# The 16 Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time

> Four notes can outlive a whole catalogue. Some of these were written in a hotel room, one by accident in a studio.

*By YPB Team · Published August 20, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-16-greatest-guitar-riffs-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Smoke on the Water** — score 1000/1000
   Deep Purple's four-note 1972 riff, the first thing millions of guitarists ever learn.
2. **Sweet Child o' Mine** — score 1000/1000
   Slash's circular 1987 exercise-turned-intro that opened Guns N' Roses to radio.
3. **Money for Nothing** — score 742/1000
   Mark Knopfler's 1985 Dire Straits tone, half riff and half studio accident.
4. **Purple Haze** — score 742/1000
   Jimi Hendrix's 1967 opening, tritone and all, that reset what a guitar could sound like.
5. **Iron Man** — score 621/1000
   Tony Iommi's plodding 1970 Black Sabbath line, often called the birth cry of heavy metal.
6. **Smells Like Teen Spirit** — score 548/1000
   Kurt Cobain's four-chord 1991 figure that ended the hair-metal decade overnight.
7. **Walk This Way** — score 548/1000
   Joe Perry's 1975 Aerosmith strut, later the bridge between rock and hip-hop.
8. **Back in Black** — score 464/1000
   Angus Young's 1980 AC/DC riff, written weeks after the band nearly ended.
9. **Whole Lotta Love** — score 464/1000
   Jimmy Page's swaggering 1969 Led Zeppelin figure, built on a descending blues push.
10. **Seven Nation Army** — score 464/1000
   Jack White's 2003 bass-octave line, now sung by football crowds worldwide.
11. **Enter Sandman** — score 365/1000
   Metallica's 1991 clean-to-heavy build, the riff that carried metal onto daytime radio.
12. **Sunshine of Your Love** — score 249/1000
   Cream's 1967 riff, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce trading a blues phrase in unison.
13. **Master of Puppets** — score 249/1000
   The 1986 Metallica title track's down-picked E-string gallop, thrash at full speed.
14. **Crazy Train** — score 249/1000
   Randy Rhoads' 1980 riff on Ozzy Osbourne's solo debut, neoclassical metal in miniature.
15. **Layla** — score 249/1000
   The 1970 Derek and the Dominos hook, Clapton and Duane Allman doubling the line.
16. **(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction** — score 110/1000
   Keith Richards' fuzzbox hook from 1965, reportedly written half-asleep in a hotel.

Tags: music, rock, classics, guitar, metal