Ok guitar fans, let’s just get to it. Guitar solos are awesome - I know we agree on this because you’d never click the link otherwise - so let’s get definitive.
This here list brings you the 50 greatest guitar solos ever committed to magnetic tape or hard drive. In fact, there’s a proper top ten at the end, and prior to that a further 40 examples of the absolute creme de la creme of the art of soloing.
These forty choices are less about ‘order of merit’ and more ‘you need to know these’, so fire through my top 50, check out the ones you don’t know, and raise a glass/salute/fist/horns to the power of the almighty guitar solo!
The Greatest Guitar Solos Ever: 50-11
Shine on You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd
People’s Champion David Gilmour has more tasty solos than you can shake a whammy bar at, so choosing which to include in this list wasn’t easy! Whilst Comfortably Numb’s two solos are his best concise statements, this long form intro is sheer indulgence. That’s why it's so great as well: we are in no rush for the song to move on! The mysterious synth pads that form the backing chords are the perfect contrast to Gilmour’s soaring Strat phrases.
Domination - Pantera
I’m Only Sleeping - The Beatles
Hold the Line - Toto
Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
One of my own personal favourites, the guitar solo at the end of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights takes melodicism to another level. Every phrase is beautiful, romantic, and a perfect blend of showy and song-serving. This masterpiece was played by session ace Iain Bairnson, who deserved tons more credit that he was given!
Seventeen - Winger
Whiskey in the Jar - Thin Lizzy
Easter - Marillion
Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
It was a toss up between this and Sultans of Swing, and of course both of them should be on here! Brothers has possibly the most gorgeously emotive Les Paul tone in history, coming in and out during the song with expert phrases. But it’s the moving solo that seals the deal for me, and provides more proof - if ever it were required - that Mark Knopfler is simply one of the most gifted guitarists alive.
Unforgiven - Metallica
Kirk Hammett’s finest moment as a musician, if you ask me, is his solo on Unforgiven. A song so good they made two sequels to it, Unforgiven was already a highlight on ‘Tallica’s Black Album before listeners reached the quasi-Wild West breakdown. Then Kirk’s solo erupts and it’s one of those examples you sometimes find of a perfect performance: every note is THE note, and there’s a fantastic level of drama and emotion throughout. Showy - but not shreddy - this lyrical solo also has the two greatest accidental pinched harmonics in guitar history. You know the ones!
Holy Wars (The Punishment Due) - Megadeth
I’ll See You in My Dreams - Giant
Looking for Satellites - David Bowie
Bowie seems to have been a man who enjoyed a good wind up. On this occasion, he told guitarist Reeves Gabrels (now of The Cure) that he could perform a solo on this song, but he had to stay playing up and down on a single string until the chord changed, and then he had to move up a string and not go back. A crazy concept for sure, but only if you don’t realise how blistering a player Gabrels is: he manages to pull off an absolute face melter, complete with fuzz, legato, tremolo picking and extremely OTT whammy & Sustainer moves to create an unforgettable moment.
Valley of the Kings - Blue Murder
Tender Surrender - Steve Vai
In Bloom - Nirvana
Play With Me - Extreme
Brian May once said something along the lines of how he wanted to cry when he heard Nuno Bettancourt playing, because of how gobsmacking Nuno’s solos were. I can’t say I’ve shed tears myself, but I certainly get it! Nuno, to me, is the true inheritor of the ‘Eddie Van Halen Thing’. That is, he’s superbly impressive, and effortlessly so, but also as invested in playing the song as he is in ripping your head off when it's solo time. Everybody made a noise the other year about his Rise guitar solo, but let’s get real: he has always played like that!
Blackbird - Alter Bridge
Back to Shalla-Bal - Joe Satriani
Satch is obviously going to show up on this list. Of course he is! He surfs with aliens and flies through blue dreams, and he’s the best selling instrumental guitarist ever. But which song to pick? I think this belter flies somewhat under the radar unless you’re a fan, and it happens to contain one of his most jaw-dropping solos. It’s a great blend of amazing note choice, sonics (harmonics and squeals aplenty) followed by a hammer-on section that sounds like tapping until you watch him play it and realise it’s not. He’s too good.
Birds of Fire - Mahavishnu Orchestra
Siberian Khatru - Yes
La Grange - ZZ Top
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Mediterranean Sundance - Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia
It’s admittedly a rare thing to consider acoustic guitar solos in this sort of context, because they are often just chill little melodic exercises like in Wish You Were Here or wherever. But this tune? This is a complete animal! This song features two of the most accomplished and exciting guitar players ever, both from a Latin music background. Paco is the peerless Spanish flamenco king, and Di Meola the master of fusion. Together, their prodigious talents actually elevate each others’ performances, making this an acoustic masterclass.
