The 61 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time

From face-melting shred to heartbreaking bends, these are the moments that made guitarists put down their picks and weep. Legends face off against cult favorites — cast your vote.

1. 1
   Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin

   Jimmy Page's climactic solo near the end of the eight-minute 1971 classic, played on a Telecaster, is widely considered a pinnacle of rock guitar.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Machine Gun – Jimi Hendrix

   Recorded live at the Fillmore East on New Year's Day 1970 for Band of Gypsys, Hendrix's solo uses feedback and a Uni-Vibe to mimic gunfire in an anti-war epic.
   752pts
3. 3
   For the Love of God – Steve Vai

   Steve Vai has said he fasted for four days while recording this 1990 instrumental from Passion and Warfare, a slow-building piece of whammy-bar swells and vibrato.
   729pts
4. 4
   Little Wing – Jimi Hendrix

   A delicate, chord-laced solo from Hendrix's 1967 Axis: Bold As Love album that fuses R&B tenderness with psychedelic flair.
   700pts
5. 5
   Cemetery Gates – Pantera

   Dimebag Darrell's long, melodic solo on the 1990 ballad from Cowboys from Hell mixes whammy-bar dives with blues phrasing.
   676pts
6. 6
   The Trooper – Iron Maiden

   Adrian Smith and Dave Murray split the solos on Iron Maiden's 1983 single about the Charge of the Light Brigade, over a galloping twin-guitar riff.
   645pts
7. 7
   Since I've Been Loving You – Led Zeppelin

   Jimmy Page's slow-blues solo on Led Zeppelin III, recorded live in the studio in 1970, moves from aching bends to furious, frayed runs.
   645pts
8. 8
   All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix

   Hendrix's revolutionary 1968 reimagining of Dylan's song features a psychedelic, feedback-laden solo that transcended the original.
   645pts
9. 9
   Hotel California – Eagles

   The twin-guitar harmony outro by Don Felder and Joe Walsh that closes the Eagles' 1977 masterpiece in an unforgettable melodic duel.
   575pts
10. 10
    Black Star – Yngwie Malmsteen

    Opening his 1984 debut Rising Force, Yngwie Malmsteen's instrumental Black Star helped define neoclassical shred with baroque melodies and sweep-picked runs.
    575pts
11. 11
    Parisienne Walkways – Gary Moore

    Gary Moore's 1978 ballad with Phil Lynott on vocals peaks with a single note sustained for about 20 seconds, the best-known moment of his career.
    575pts
12. 12
    Firth of Fifth – Genesis

    Steve Hackett's sustained, singing solo on this 1973 Selling England by the Pound track remains a centrepiece of his concerts decades later.
    547pts
13. 13
    Freak Scene – Dinosaur Jr.

    J Mascis's fuzz-drenched, melodic solos on the 1988 single from Bug became a template for alternative rock guitar.
    534pts
14. 14
    Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd

    David Gilmour's soaring, emotionally devastating two-part solo from The Wall (1979), frequently voted the greatest solo ever recorded.
    534pts
15. 15
    Starship Trooper – Yes

    Steve Howe's layered guitar parts build the closing Würm section of this 1971 suite from The Yes Album into one of prog rock's great finales.
    534pts
16. 16
    Tornado of Souls – Megadeth

    Marty Friedman's solo on this 1990 Rust in Peace track blends Eastern-scale phrasing with speed and is regularly voted among metal's finest.
    489pts
17. 17
    Cliffs of Dover – Eric Johnson

    Eric Johnson's cascading, harmonically complex 1990 instrumental that won a Grammy and became a benchmark for technical artistry.
    489pts
18. 18
    Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty

    Hugh Burns's distorted guitar solo answers Raphael Ravenscroft's famous saxophone line on Gerry Rafferty's 1978 hit.
    489pts
19. 19
    Rumble – Link Wray

    Link Wray's 1958 instrumental, banned by some radio stations despite having no lyrics, brought distortion and the power chord into rock guitar.
    489pts
20. 20
    (Don't Fear) The Reaper – Blue Öyster Cult

