What Are Your Favorite, Most Mindblowing Guitar Solos?
Published: March 22, 2024
We’re about to count down the 50 Baddest Guitar Solos of All Time, and we need your help! In the poll below, you’ll find six-string pioneers and virtuosos from across genres and eras. You have 25 votes – cast wisely. And thank you, as you help determine the countdown and, ultimately, which guitar solo is number one.
Because you might need some prompting, we’ve listed links to YouTube videos of the candidates.
Directions: Either CLICK HERE or SCROLL DOWN past the videos for the poll. Vote once for up to 25 of your favorite guitar solos by March 31 at 11:59pm ET. When you need a reminder of a solo, scroll back up and listen to it in one of the videos posted. This poll is intentionally not sorted alphabetically. For accuracy, it is in random order for every voter.
AC/DC – Back In Black
AC/DC – Let There Be Rock
AC/DC – Thunderstruck
AC/DC – Whole Lotta Rosie
Aerosmith Walk This Way
Albert King “Born Under a Bad Sign”
Albert King – Crosscut Saw
Alice In Chains – Nutshell
Alice In Chains – Them Bones
Allman Brothers – In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
Allman Brothers Band – Jessica
Allman Brothers Band – One Way Out
Allman Brothers Band Blue Sky
Alter Bridge – Blackbird
Audioslave – Like A Stone
B.B. King – “Sweet Little Angel”
Bad Religion – I Want to Conquer the World
BB King – The Thrill Is Gone
Beatles – Get Back
Beatles – Let it Be
Beatles – Something
Beatles , “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”(Eric Clapton)
Beatles’ The End (George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon)
Bill Haley & His Comets’ Rock Around The Clock (Danny Cedrone)
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath War Pigs
Blue Oyster Cult – (Don’t Fear) the Reaper
Bobbie Raitt – Three Time Loser
Bon Jovi – You Give Love A Bad Name
Bon Jovi – Dry County
Bon Jovi – Wanted Dead or Alive
Bonnie Raitt – Thing Called Love
Boston – Foreplay/Long Time
Brian Eno – Baby’s On Fire
Buckethead – Telescape 2
Buddy Guy – Damn Right I Got the Blues
Buddy Guy on I Smell a Rat
Cream “White Room”
Chicago – 25 or 6 To 4 (Terry Kath)
Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode
Cream – Sunshine of Your Love
Cream Crossroads (Clapton)
Cream’s “White Room”
Creedance Clearwater Revival – Heard it Through the Grapevine
Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Deep Purple – Highway Star (Ritchie Blackmore)
Deep Purple – ‘Child in Time’
Deep Purple – ‘Smoke on the Water’
Derek & the Dominos – Bell Bottom Blues
Derek & the Dominos – Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad – Live at the Fillmore East
Derek and the Dominos – Layla
Dick Dale – Misirlou
Dio – Holy Diver
Dire Straits – ‘Telegraph Road
Dire Straits Sultans of Swing (Mark Knopfler)
Doors – Roadhouse Blues
Doors, Eddie Vedder – Road House Blues (1/12/93)
Doors’ “Moonlight Drive” (Robby Krieger)
Dream Theater – Under a Glass Moon
Eagles Hotel California (Don Felder and Joe Walsh)
Eddie Cochran – “Sittin’ in the Balcony”
Elmore James on “The Sky Is Crying”
Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog”
Elvis Presley’s “Too Much” (Scotty Moore)
Eric Clapton – Cocaine
Eric Clapton – Let It Rain
Eric Gales, Zakk Wylde – Steep Climb
Eric Johnson Cliffs Of Dover (Eric Johnson)
Europe – The Final Countdown
Extreme – ‘Get The Funk Out
Extreme – ‘Play With Me’
Fleetwood Mac – ‘The Chain’
Fleetwood Mac Oh Well
Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman”
Foghat – Slowride
Foo Fighters – Long Road To Ruin
Frank Zappa – “Black Napkins”
Frank Zappa – Zoot Allures
Frank Zappa on “Watermelon In Easter Hay”
Freddie King – “Have You Ever Loved a Woman”
Freddie King – Going Down
Free – ‘All Right Now’
Funkadelic Maggot Brain
Gary Moore STILL GOT THE BLUES (Gary Moore)
Gary Moore – ‘Parisienne Walkways’
Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps’ “Race With the Devil”
Genesis Firth of Fifth
Grateful Dead – Fire on the Mountain
Grateful Dead – Friend of the Devil
Greta Van Fleet – The Weight of Dreams
Greta Van Fleet – When The Curtain Falls
Guns n Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine (Slash)
Guns N’ Roses – ‘Estranged’
Guns N’ Roses – ‘November Rain’
Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City
Heart – “Magic Man” (Roger Fisher)
Humble Pie Strange Days
Iron Maiden – The Trooper
Iron Maiden – ‘Powerslave’
Iron Maiden – Hallowed Be Thy Name
Isley Brothers’ “That Lady” (Ernie Isley)
James Gang – Funk 49
Jeff Beck – Goin’ Down
Jeff Beck – People Get Ready
Jeff Beck, Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers
Jethro Tull Aqualung
Jimi Hendrix – Bold As Love
Jimi Hendrix – Little Wing
Jimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady
Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze
Jimi Hendrix – Red House
Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Jimi Hendrix, “All Along the Watchtower” (Jimi Hendrix)
