A catchy riff — whether or not it’s on guitar, bass, synthesizer or another instrument — can take a music from good to legendary. Just ask a number of the artists we have listed under.

These are riffs that ultimately are integral to the music itself. Without them, there may be nothing to drive the monitor alongside, nothing for the singer to push up in opposition to and nothing all that memorable (or least a lot much less) for a listener to hum alongside to.

Read on for our Top 30 Rock Riffs — good luck getting them out of your head afterward.

30. Rush, “The Spirit of Radio”
From: Permanent Waves (1980)

Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio” takes its title from the slogan of the Toronto-based radio station CFNY-FM, so the riff, guitarist Alex Lifeson informed Classic Rock in 2021, was meant so as to add to that theme. (*30*) he defined. “We had that sequence going underneath, and it was just really to try and get something that was sitting on top of it, that gave it that movement.”

29. Led Zeppelin, “Immigrant Song”
From: Led Zeppelin III (1970)

We may most likely make an entire different separate record of unimaginable riffs written by Jimmy Page, however to start, we current “Immigrant Song,” which encompasses a relentless, borderline barbaric guitar half. When the music was utilized in School of Rock starring Jack Black, Robert Plant famous the next (by way of Vulture): “It’s a killer guitar riff. What a shame ‘Immigrant Song’ isn’t easy for kids to play, by the way.”

28. New Order, “Age of Consent”
From: Power, Corruption & Lies (`1983)

When Joy Division resulted in 1980 and New Order started not lengthy after, there was a marked shift in the way in which the band approached their music. “Age of Consent,” with its propelling, easy-to-dance-to guitar riff is proof of that. “There’s a heaviness and an intensity in Joy Division that suits the ’70s. The ’80’s were lighter and more melodic, more forward looking — certainly more interesting—and quite innovative as well,” bassist Peter Hook defined to Stereo Embers Magazine in 2013. “I think New Order sort of mirrored that as well in a way.”

27. Dire Straits, “Money for Nothing”
From: Brothers in Arms (1985)

If you might have ever puzzled why Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” has a form of ZZ Top-like high quality to the guitar elements, that is as a result of Mark Knopfler did some analysis, actually calling up Billy Gibbons for recommendation. The riff itself would not enter the image till roughly 30 seconds into the music, however when it does it is immediately recognizable.

26. Blue Oyster Cult, “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper”
From: Agents of Fortune (1976)

Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser does not likely perceive how or why the riff to “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” occurred to him, it simply did. “The riff came out of the ether; it just came to my fingers,” he informed Mix in 2009. “Then the first two lines of the lyrics came the same way. I recorded some of the vocals, and then the idea of the song came to me. That was my first experience with multitrack recording. It definitely changed the way Blue Oyster Cult wrote and arranged songs. Once we started writing songs using the multitrack recorders, our demos got more fleshed-out and thought-through.”

25. Pink Floyd, “Money”
From: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

When Roger Waters wrote “Money” and introduced it to his band, there have been lots of instructions that would have been taken. The path that was in the end chosen was one in every of innovation. “It’s Roger’s riff,” David Gilmour defined to Guitar World in 1993. “Roger came in with the verses and lyrics to ‘Money’ more or less completed. And we just made up middle sections, guitar solos and all that stuff. We also invented some new riffs – we created a 4/4 progression for the guitar solo and made the poor saxophone player play in 7/4.”

24. Montrose, “Rock Candy”
From: Montrose (1973)

“Riffs are riffs, you know? They come out.” That’s what Ronnie Montrose stated to Guitar Player in 2013, talking in regards to the “Rock Candy” riff that he stated “just came out of my head” someday within the studio. “If you don’t remember it the next day, it’s not a song anymore.”

23. The Beatles, “Day Tripper”
From: 1965 Single

The Beatles might have stood out from dozens of different bands within the ’60s however one factor they’d in frequent with the others was their love and appreciation of rock acts that got here earlier than them — individuals like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and extra. “That’s mine,” John Lennon stated in a 1980 interview with author David Sheff, referring to 1965’s “Day Tripper,” which relies round an ascending guitar riff. “Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit. It’s just a rock ‘n’ roll song.”

22. Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
From: Full Moon Fever (1989)

If you are going to open a music with lyrics about driving together with cruise management with the radio on, like Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” you higher embody an awesome riff together with it. In this case, it served because the catalyst for the whole music. “[Guitarist Mike Campbell] had that riff but in a different time signature. It was kind of a broken beat, much slower,” Petty defined in 2005’s Conversations With Tom Petty. “I liked the lick a lot, and I’d sit around, playing it on my guitar, experimenting with it in different ways. I came to think it sounded good in a really straight beat, really fast. And I played it for Jeff [Lynne], one night when he was over at my house, and he said ‘Oh, that’s good. That might be one of those last riffs left. [Laughs]”

21. Van Halen, “Panama”
From: 1984 (1984)

The sturdy guitar riff you hear in “Panama” was Eddie Van Halen’s try to put in writing one thing within the vein of one other band you will see in a while on this record. “When the guys once asked me to write something with an AC/DC beat, that ended up being ‘Panama,’” the guitarist stated to Guitar World in 2014. “It really doesn’t sound that much like AC/DC, but that was my interpretation of it. … I always start with some intro or theme and establish a riff, then after the solo there’s some kind of breakdown section. That’s there in almost every song, or else it returns to the intro.”

20. The Police, “Every Breath You Take”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

While within the studio recording 1983’s Synchronicity, Sting and Stewart Copeland of the Police struggled to seek out a method to make “Every Breath You Take” work, to the purpose the place the music was practically discarded solely. In a final ditch effort, Andy Summers plugged in his guitar and out got here the now-iconic guitar riff. “And of course, the fucking thing went right around the world, straight to No. 1 in America,” Summers recalled to Guitar World in 2022. “And the riff has become a kind of immortal guitar part that all guitar players have to learn.”

19. Aerosmith, “Walk This Way”
From: Toys within the Attic (1975)

In late 1974, Aerosmith traveled to Hawaii the place they had been booked to open for the Guess Who. “During the sound check, I was fooling around with riffs and thinking about the Meters,” guitarist Joe Perry informed The Wall Street Journal in 2014. “I asked Joey [Kramer] to lay down something flat with a groove on the drums. The guitar riff to what would become ‘Walk This Way’ just came off my hands.”

Then Steven Tyler appeared. “When I heard Joe playing that riff during the sound check, I ran out and sat behind the drums and we jammed,” he added. “I rattled off the beat and just felt the song. Joe and I did this all the time when we wrote.”

18. AC/DC, “You Shook Me All Night Long”
From: Back in Black (1980)

Within the primary 20 or so seconds of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” the riff is nicely established. That riff was written by Malcolm Young, who handed issues off to the band’s model new singer Brian Johnson, asking him to put in writing lyrics for it. The outcome was AC/DC’s very first single with Johnson, a Top 40 hit.

17. Neil Young, “Cinnamon Girl”
From: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)

“Cinnamon Girl” is one in every of a number of songs Neil Young wrote whereas at dwelling affected by the flu. Evidently it wasn’t all that troublesome: try this video of Young educating a fellow guitarist in a park how one can play the long-lasting riff.

16. Ted Nugent, “Stranglehold”
From: Ted Nugent (1975)

At one level, Ted Nugent’s report label urged him to not embody “Stranglehold” on his debut, self-titled album as a result of, as Nugent recalled in 2024, “it doesn’t have a chorus, and nobody is gonna play an eight-minute song with all that ‘guitar part’ in it.’” Obviously, he did not heed that advice and went ahead with the riff-driven track anyway, and it worked out in his favor.

15. The Who, “I Can’t Explain”
From: 1964 Single

The cool thing about being a rock ‘n’ roll band in the ’60s was that there was so much music being made by fellow bands to absorb and take inspiration from. This is more or less how Pete Townshend came up with the riff in “I Can’t Explain,” a bit he came up with after hearing “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks. “He went dwelling and tried to play it,” Who bassist John Entwistle said in a 1994 interview with Mojo, “however what he got here up with was the riff that turned ‘I Can’t Explain.’”