    Buck Dharma's chiming riff and searing mid-song solo drive Blue Öyster Cult's 1976 hit about love and death, which reached number 12 in the US.
    489pts
21. 21
    Baby's on Fire – Brian Eno

    Robert Fripp's wild, sustained solo takes over the middle of this 1974 song from Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets.
    489pts
22. 22
    Sweet Child O' Mine – Guns N' Roses

    Slash's solo on Guns N' Roses' only US number one single moves from a melodic first part to a wah-heavy climb in the 1988 hit's second half.
    489pts
23. 23
    Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry

    The 1958 riff and solo that effectively defined rock and roll guitar, influencing every guitarist who followed for decades.
    489pts
24. 24
    Surfing with the Alien – Joe Satriani

    Joe Satriani's 1987 title track, full of legato runs and wah, made instrumental guitar rock a platinum seller and earned a Grammy nomination.
    437pts
25. 25
    Misirlou – Dick Dale

    Dick Dale's rapid tremolo picking on this 1962 surf rock version of an eastern Mediterranean folk song found new fame in Pulp Fiction.
    437pts
26. 26
    Layla – Derek and the Dominos

    Duane Allman's slide guitar and Eric Clapton's lead lines intertwine on the 1970 song Clapton wrote for Pattie Boyd, before its long piano coda.
    437pts
27. 27
    You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC

    Angus Young's short, punchy solo lifts the 1980 single from Back in Black, AC/DC's first single with singer Brian Johnson.
    437pts
28. 28
    Eight Miles High – The Byrds

    Roger McGuinn's 12-string solo on the 1966 single imitates John Coltrane's saxophone, a key moment in the birth of psychedelic rock.
    437pts
29. 29
    Painkiller – Judas Priest

    Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing trade frantic solos after Scott Travis's double-bass drum intro on the 1990 title track of Painkiller.
    437pts
30. 30
    Heartbreaker – Led Zeppelin

    Jimmy Page's unaccompanied solo splits Heartbreaker in half on Led Zeppelin II, a showpiece recorded separately and spliced into the 1969 song.
    379pts
31. 31
    La Grange – ZZ Top

    Billy Gibbons' raw, boogie-blues shred from ZZ Top's 1973 track, built on a John Lee Hooker riff and packed with Texas grit.
    379pts
32. 32
    Free Bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd

    A nine-minute triple-guitar outro from the 1973 southern rock anthem, a live concert staple demanded by fans everywhere.
    379pts
33. 33
    November Rain – Guns N' Roses

    Slash's soaring melodic solo in Guns N' Roses' 1992 epic ballad, performed amid a cinematic music video watched by billions.
    379pts
34. 34
    Maggot Brain – Funkadelic

    Eddie Hazel's ten-minute solo on Funkadelic's 1971 title track was recorded after George Clinton told him to play as if he had heard his mother had died.
    379pts
35. 35
    Crossroads – Cream

    Eric Clapton's two blistering solos on Cream's live version of Robert Johnson's blues, recorded at Winterland in 1968, appeared on Wheels of Fire.
    379pts
36. 36
    East-West – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

    Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop stretch this 1966 instrumental to 13 minutes, fusing blues with Indian raga in a forerunner of psychedelic jam rock.
    379pts
37. 37
    Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits

    Mark Knopfler's fingerpicked, jazz-tinged closing solo from the 1978 debut single, a masterclass in taste and restraint.
    312pts
38. 38
    Eruption – Van Halen

    Eddie Van Halen's 1978 one-minute-and-42-second solo that redefined electric guitar technique with two-handed tapping.
    312pts
39. 39
    Crazy Train – Ozzy Osbourne

    Randy Rhoads' neo-classical shred solo from Ozzy's 1980 debut that launched a new era of virtuosic heavy metal guitar.
    312pts
40. 40
    Albatross – Fleetwood Mac

    Peter Green's gentle, reverb-soaked instrumental became Fleetwood Mac's only UK number one single in 1969 and inspired the Beatles' Sun King.
    312pts
41. 41
    Alive – Pearl Jam

