This little essay used to be called “most iconic opening guitar riffs,” but that title would have been a lie. I try not to lie, unless it is absolutely convenient. So I took out the "most."
You see, “iconic” implies that these are the best-known opening guitar riffs. A lot of them are just that. But not all of them. When striving for “icon” status, it helps to have been around a long time, the better to build your mythic rep. And it helps to have been released when guitar-based rock and roll was the dominant force in the musical culture. That way, everybody was likely to hear your riff.
So I could have easily compiled this list with songs from the 1960s and ‘70s. It would have been a good list. (It also would have been a list that is replicated dozens of times across the internet.) A lot of what follows does in fact come from that era of classic rock.
The most iconic opening guitar riffs in rock history (or something kind of like that)
However, since I have spent the last year repeatedly writing that rock & roll is far from dead in 2026, doing so would have felt, I don’t know, hypocritical? So, despite the sub-headline you are about to read, these are not intended to be the most “iconic” opening guitar riffs in rock history.
This is my collection of killer opening riffs that exist somewhere in between iconic and great. There ought to be a word for that. There probably is a word for that. I’ll probably think of it right after I hit “publish.”
The bottom line is, there are a lot of great guitar openings covering almost 70 years of rock and roll. Through some formula that only I know, when you add together their quality and how well-known they are, you get a very high grade.
Two caveats
I’m sticking with electric – or primarily electric here. We’ll tackle acoustic openings on another day. And I am not going to delve into the difference between leads and intros and solos and riffs … and whatever other term your guitar-obsessed friend favors. Life is too short for some arguments. That’s what anonymous discussion boards are for.
33. “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton (1977)
Although I tried to limit myself to one selection per guitarist, Clapton will be returning later. It’ll be in a different context. This is Clapton as a solo artist, covering JJ Cale’s original and giving the intro ten times the bite. There weren’t many guitar players who could take a potentially ponderous blues riff and imbue it with this much life.
32. “Dragonfly Pie” by Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks (2008)
After Pavement broke up, Malkmus went solo with the Jicks providing steady support. This lays a gorgeous wandering riff over some heavy doom-laden chords.
31. “Love Bites (So Do I) by Halestorm (2012)
Pummeling chords lay the groundwork for Joe Hottinger’s riff stabs in the lightning build up to Lizzy Hale’s dangerous love song.
30. “Red Neck Friend” by Jackson Browne (1973)
I heard way too much late-70’s Jackson when I was in college. If I never hear “The Load-Out” again, I can live with that. At the same time, I’m falling deeper into early Jackson. Debut-album songs like “Doctor My Eyes” and “Jamaica Say You Will” relied on piano. But by the second album, the guitar was more prominent, and it was never better than on David Lindley’s free-spirited, vaguely-southern intro.
29. “Gila Monster” by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (2023
If you want killer riffs, check out King Gizzard. If you want killer riffs about creatures that can destroy entire cities, check out PetroDragonic Apocalypse, highlighted by this classic example of dragon metal.
28. “Joker & the Thief” by Wolfmother (2006)
The modern Aussie Led Zeppelin – or I guess I could just say the AC/DC stepchild – Andrew Stockdale inverts the pattern by opening with a good 40 seconds of angular riffing before hitting his pounding power chords.
27. “Feel the Pain” by Dinosaur Jr. (1994)
By 1994, Dinosaur Jr. was basically guitarist, singer, songwriter J Mascis. Bassist Lou Barlow had left. Drummer Murph had left. Mascis responded with his most accessible series of songs, while still retaining the noisy, messy power that Dinosaur was known for.
26. “Magic Man” by Heart (1976)
Heart’s songs always had cool openings. Sometimes acoustic, sometimes electric. Sometimes a combination. This slick little Roger Fisher riff is instantly recognizable to any rock fans of the ‘70s.
25. “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead (1980)
Fast Eddie Clarke goes zero to sixty in about half a measure and we are off and running in a seminal metal classic that feels more like has been uncaged than composed.
24. “Deceptacon” by SPRINTS (2026)
This one only came out about five minutes ago, so it’s not exactly iconic yet. But Kathleen Hanna’s original with Le Tigre is almost 30 years old now. What Zac Stephenson and Karla Chubb do with the song isn’t necessarily better, but it is definitely more guitar-forward.
23. “Stay With Me” by Faces (1971)
Ronnie Wood left the Jeff Beck Group to play guitar in the reconfigured Small Faces/Faces band in 1970 and he positively crunches the opening of their only top-20 hit in the USA. Soon, the Rolling Stones would come calling.
22. “A-Punk” by Vampire Weekend (2008)
There is a song coming up in the top ten that feels an awful lot like what Ezra Koenig is doing at the beginning of “Á-Punk.” A wiry, infectious prancing riff takes us into a song that no one would recognize as punk, despite the name. The song that it so closely resembles was also labeled as punk because no one at the time really knew what else to call it.
21. “Out ta’ Get Me” by Guns N’ Roses (1987)
I imagine most people are going to choose “Welcome to the Jungle” or “Paradise City” for their GNR entry. I like this one for one very particular reason. Halestorm did a great cover of it. In fact, I think the guitar intros are roughly equal.
