3 Classic Rock Songs That Are Most Famous for Their Guitar Solos

Great songs require a great hook. But the most memorable part of a classic rock song isn’t always what’s sung. Rock music evolved in a way where the guitar solo became a required feature. And some songs are more known for the guitar solos than the choruses, like the classic tracks below.

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“Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd

To be clear, “Comfortably Numb” is a work of genius, as a whole song. Roger Waters sings through haunting verses before David Gilmour brings relief in a hopeful chorus. Their voices couldn’t be more different, yet so complementary. But everything about his tune leads to the guitar solos. Within the same song, Gilmour recorded two of the best in rock history, and I don’t think a more perfect lead has ever been captured on tape. The words “epic” and “soaring” fail to adequately describe the sheer magic of what Gilmour played in 1979. It’s a lesson in restraint and grace, two unteachable instincts in a guitarist.

“Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses

There are plenty of classic rock songs that DJs will spin into the ground. But no matter how many times you’ve heard the opening lick to “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, for some reason, it never gets old. Well, it doesn’t get old because Slash is a legend. Axl Rose sings through a tender love song, somehow combining beauty and rage and reminding you why, in his prime, he made the rest of the Sunset Strip frontmen look like chumps. What makes “Sweet Child O’ Mine” so endearing is its placement on an album that seemed to have emerged from a Los Angeles gutter. From the intro notes to Rose’s lovesick howls, you know you can’t wait for Slash to step on his wah-wah pedal and burn a solo like the second coming of Hendrix. “Where do we go now?” Where can you go after something so utterly epic?

“Layla” by Derek & The Dominos

Like “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, “Layla” begins with an iconic lick. Eric Clapton had already established himself as a guitar legend, but “Layla” is an epic jam with huge vocal hooks, too. Slowhand built a career mining American blues and roots music. But this is the sound of Clapton playing Southern Rock with the finest Southern Rock guitarist ever, Duane Allman. Allman’s weeping and cinematic slide solo, orchestrated with Clapton’s blues, lifts “Layla” to a kind of symphony. The cascading notes echo as ghosts, which is eerie, with Allman’s young death the following year.

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