14. Free, “All Right Now”
From: Fire and Water (1970)

Sometimes, a bad experience serves as the fuel for something better. Such was the case when Free played a miserable show in Durham, England early on in their career — cold, rainy and only a few dozen people in the audience. Afterward bassist Andy Fraser was struck with a little bit of hopeful inspiration. “The chords of the music had been mainly me making an attempt to do my Pete Townshend impression,” Fraser told Songwriting magazine in 2013. “I really wrote the riff on piano after which [Paul] Kossoff transposed the chords to guitar, and he did a helluva job as a result of that is not at all times straightforward. Basically the refrain wrote itself, the chords took me about 10-Quarter-hour after which Paul [Rodgers] got here up with the verses whereas he was ready for a carry to a gig the subsequent day.”

13. ZZ Top, “La Grange”
From: Tres Hombres (1973)

“The genesis and, after all, the guts of [“La Grange”] was that boogie backbeat, which all people and their brother has discovered how one can play,” Billy Gibbons told Guitar Player in 2021. “La Grange” was based on John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen,’” so much so that there was a failed lawsuit by the copyright holder in 1992.

“Who would have thought that one thing so easy and severely compressed structure-wise would lead us on such a grand journey?” Gibbons continued in 2021. “From that cornerstone backbeat, our little music appeared to resonate and catch on with the lots, which has allowed us to chase it for occurring 5 a long time now.”

12. David Bowie, “Rebel, Rebel”
From: Diamond Dogs (1974)

There’s lots of fun to be had in the music business but there’s also plenty of competition. When David Bowie came up with a rough idea for a new guitar riff, he immediately thought of another energetic frontman and brought it to guitarist Alan Parker for help with fleshing it out. “He stated, I’ve acquired this riff and it’s kind of Rolling Stonesy – I simply need to piss Mick [Jagger] off a bit,’” Parker told Uncut in 2014. “I spent about three-quarters of an hour to an hour with him engaged on the guitar riff – he had it virtually there, however not fairly. We acquired it there, and he stated, ‘Oh, we would higher do a center…’ So he wrote one thing for the center, put that in. Then he went off and sorted some lyrics.”

11. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Purple Haze”
From: 1967 Single

The thing about Jimi Hendrix is that riffs just seemed to pour out of him as naturally as spoken sentences. The one found in “Purple Haze” is just one of them. Hendrix hummed the riff a bit to his bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding in the studio and they finished recording it in just a handful of takes.

10. Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”
From: Blizzard of Oz (1980)

Never underestimate the power of collaboration. Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist Randy Rhoads and Greg Leon, Rhoads’ replacement in Quiet Riot, came up with an awfully memorable lick one day. “We had been hanging out, and I confirmed him the riff to Steve Miller’s ‘Swingtown,’” Leon told Classic Rock in 2012. “I stated: ‘Look what occurs whenever you pace this riff up.’ We messed round, and the subsequent factor I do know he took it to an entire different stage and find yourself writing the ‘Crazy Train’ riff.”

9. Derek and the Dominoes, “Layla”
From: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)

“Layla” is credited to Derek and the Dominoes, and those lyrics are Eric Clapton’s, but the riff is the work of Duane Allman, who supposedly based it on a song by blues legend Albert King called “As the Years Go Passing By.” In total, there are six tracks of guitar on “Layla,” according to producer Tom Dowd: “There’s an Eric rhythm half; three tracks of Eric enjoying concord with himself on the principle riff; one in every of Duane enjoying that lovely bottleneck; and one in every of Duane and Eric locked up, enjoying countermelodies.”

8. Black Sabbath, “Iron Man”
From: Paranoid (1970)

By now, you’ve probably noticed a pattern in this list: many of the riffs were not premeditated, and in fact, seemed to drop out of the sky. This happened to Tony Iommi as well when he heard his Black Sabbath bandmate Bill Ward casually drumming something out. Iommi joined in and before he knew it, he’d come up with the iconic “Iron Man” lick.

“Most of the riffs I’ve completed I’ve provide you with on the spot, and that was one in every of them – it simply got here up,” he explained to Songfacts. “It went with the drum, what Bill was enjoying. I simply noticed this factor in my thoughts of somebody creeping up on you, and it simply sounded just like the riff. In my head I may hear it as a monster, so I got here up with that riff there after which.”