Firth of Forth - Genesis
Soma - Smashing Pumpkins
Alive - Pearl Jam
Mike McCready’s full on Strat assault at the end of Pearl Jam’s Alive is like a textbook blueprint of a great Strat solo. He has all the right licks, arranged for drama and emotion, and he plays with loads of feel. It’s an epic for sure, but the song surely calls for it? And yes, it is totally stolen from The Doors' Five to One! McCready admits it!
Master of Puppets - Metallica
Rebel Yell - Billy Idol
I’m as much a fan of gimmicks as anyone, so when I was told as a kid that Billy Idol’s guitarist used a toy laser gun to make a guitar solo, I had no idea what that meant but was fully on board. Right enough, Steve Stevens does keep a sci-fi raygun toy handy for this solo, and ‘zaps’ the gun close to his guitar pickups in order to achieve…well, sci-fi raygun sounds! It’s a way cool idea and he executed it perfectly. Did Rebel Yell require a laser noise in it? Yeah, of course it did. More songs do, frankly.
Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy - Mr Big
Did I mention that I enjoy a good gimmick? Yes, good, okay. Here’s another famous one. It’s Mr Big’s Paul Gilbert using a drill. This hard rocking number features some pretty epic vocal screams before Paul launches into a seriously shredtastic solo. Then, there’s a slight moment (to pick up a cordless drill) before you hear the drill basically being used as a bunch of plectrums. Yes. He does do the Van Halen thing of using the drill motor to make a cool noise, but yeah, he’s got three yellow Tortex picks stuck to the drill bit so that there’s an endless picking cycle whenever the drill is activated. Bonus points to bassist Billy Sheehan for having a ‘don’t leave me oooout!’ moment and doing the same thing with his bass.
Showmanship!
Restless Heart - John Parr
Count of Tuscany - Dream Theater
Haunted - Go West
Slither - Velvet Revolver
Fashion - David Bowie
Robert Fripp is of course the major force behind the prog behemoth that is King Crimson, but I’ve often found his greatest playing lies outwith that context. Take this wonderful blast of noise from David Bowie’s Scary Monsters album.
Fripp’s guitar solo is almost wilfully perverse, screeching and sliding around like a demented animal, and yet hitting many interesting melodic and harmonic moments as it goes. It’s almost like an ‘anti-solo’ but then why call it that? It’s as legitimate as a conventional guitar solo, and in many ways a great deal more inventive. And in the middle of a mainstream pop single? Now that’s bold!
All I Want is You - U2
People like to say that The Edge isn’t into solos, but that’s nonsense. He just doesn’t like playing them in a regular way. U2’s music is actually full of lead guitar breaks, and Edge frequently takes the spotlight to show his unorthodox chops. The solo at the end of All I Want is You is a perfect example: it’s dramatic, perfectly in sync with the song and brings everything up a notch. It also follows on from one of Bono’s best vocals, so if you are on the fence with U2, give this one a blast.
Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Everyone knows that Randy Rhoads was a rare talent, but it still does us good to check in once in a while to remind ourselves. He was a class riff writer, but his real talent came from his leads, which brought out exotic modal scales and runs at a time when trotting through a minor pentatonic was usually adequate. There was nothing ‘adequate’ about Randy Rhoads, and that’s meant in absolutely the greatest possible way.
3 Chains o’ Gold - Prince
Machine Gun - Band of Gypsies
How many Hendrix fans stick to the Experience trio of albums and spend less time with Band of Gypsies? Is it because it’s live and has no famous singles? Well, I have to say, for my money, it’s his best ever playing. Jimi has the space here to really go for it, and lean into some expansive, deeply expressive work. Machine Gun is my touchstone here thanks largely to a huge long high note in the middle (you’ll know the one) but I often just think of this album as one long, great guitar solo.
The TOP TEN Guitar Solos EVER
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
What do you play in between a quasi-opera section and a hard rock mosh moment, all in the same song? If you’re Queen’s Brian May, you construct a new set of chords and then write a solo that is as hummable as Freddie Mercury’s vocal melodies, and as dramatic. This is a perfectly composed piece of music in its own right, and takes us from one section of what is a pretty crazy song to the next with style and panache.
Brian May is a class act, and this is perhaps his greatest and most fondly loved moment.
Beat It - Michael Jackson (Eddie Van Halen)
The King of Pop certainly knew how to drop a rock song now and again, and the solo that decorates Beat It is as iconic as the song it sits inside. The solo contains a great many of the hallmarks of 80s gunslinging guitar techniques - tapping legato, harmonics and more - and that’s because it was performed by a certain Edward Van Halen.
Eddie agreed to sit in for the session, and played two run-throughs of the solo before waving off the session fee and saying goodbye. Each take was improvised, and Ed was happy to let producer Quincy Jones decide on what he preferred.
Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth was never happy about Ed giving away his trademark sound to another artist, but I think Ed had the right idea: it simply shone an even greater light on his unique abilities and killer tone.
Purple Rain - Prince
Prince Rogers Nelson was the complete package: a fantastic songwriter, great singer, talented producer and able to play drums, keys and everything else needed to be a one-man musical powerhouse.
