If a rock band is going to go down in history because of only one song, they would understandably want that single track to be full of their best guitar riffs and drum fills, and these one-hit wonders from the 1970s certainly fit the bill. These bands might not have matched the success of their standalone hit. But at least they made it count.
Whether a memorable melody, a deliciously fuzzy tone, or a bit of both, these guitar riffs are some of the best to come out of the 1970s (and, arguably, rock ‘n’ roll in general).
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“Black Betty” by Ram Jam
Ram Jam took a minute-long traditional folk song by Lead Belly and turned it into a raucous four-minute rocker from their eponymous 1977 album. While we most commonly associate “Black Betty” with its vocal refrain, “Woah, Black Betty, bam-a-lam,” we’d be remiss if we didn’t include this track on our list for its distinctive guitar riffs in the beginning and the jam section in the middle of the song. Just when you think this track has hit its peak level of intensity, Ram Jam boosts it to another level.
“Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum
Norman Greenbaum’s 1970 hit “Spirit in the Sky” is proof that the right guitar tone can make or break a track. In a 2025 interview with The Guardian, Greenbaum explained that the song “started as an old blues riff I’d been playing since my college days in Boston, but I didn’t know what to do with it. After I moved to LA, a guy I knew came up with a way of putting a fuzzbox inside my Fender Telecaster, which created the distinctive sound.”
“All Right Now” by Free
British rock ‘n’ rollers Free embodied the distorted sound of Southern rock ‘n’ roll from across the pond on their 1970 hit single, “All Right Now”. Interestingly, the band wrote their song after a particularly stiff gig saw the musicians walking off the stage in silence. Free wanted a rowdy show closer to amp up the crowd, which later became “All Right Now”. Its blues-inspired guitar riffs are some of the best that 1970s one-hit wonders had to offer.
“Mississippi Queen” by Mountain
With only four notes and a superb guitar tone, Mountain managed to craft one of the most recognizable guitar riffs of the 1970s with their track “Mississippi Queen”. Sure, most of us might associate the song with the cowbell. But without that intro riff by vocalist and guitarist Leslie West, there would be nothing to beat the cowbell to. Mountain was never able to recreate the success of “Mississippi Queen”, but the song was popular enough to cement their place in the 1970s rock canon just the same.
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