7. Cream, “Sunshine of Your Love”
From: Disraeli Gears (1967)

Here’s an instance of one riff master inspiring another. In 1967, Cream went to go see Jimi Hendrix perform in London, and that was about all bassist Jack Bruce needed in order to come up with what would become the riff for “Sunshine of Your Love.” Eric Clapton recalled the moment in a 1988 interview with Rolling Stone: “[Hendrix] performed this gig that was blinding. I do not suppose Jack [Bruce] had actually taken him in earlier than…and when he did see it that evening, after the gig he went dwelling and got here up with the riff. It was strictly a dedication to Jimi. And then we wrote a music on high of it.”

6. Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
From: Nevermind (1991)

When Kurt Cobain first brought the bones of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to his bandmates, they were not fans, feeling as though the guitar part was cliche — more specifically, that the riff sounded like something by Boston. But Cobain felt he was on to something. “I made the band play it for an hour and a half,” he told Rolling Stone in 1994. After some workshopping, it finally became the recorded version we know today.

5. AC/DC, “Back in Black”
From: Back in Black (1980)

Back to AC/DC with “Back in Black,” which actually happens to be the song before “You Shook Me All Night Long” on the 1980 album Back in Black. This time, the central lick to “Back in Black” began as something Malcolm Young occasionally fooled around with while warming up on tour.

“I bear in mind through the Highway to Hell tour Malcolm got here in someday and performed me a few concepts he had knocked down on cassette, and one in every of them was the principle riff for ‘Back in Black,’” Angus Young recalled to Guitar World in 2003. “And he stated, ‘Look, it has been bugging me, this monitor. What do you suppose?’ He was going to wipe it out and reuse the tape, as a result of cassettes had been form of a tough merchandise for us to return by generally! I stated, ‘Don’t trash it. If you don’t need it I’ll have it.’”

4. Led Zeppelin, “Whole Lotta Love”
From: Led Zeppelin II (1969)

Perhaps the key to writing historic rock ‘n’ roll riffs is living on a houseboat. At least, that seemed to work for Jimmy Page. “I got here up with the guitar riff for ‘Whole Lotta Love’  in the summertime of ’68, on my houseboat alongside the Thames in Pangbourne, England,” he explained to The Wall Street Journal in 2014. “I suppose my early love for giant intros by rockabilly guitarists was an inspiration, however as quickly as I developed the riff, I knew it was robust sufficient to drive the whole music, not simply open it. When I performed the riff for the band in my lounge a number of weeks later throughout rehearsals for our first album, the joy was fast and collective. We felt the riff was addictive, like a forbidden factor.”

3. The Kinks, “You Really Got Me”
From: 1964 Single

It really can’t be overstated the importance of blues music on ’60s rock ‘n’ roll, particularly for young bands in the U.K. who had not previously been exposed to that kind of American music. “When I wrote ‘You Really Got Me,’ I wished it to be a blues music,” Ray Davies explained to The Austin Chronicle in 2001. “Like a Leadbelly or a Broonzy music. But as a result of I used to be a white child from North London, I put in sure musical shifts that made it distinctive to what I did.”

2. Deep Purple, “Smoke on the Water”
From: Machine Head (1972)

Would you believe it if we said the iconic riff in Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” was inspired by Beethoven? That’s what Ritchie Blackmore claimed in a 2007 interview with CNN (via Guitar World): “I assumed [I’d] play [Beethoven’s fifth symphony] backwards, put one thing to it. That’s how I got here up with it.” It’s unclear whether this was an entirely truthful statement or Blackmore’s sense of humor coming out, but either way, “Smoke on the Water” was a No. 4 hit in America.

1. The Rolling Stones, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
From: 1965 Single

Rock ‘n’ roll goals do come true. It occurred to Keith Richards, who has stated that the riff to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” got here to him in a dream. He awoke, tried to report it right into a cassette participant and went again to sleep. “I had no idea I’d written it,” he stated in his 2010 memoir Life.