    Mike McCready's long, Ace Frehley-inspired outro solo on Pearl Jam's 1991 debut single became a centrepiece of the band's concerts.
    312pts
42. 42
    Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

    Brian May's short, singing solo bridges the ballad and opera sections of Queen's 1975 hit, played on the Red Special guitar he built with his father.
    312pts
43. 43
    Reelin' in the Years – Steely Dan

    Session guitarist Elliott Randall improvised the solo on Steely Dan's 1972 single, a performance Jimmy Page has called his favourite guitar solo.
    312pts
44. 44
    Highway Star – Deep Purple

    Ritchie Blackmore worked out his Bach-inspired solo on the 1972 Machine Head opener in advance, then doubled it for a neoclassical sound.
    235pts
45. 45
    More Than a Feeling – Boston

    Tom Scholz recorded the layered, harmonized guitar solos of Boston's 1976 debut single largely in his basement studio, and it reached number five in the US.
    235pts
46. 46
    Europa – Santana

    Carlos Santana's long, sustained lead lines carry this 1976 instrumental from Amigos, also known as Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile.
    235pts
47. 47
    Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – Jimi Hendrix

    Hendrix's wah-wah intro and slashing solos on the Electric Ladyland closer made it a UK number one single shortly after his death in 1970.
    235pts
48. 48
    Texas Flood – Stevie Ray Vaughan

    Stevie Ray Vaughan's 1983 version of Larry Davis's slow blues, cut live in the studio, puts his huge tone and Albert King-inspired bends up front.
    235pts
49. 49
    Rock Bottom – UFO

    Michael Schenker's extended solo on Rock Bottom, from UFO's 1974 album Phenomenon, grew on stage into a jam that could run for several minutes.
    235pts
50. 50
    Going Down – Freddie King

    Freddie King's 1971 recording of Don Nix's song, with Leon Russell on piano, became a blues-rock standard for its stinging lead guitar.
    235pts
51. 51
    Paranoid Android – Radiohead

    Jonny Greenwood's violent, distorted solo breaks out midway through Radiohead's six-minute 1997 single from OK Computer.
    235pts
52. 52
    Marquee Moon – Television

    Tom Verlaine's long, intertwining solos with Richard Lloyd stretch the title track of Television's 1977 debut to over ten minutes.
    235pts
53. 53
    Stone Crazy – Buddy Guy

    Buddy Guy's 1962 Chess single, a slow blues with wild, stinging lead lines, reached the top 20 of the R&B chart and shaped his explosive style.
    235pts
54. 54
    Mr. Crowley – Ozzy Osbourne

    Randy Rhoads played two neoclassical solos over this 1980 song from Blizzard of Ozz, written about the occultist Aleister Crowley.
    146pts
55. 55
    Time – Pink Floyd

    David Gilmour's soaring, heavily sustained solo on Time, from The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, is among the best-loved in progressive rock.
    146pts
56. 56
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps – The Beatles

    Eric Clapton, uncredited, played the crying lead guitar on George Harrison's song for the 1968 White Album, a rare guest solo on a Beatles record.
    146pts
57. 57
    How High the Moon – Les Paul & Mary Ford

    Les Paul's multitracked, sped-up guitar runs on this 1951 US number one demonstrated the studio overdubbing techniques he pioneered.
    146pts
58. 58
    Purple Rain – Prince

    Prince's emotionally raw, bending, gospel-infused solo that closes his 1984 film song in a torrent of wailing expression.
    0pts
59. 59
    Kid Charlemagne – Steely Dan

    Session ace Larry Carlton's jazzy, precisely phrased solos on the 1976 opener of The Royal Scam are fixtures on lists of rock's finest guitar work.
    0pts
60. 60
    One – Metallica

    Kirk Hammett's tapping-laden solo crowns the machine-gun climax of Metallica's anti-war song from 1988's ...And Justice for All, the band's first Grammy winner.
    0pts
61. 61
    Beat It – Michael Jackson

    Eddie Van Halen recorded his tapping solo for Michael Jackson's 1983 hit for free in about half an hour, rearranging the section before he played it.
    0pts

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