The Greatest Guitar Riff of ALL TIME is….

Smoke on the Water, apparently. That was easy, wasn’t it?

OK, more details. The folks over at Guitar-X (www.guitar-x.co.uk) held a survey of their Guitar learning students to find out what was the best. Whilst Smoke on the Water might have been a bit obvious, it’s hard to disagree with the top 25, really:

1. Smoke On The Water – Deep Purple (1973)

2. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana (1991)

3. Walk This Way – Aerosmith (1975)

4. Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix (1967)

5. Sweet Child O Mine – Guns N Roses (1987)

6. Paradise City – Guns N Roses (1987)

7. Ace Of Spades – Motorhead (1980)

8. Enter Sandman – Metallica (1991)

9. Under The Bridge – Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1992)

10. Welcome To The Jungle – Guns N Roses (1987)

11. Run To The Hills – Iron Maiden (1982)

12. Walk – Pantera (1992)

13. Johnny Be Goode – Chuck Berry (1958)

14. Back In Black – AC/DC (1980)

15. Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin (1970)

16. Wake Up – Rage Against The Machine (1992)

17. Highway to Hell – AC/DC (1979)

18. My Generation – The Who (1965)

19. 7 Nation Army – The White Stripes (2003)

20. Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf (1968)

21. Give It Away – Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1991)

22. Paranoid – Black Sabbath (1970)

23. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) – Jimi Hendrix (1967)

24. Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor (1982)

25. Money For Nothing – Dire Straits (1984)

One thing that is a bit obvious the second you look through – even the newest song is 5 years old and the oldest is ten times older than that. John Wheatcroft, the Head of Instrument at Guitar-X attributed it to having “to wait until the ‘dust settles’ before we can truly consider a riff’s eligibility for ‘Classic’ status” but it’s got to be said there haven’t been that many riff-driven tracks that have entered the public psyche in the last few years. Woman by Wolfmother perhaps? No-One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age for certain…but there aren’t that many. Suggestions on a postcard (or even better, in the comments) welcome – I suddenly feel compelled to play Guitar Hero whilst muttering about the lack of a Rock Band release in the UK so far…

Mind you, if I was going to include one in the Top 25 that isn’t already there, it’d probably be Day Tripper…

Dum, der dum dum dum dum der dum der dum dum.

Etc.