bop – The Ramones (1976)

Punk is probably underrepresented in this list, given how effectively it destroyed prog-rock noodling with insanely catchy guitar-driven noise. All the early singles by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Adverts and The Jam could be on here, before we even get to Stiff Little Fingers, Wire, Dead Kennedys, The Misfits, Fugazi, Minor Threat and the rest. We haven’t got room for all of them, but this Ramones’ classic, written by drummer Tommy Ramone, with guitarist Johnny Ramone supplying its brutal sawing riff, influences everything that follows.

12. Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix (1967)

Jimi Hendrix at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969 - Redferns

There’s plenty of psychedelic rock that predates Purple Haze, but nothing that’s as musically mind-bending as this classic single. It’s hard to believe that something this strange to the ear should have become so widely loved: the famously dissonant opening marches us into an up/down riff that mutates into a disorientating chopped rhythm. It’s wholly brilliant, and it still sounds way out there now, let alone in 1967. “Is it tomorrow or just the end of time?”

11. How Soon Is Now – The Smiths (1984)

Crikey, where to start with this? Are we even going to think of it as one riff or two? Johnny Marr explained recently how that shimmering opening was inspired by his childhood obsession with Bohannon’s Disco Stomp (1975) which he later learned was based on the classic Bo Diddley beat from the 1950s. He crafted a riff influenced by both and put it through a series of reverb amps with the tremolo turned up. Then he added the slide guitar sound and did some weird stuff to that as well. What can you say? A work of genius.

10. Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie (1972)

Bowie as Ziggy Stardust with Mick Ronson in 1972 - Alamy

Let’s face it, the search for the perfect Bowie riff could go on for some time, and there are definitely going to be those in The Jean Geanie or Rebel Rebel camp (or The Man Who Sold the World or All the Young Dudes… the list goes on). I’ll probably be back at Queen Bitch, where I started, tomorrow, but there’s something of the whole Bowie legend in this, and as played by Mick Ronson, it sparks and shimmers with immortal cool.

9. Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple (1972)

Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple circa 1973 - Redferns

Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore didn’t stop writing great riffs in his post-Purple period. Rainbow’s Stargazer could easily have made this list, but Smoke on the Water belongs here not only for its lasting influence but also because it’s such a treat to hear Blackmore describe how the inspiration for it comes from a bit of the old Ludwig van. “It’s actually Beethoven’s Fifth,” he once said, “I thought, ‘play that backwards and put something into it…’”

8. You Really Got Me – The Kinks (1964)

Here it is. The future sound of rock ’n’ roll blaring out of the tinny amp that guitarist Dave Davies had stabbed with a razor blade to increase the distortion. That this riff ever made it onto vinyl in this form was a miracle. Big brother Ray Davies wrote it on piano, and original producer Shel Talmy (who brought in vocal group The Ivy League to add cut-crystal harmonies to The Who’s I Can’t Explain) tried to smother it in reverb. But the warring Davies brothers, united for once, dug their heels in and insisted on re-recording one of the most influential riffs of all time exactly the way they heard it.

7. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper – Blue Öyster Cult (1976)

“It’s not about suicide, it’s about accepting death rather than bringing it about yourself,” insisted songwriter Buck Dharma of this mid-Seventies classic. Hmmm, not entirely sure about that, but this hauntingly simple riff seems to express some ineffable truth about love and life’s inevitable passing. It’s working hard here to supplant other riffs built out of individually picked notes, like Metallica’s Enter Sandman, the Pistols’ Pretty Vacant or The Police’s Message in a Bottle. Each could (or should) have been in this list, but this one never grows old.

6. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen (1975)

Queen in 1974 - Redferns

This is the epitome of the delayed gratification, ‘wait for it…’ riff, perfectly captured in the headbanging opening scene of Wayne’s World in 1992. Other examples of the form include the 30-second wait for Pete Townshend’s power-chord blast in Won’t Get Fooled Again and the drifting one minute 35 seconds before Mark Knopfler’s classic riff on Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing. This one arrives a majestic four minutes and seven seconds into Freddie Mercury’s mock-operatic masterpiece. Beelzebub has a devil for a son. And Brian May has this strutting, pomp rock hellhound.

5. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana (1991)

The strum may owe a small debt to Peace Frog by The Doors, but Kurt Cobain insisted the inspiration for this four-chord wonder was the Pixies. Whatever, we’re glad it made it past bassist Krist Novoselic labelling it “ridiculous” and Cobain’s own fear that it sounded clichéd. It comes then with the certainty that some amazing riffs must have been composed but never recorded. This one went on to become the eternal grunge anthem.

4. Layla – Derek and the Dominos (1970)

It’s strictly one entry per guitarist in this list, or Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love might be in here, too. But this is Eric Clapton scorching through the decades with a melodic combination punch of a riff written by Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers. Layla was the pet name Clapton gave to his friend George Harrison’s wife – Pattie Boyd – to whom he wrote love letters asking if she still loved her husband (he would marry Boyd almost a decade later). The riff turns Clapton’s lovelorn ballad into a timeless rocker.

3. Paranoid – Black Sabbath (1970)

‘Riff monster’ Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath - Michael Ochs Archives

There’s a strong case for saying that Sabbath’s Tony Iommi is the single greatest riff monster ever to stalk the earth. For album after album, he turns them out, with so much variation: fast riffs, slow riffs, mind-warpingly heavy riffs. It’s astonishing to think that Iommi gave us The Wizard, N.I.B., War Pigs, Iron Man, Snowblind, Tomorrow’s Dream, Sweet Leaf, Children of the Grave and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in a few short years, and they don’t stop there. If you think I’ve just gone for the most obvious… I have.

2. Whole Lotta Love – Led Zeppelin (1969)

Singer Robert Plant (left) and guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin in 1972 - Hulton Archive

Deciding on Jimmy Page’s greatest Zeppelin riff is a task in itself, and many will surely entertain the idea that it should be Kashmir – Page’s favourite Zep song – written six years later and in some ways next-level, with its ascending structure and unusual tuning. This is much, much simpler, an incendiary blues that achieves blast off for heavy rock. It has also survived god knows how many outings as the Top of the Pops theme tune without losing any of its force.

1. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Rolling Stones (1965)

The legend of this era-defining guitar riff is almost as good as the lick itself. Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards wrote that his only memory of writing it was waking up to find that the tape in the cassette player he kept in his room had run all the way to the end. So he pressed play and heard himself playing the riff for Satisfaction, followed by a clang and a further 45 minutes of snoring. Job done.

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