Purple Rain is Prince’s crowning moment (sorry) as a guitarist, with a soul-wrenching screamer of a solo at the apex of the song. This is a tune that definitely calls out for such a moment, and Prince delivers. He was many things, and one of those things was a world-class guitarist.
Sweet Child O’ Mine - Guns ‘n’ Roses
For straight up rock ‘n’ roll with a slight razor’s edge of danger, look no further than LA’s finest, Guns ‘n’ Roses. Sweet Child O’ Mine is one of those impossible-to-miss rock anthems, and Slash's extended guitar solo is the stuff of legends. Bars, barbecues and traffic jams across the world will habitually have people air-guitaring to Slash’s sweet blues-flecked licks, just as they already did for his iconic intro riff.
This is guitar heaven for classic hard rockers, and is as timeless as a SUnburst Les Paul or shiny new Harley-Davidson.
Sails of Charon - The Scorpions
Uli Jon Roth’s early career highlight was definitely this scorcher of a solo during the intro to Sails of Charon. It’s indescribably fast, exotic and arty, and a real statement of intent. The rest of the song is really good, but let’s not pretend: the solo is why you keep coming back to it! Roth brought a whole new melodic sensibility to the fore with this piece of music, and used his dexterity and skill to make speed a part of the musical language being spoken, rather than a mere device to impress. It’s an incredible - and underrated - performance.
Eruption - Van Halen
When Eddie used to play Eruption at gigs and parties around Pasadena in the mid 70s, he’d turn his back to his audience so they wouldn’t know how to perform his tapping technique. Once it was recorded and released on Van Halen’s self-titled debut album, it changed the world of guitar playing forever. There was before Eddie Van Halen and after Eddie Van Halen. It’s that simple.
Eruption is a statement of intent as much as it is a piece of music. It’s a laying down of the new law, and as a flex, it’s probably the most confident one in history. The guy playing the phased-out guitar on this track is fully aware that he’s rewriting history, and he knows you’re gonna notice. It may be true that Steve Hackett invented tapping as a technique, but it’s also true that Eddie brought it to the world in a few that they’d never forget.
Hotel California - The Eagles
Hotel California is one of the most famous guitar solos in the world. This is because the song itself is one of the most listened to pieces of music on earth.
It’s a semi-mythical song with a hint of danger and a dash of sleaze, and guitarists Joe Walsh and Don Felder lean into these vibes when it comes to their harmony solo. Using two guitarists to perform a duet gives this piece more weight, and it's a surprise to learn that much of the solo was improvised back and forth.
The Eagles’ classic simply sends you to another place and time, to a place that “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave". Indeed.
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
Considered by some as the best song of all time, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven contains one of the best guitar solos of all time too.
One of Led Zep’s many long-form epics, much of Stairway is actually subtle, taking its time to reach the solo crescendo and epic power-chorded climax. This is rock music as pure aural cinema, and Page takes the high road during the solo by delivering a memorable, melodic piece of playing that suits the tone of the song perfectly. There’s drama here in spades, and a real sense of release, which also somehow brings all of the song elements together.
All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
I was argued down from Voodoo Child (Slight Return) in favour of this one. I’m still not sure which is the greater solo, and that’s a pretty great problem to have!
Hendrix was an expert at improvising solos, but All Along the Watchtower isn’t such a piece. Indeed, it’s so well thought out that it is in three distinct pieces. Firstly you get the classic Jimi bands and melodic blues playing, then a cool octave melody played with his trademark wah tone, and finally a very cool slide part. Interestingly enough, Hendrix didn’t even use a traditional bottleneck slide for this: it’s a cigarette lighter! We don’t often get to hear Jimi playing slide, and when we do, it’s typically unorthodox. He never lets us down!
It’s an obvious thing to say that Hendrix was and is one of the greatest practitioners of the electric guitar, and almost any example of his playing would qualify here, but this one is just a little different to his regular approach and that’s why it stands out for me.
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
David Gilmour’s note choice, tone and sense of timing make him one very special guitarist indeed. Throughout a stellar career at the front of prog-tastic psychedelic rockers Pink Floyd, Gilmour has repeatedly pulled off some of the most emotional, heart-wrenching guitar performances ever. Of these, the two from Comfortably Numb (yes, it counts as one choice!) is perhaps the one that delivers the most.
The first solo is a lyrical trip over the chorus chords, displaying drama, emotion, talent, and vulnerability. The second, played over the verse chords, is a darker struggle, with notes wrestling to be heard as Dave accompanies the nihilistic narrative of the album’s overall concept. This is what guitar solos are all about, and I don’t think there’s a better example of the instrument being used as an emotional lightning rod.
Guitar Solos are Great
I like guitar solos. You like guitar solos. Here were 50 of the best ever. There are more, and I bet I’ve missed a couple that you love, but hopefully there are a few on here that you haven’t yet heard? Check them out, and see if a new avenue of music awaits!
