Some songs are so good, so iconic, they seem like they’ve always existed—like they are a part of nature. Place the right lyric with the right melody and you’ll end up with a hook that outlives the generation it was written in.
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The eight songs below changed rock and roll.
8. “My Generation” by The Who
Pete Townsend, feeling anxious about growing up, wrote an anthem for the young. “My Generation” sounds like a precursor to punk rock. The opening riff could be a Ramones song but this was 1965 and punk rock was still a decade or so from happening. “My Generation” turned the band into legends. Everything that’s great about The Who is captured in this song: Keith Moon’s drumming is reckless, John Entwistle sounds like he’s auditioning for Motown, and Roger Daltrey’s signature howl leads the band through a song that subsequent generations could claim as their own.
Why don’t you all f-fade away
(Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
And don’t try to dig what we all s-say
(Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m not trying to cause a big s-sensation
(Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m just talkin’ ’bout my generation
7. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” changed music. Period. It changed the way people dressed. It changed everything. Because of Kurt Cobain, many bands from the 80s joined the unemployment line—their look, sound, and entire ‘thing’ was over with four chords and Dave Grohl’s iconic drum fill he says he borrowed from the Gap Band. Cobain used the soft verse/loud chorus approach of the Pixies and created an anthem he named after a brand of deodorant. In five minutes, Nirvana wiped the lingering stink of the eighties right off the map.
With the lights out, it’s less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
6. “Hey Jude” by the Beatles
“Like a Rolling Stone” made it okay for a hit song to be a long song. “Hey Jude” is The Beatle’s biggest single in the United States and it’s over seven minutes long. Paul McCartney wrote the lyrics for John Lennon’s son, Julian. George Martin pleaded with the band to edit the song to a shorter length but Lennon objected. Backed by an orchestra, “Hey Jude” might just be the Beatles’ greatest work.
And anytime you feel the pain
Hey Jude refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
5. “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry
The most famous and most-recycled guitar riff of all time, “Johnny B. Goode” is a piece of narrative fiction where a young boy goes to the big city and hits the big time. This song is so important to the history of rock and roll; without it, there’s a chance we never hear of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Even Mick Jagger alluded to the fact that “Satisfaction” probably came from a Chuck Berry song.
Deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
4. “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys
Brian Wilson worked on “Good Vibrations” for over seven months. The song was painstakingly built in pieces between four different recording studios. At the time, no one had spent more money on just one song. “Good Vibrations” was a number-one hit for the Beach Boys. Wilson created a pop symphony of changing keys and textures that inspired others, like The Beatles, to use the recording studio as an instrument. “Good Vibrations” was revolutionary and was a pivotal moment in rock and roll history.
Close my eyes, she’s somehow closer no
Softly smile, I know she must be kind
When I look in her eyes
She goes with me to a blossom world
3. “Imagine” by John Lennon
The intro to “Imagine” is one of the most well-known piano riffs of all time. You can almost see the white grand piano each time the song plays. The framework of “Imagine” was inspired by Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit. The sentiment—near Bolshevik radicalism—is offset by the tenderness in Lennon’s voice. A pop song about the dissolution of countries, religion, and possessions was progressive in 1971. “Imagine” continues to be a global hymn of solidarity. Some argue “Imagine” is John Lennon’s best song which is saying something considering he was a Beatle.
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or do for
And no religion, too
2. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones
Bob Dylan’s influence can be heard on the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. Mick Jagger channels Dylan with critical rage directed at advertising culture in America.
When I’m driving in my car
And the man comes on the radio
He’s telling me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
According to Keith Richards, the riff for “Satisfaction” came to him in a dream. It’s a fuzzed-out iconic guitar riff that altered the music scene and rock and roll in 1965.
1. “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan
The master take on “Like a Rolling Stone” is Bob Dylan, utterly defiant, going head-first against convention. He instructed his band to not play “that fucking blues” in the studio. A six-plus minute song with as many words as “Like a Rolling Stone” was the antithesis of a hit single in 1965. “Like a Rolling Stone” forever changed rock and roll.
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People call, say, “Beware, doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kidding you
Photo by Mark and Colleen Hayward/Getty Images
