These 3 Rock Songs Live and Die by Their Iconic Bass Line

A bass line doesn’t need to be prominent to be successful. In fact, some bassist take the approach of making their rhythm so seamless that fans start grooving without really knowing what’s going on. Then, some bassists take moments to shine as they come. The three rock songs below were made by one iconic bass line. Without these bass moments, these songs wouldn’t have become as big as they are.

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“Another One Bites the Dust” (Queen)

Everyone knows the bassline to “Another One Bites the Dust.” It’s one of the most famous bass moments in all of rock history. Bassist John Deacon used his love of soul music, a la Chic, to write this grooving riff. Without Deacon, this song likely wouldn’t have captured the attention of the Disco generation as well as it did.

Deacon is famously not very fond of the spotlight; as such, his lauds for this Queen hit were unexpected. “I could hear it as a song for dancing but had no idea it would become as big as it did,” Deacon once said of “Another One Bites the Dust.”

“Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson)

The bassline is one of the first things listeners notice about Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” The driving riff propels this dance-floor-ready song. It’s the source of this track’s infectious energy that fans have been feeding off for decades.

Jackson knew this song was going to be a hit the first time he heard it. “A musician knows hit material. It has to feel right. Everything has to feel in place. It fulfills you, and it makes you feel good. You know it when you hear it. That’s how I felt about ‘Billie Jean, ‘” he once said. While several factors contributed to this hit’s success, the central bassline is undoubtedly a major contributor.

“Walk on the Wild Side” (Lou Reed)

Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” is built around a central bass riff. That riff is not only the backbone of the song but the most prominent instrumentation. Not many artists choose to let the bass take center stage, but when they do, they earn ear candy songs with unforgettable rhythms, “Like Walk on the Wild Side.”

The bass line was instantly catchy to listeners in the early ’70s and remains iconic to this day. “I only played [the bassline] once, and Lou said to me, years later: ‘It’s because of you that I spent 20 years trying to shake that out of my mind’,” bassist Herbie Flowers once said.

(Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)