I prefer the tone that Slash achieves in the original, but I like the phrasing a little more in the cover. Since I already have Halestorm on this list, I’ll let the pendulum swing toward GNR.
20. “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” by Van Halen (1978)
We’re getting into some rock & roll royalty here. Eddie didn’t have to play fast to leave a big mark.
19. “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream (1967)
Clapton returns, this time with a insistent chord pattern that he embellishes with little flurries that set the stage for the solo that will come in the middle.
18. “I Know a Little” by Lynyrd Skynyrd (1977)
A skittery little drum figure sets up a wonderful tumbling riff courtesy of Steve Gaines. Gaines had just joined the band and would soon die in the plane crash that also took the life of his sister and band leader Ronnie Van Zandt. Skynyrd would eventually re-form and put out new music, but it would never be this much fun again.
17. “Fat Lip” by Sum 41 (2001)
If the Beastie Boys had stayed a rock band, incorporating rap while building their rock & roll chops. Well, maybe not. But Dave Baksh can play a damn catchy riff.
16. “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath (1970)
I do kind of like the revved-up opening of “Paranoid” from the same album, but Tommy Iommi’s fuzzed-out rendering of the basic melody line is among the most recognizable motifs in all rock. The guitar and Ozzy’s voice are two sides of the same coin.
15. “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes (2003)
We can argue about this one. The famous seven-note riff sounds like a bass. It is in the bass register. But Jack White plays it on a guitar. So I’m counting it.
14. “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” by Spin Doctors (1991)
When a jam band does a catchy pop rock tune you might just get a perfect riff. That’s what Eric Schenkman delivers on the smallest of the three hits from the debut album.
13. “Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Lou Reed (1974)
As you no doubt know, “Rock ‘n’ Roll” was a classic Velvet Underground song that Lou Reed included on his final VU album, Loaded, in 1970. After several solo studio albums, Reed released Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal, a live album, in 1974. I’m am not inclined to include live tracks on this list but I’m making an exception.
Everyone should hear the dueling guitars of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner that kick off this classic.
12. “I Feel Fine” by the Beatles (1964)
Of course, you could have at least a half dozen Beatles songs on this list. They never ran wild or showed off – they just consistently devised a small grabber of a riff, which is just what John Lennon and George Harrison combined to produce on “I Feel Fine.”
11. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones (1965)
Keith Richards was (and is) the master of the riff. The sound he achieves turns the simplest of phrases into an anthemic statement.
10. “Runnin’ Down a Dream” by Tom Petty (1989)
This was technically a solo album, sans the Heartbreakers, but Petty’s guitarist Mike Campbell is all over this song, from the driving opening riff to the blistering solo that closes the song.
9. “Marquee Moon” by Television (1977)
See “A-Punk,” earlier. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd were using the guitar unlike other rockers in the late ‘70s. It was part jazz fusion, but part … no one can really define it to this day.
8. “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks (1984)
The story is well-known these days. How guitarist Dave Davies sliced up the speaker on his amp to get a rougher, more in-your-face sound, and helped birth punk rock.
7. “Purple Haze” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
Guitar players never agree on anything. Except maybe this. Jimi Hendrix was the greatest electric guitar player in rock history. It wasn’t his abnormally large fingers or his Olympic-caliber agility. It was the whole package. His sense of melody and rhythm.
The total sound he wrenched from the instrument. We first heard it on record with the opening notes of “Purple Haze.” He would climb higher later, but this is iconic.
6. “Funk 49” by the James Gang (1970)
Before joining the Eagles and launching a successful solo career, Joe Walsh was in a hot little Cleveland garage rock outfit called the James Gang. They had a few hits. This one is built on a great rock funk thread courtesy of Walsh’s Tele pushed through a ’64-’67 Vibro Champ.
5. “Heartbreaker” by Led Zeppelin (1969)
Take your pick – “Whole Lotta Love,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Trampled Under Foot,” “Rock and Roll.” Jimmy Page played more great opening riffs than anyone in the history of rock. And we’re not even counting his acoustic riffs yet. If I were writing this an hour from now, I’d probably pick something different. They are all great.
4. “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits (1985)
My wife thought this should be number one. Clearly, it could have been. It may have the coolest combo of tone, melody, and rhythm of anything on this list.
3. “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos (1970)
Contrary to what you may be thinking, Eric Clapton is not my favorite guitarist. He may not even be in the top ten on my list. But I can’t deny he knew how to dive into a song with a guitar as well as anyone.
2. “Reelin’ in the Years” by Steely Dan (1972)
Before they abandoned touring, I was lucky enough to see Steely Dan actually perform this song at the Shady Grove Music Fair in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I have no idea if Elliott Randall, who played guitar on the studio recording, was with them, or if someone else took over. But I can still hear that opening.
1. “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry (1958)
Even if you prefer other opening riffs, this is number one, and I don’t really think it’s debatable. Listen to Louis Jordan’s band playing “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman,” which uses the same basic melodic line, and you can hear rock & roll evolving out jump and swing and jazz and all its other antecedents. Berry packaged it as rock and roll, and he used his guitar to tie the bow.
If you were waitng for "Smoke on the Water"... sorry.
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