20 best riffs of all time
 

According to TotalGuitar readers, the top 20 riffs are:

1. Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
2. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
3. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
4. Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
5. Enter Sandman - Metallica
6. Layla - Derek & The Dominoes/Eric Clapton
7. Master Of Puppets - Metallica
8. Back In Black - AC/DC
9. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix
10. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
11. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
12. All Right Now - Free
13. Plug In Baby - Muse
14. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
15. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love - Van Halen
16. Walk This Way - Aerosmith w Run DMC
17. Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
18. No-One Knows - Queens Of The Stone Age
19. Paradise City - Guns N' Roses
20. Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine


Source: BBC.COM

The fact that they included Nirvana, makes me want to question their intelligence.

HELL YES!

Josh, you the man.

i definitely must agree with:
i love Sweet Child O' Mine's intro! kicks all ass!
and i'm sure i've heard the others at some time or another (i have most of those on my computer), i just can't hear them singing in my head like the 4 above are.

Oh yeah!! :jam: Another Eric Clapton tune that fits it with these two EC tunes would be Cocaine among others of course. :D

Also besides the other two I quoted these are right on. Not sure if Nirvana should be in the top 20, but great nonetheless.

If the list is in order G 'n' R shouldn't be first, but should be on the list.

they must've put Nirvana on there just for the sake of including a grunge band on the list.

If so, then they should have had "Alive" by Pearl Jam, instead.

Even though I'm a big Nirvana fan, I highly doubt that SLTS has any really great riffs. Definetly not a good enough one to put them at #2. There should be some Creed on that list. Mark's solo in Higher is my fave. There's some other pretty sweet ones they have that could have made that list IMHO.


H-D :gandalf:

Most of these lists for "Top 10/20/50/100" are always bullshit. Like Kurt Cobain being in the top 20 in Rolling Stone's best guitarists list.

Where the fuck is Led Zepp's "Kashmir"?
This list is nonsence...

Yeh! And Boston's More Than A Feeling dag nabbit! hehe.
I think that SLTS is up there cos it's is so famous, and definitive of the whole grunge era, plus it's sorta like the new "every guitarist can play this riff" kinda riff U know?

DITTO...
and Black Dog...looooooove that one...

i was thinking Higher shoulda been on here, too. i don't know if it's b/c i'm a big creed fan, but it seems like the riffs in the song would be pretty memorable and easy to pick out.

Especially the riff in the chorus. Badass...