Joe Bonamassa – Sloe Gin
Joe Bonamassa – ‘India / Mountain Time’
Joe Satriani – Always With Me, Always With You
Joe Satriani – Flying in a Blue Dream
Joe Satriani – Surfing With The Alien
Joe Walsh – A Life of Illusion
Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way
Joe Walsh with Don Henley – Dirty Laundy
John Mayal’s Bluesbreakers – Have You Heard
John Mayer – Gravity
John Mayer – Neon (Live at the Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, CA – December 2007)
Journey – Lights
Journey – Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Journey Stone In Love
Judas Priest – Painkiller
Judas Priest – ‘Beyond The Realms of Death’
Kansas Carry On Wayward Son
Killers – Read My Mind
King Crimson – 21st Century Schizoid Man
KISS – Duece
KISS – Rock n Roll All Night
Kiss – Shock Me
Led Zeppelin – Heartbreaker
Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” /MSG performance of Since I’ve Been Loving You
Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven (Jimmy Page)
Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles Last Stand”
Led Zeppelin’s “Since I Been Loving You”
Les Paul, “How High the Moon”
Link Wray – Rumble
Living Colour – Cult of Personality
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird (Allen Collins)
Marillion – ‘Easter’
Megadeth – Hanger 18
Megadeth – Tornado of Souls
Metallica – One
Metallica – Ride The Lightning
Metallica – ‘Master of Puppets’
Metallica – ‘Nothing Else Matters’
Metallica – ‘The Unforgiven’
Metallica Fade To Black (Kirk Hammett)
Michael Jackson – Beat it (Eddie Van Halen)
Muddy Waters – Honey Bee
Muse – Citizen Erased
Muse – Reapers
Muse – Survival
My Chemical Romance – Dead!
Neil Young – Cortez the Killer
Neil Young – Powderfinger
Neil Young – ‘Like a Hurricane’
Nirvana – Sappy
Nirvana-Come As You Are
Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Nita Strauss – Dead Inside
Orianthi – Sinners Hymn
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
Ozzy Osbourne – Mr. Crowley
Ozzy Osbourne – ‘No More Tears’
Pantera – Floods
Pantera – ‘Cemetery Gates
Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s “East-West”
Pearl Jam – Black
Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter
Pearl Jam Alive
Peter Frampton Do You Feel Like We Do
Phish – Auld Lang Syne @ Worcester, MA 1993
Phish – Tweezer
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
Pink Floyd – Dogs
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd – ‘Time’
Pink Floyd Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Pretenders – Middle of the Road
Pretenders’ “Tattooed Love Boys” (James Honeyman-Scott)
Primus – Golden Boy
Prince – Lets Go Crazy
Prince – Purple Rain (Prince)
Queen – Death On Two Legs
Queen – ‘Brighton Rock’
Queen Bohemian Rhapsody (Brian May)
Queen’s “Killer Queen”
Radiohead – Paranoid Android
Rage Against The Machine – Bulls On Parade
Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name
Rainbow – ‘Gates of Babylon’
Rainbow Stargazer
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Scar Tissue
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “I Could Have Lied”
REO Speedwagon – Take It On The Run
Ricky Nelson “Hello Mary Lou” (James Burton)
Robert Johnson, “Crossroads”
Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter
Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
Rolling Stones – The Last Time
Rolling Stones’ “Time Waits for No One”
Roxy Music’s “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” (Phil Manzanera)
Rush – YYZ
Rush – ‘La Villa Strangiato’
Rush Limelight
Santana – Black Magic Woman
Santana – Europa (Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile)
Santana Soul Sacrifice
Santana’s “Samba Pa Ti”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe on “Strange Things Happening Every Day”
Slash – ‘Anastasia’
Smashing Pumpkins – I Am One
Steely Dan – Reelin In The Years
Steely Dan Kid Charlemange (Larry Carlton)
Steve Vai – For The Love Of God
Steve Vai Tender Surrender
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Lenny
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Texas Flood
Stevie Ray Vaughn- Pride and Joy
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS – SILVERGUN SUPERMAN
Styx – Renegade
Styx- The Best of Times
T-Bone Walker on “Call It Stormy Monday”
Ted Nugent – Stranglehold
Television Marquee Moon
Temple Of The Dog – Reach Down
The Band – King Harvest (Robbie Robertson)
Thin Lizzy – Whiskey in the Jar
Thin Lizzy Emerald
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers American Girl (Mike Campbell)
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Mike Campbell)
TOOL – Parabola
Twister Sister – Were Not Gonna Take It
U2 – “Bullet the Blue Sky” (The Edge)
U2 – “The Fly” (The Edge)
U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
UFO – Rock Bottom
UFO – ‘Love To Love’
Van Halen – Ain’t Talkin bout Love
Van Halen – Eruption/You Really Got Me (Eddie Van Halen)
