Greetings guitar comrades, Darrin Goodman here with some more guitar stuff for ya. I was asked to write this article on the 100 Best Guitar Riffs and I thought right away that this is a loaded subject. What are the 100 best guitar riffs? It is really subject to opinion and what one dude loves another might hate. So I am going to approach this more like 100 popular guitar riffs, so as not to offend or start a comment war LOL. So these riffs that I’m going to talk about are not in any particular order and don’t be upset if I missed your fave, like I said, it’s really subject to opinion.
One of the most popular and most recognizable guitar riffs of all time is Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. For many guitarists, including myself, this is one of the first riffs learned.
Popular Riffs
Another really popular riff is Paranoid by Black Sabbath. This riff along with many other Sabbath riffs forged the sound for the Heavy Metal Genre and was a huge influence on myself as a guitarist when I was first starting out.
A band that I really dig due to there riff writing is Slayer. One of my favorites is the opening of the song South of Heaven. They harmonize this riff in fourths and it just sounds so evil, I love it.
One of my favorite guitar players is Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. I love in the intro for Rhiannon.
I could go on and on about this all day, but I won’t, all this talk has got me itching to go practice. Before I go I will leave you with a shortlist of some of my faves.
Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd
Painkiller-Judas Priest
Detroit Rock City-KISS
Little Wing-Jimi Hendrix
Wonderful Tonight-Eric Clapton
Hotel California-The Eagles
Gimme’ Three Steps-Lynyrd Skynyrd
Black Dog-Led Zepplin
Message In A Bottle-The Police
Sweet Child O’ Mine-Guns n Roses
Back In Black-AC/DC
Pretty Woman-Roy Orbison
Crazy Train-Ozzy Osbourne
Master Of Puppets-Metallica
Hallowed Be Thy Name-Iron Maiden
Ziggy Stardust-David Bowie
YYZ-Rush
Satch Boogie-Joe Satriani
Sunday Bloody Sunday-U2
Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison
There are so many more that could be added to this list. Feel free to add what I missed in the comments below.
That’s it for now,
Darrin
Popular Riffs
Another really popular riff is Paranoid by Black Sabbath. This riff along with many other Sabbath riffs forged the sound for the Heavy Metal Genre and was a huge influence on myself as a guitarist when I was first starting out.
A band that I really dig due to there riff writing is Slayer. One of my favorites is the opening of the song South of Heaven. They harmonize this riff in fourths and it just sounds so evil, I love it.
One of my favorite guitar players is Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. I love in the intro for Rhiannon.
I could go on and on about this all day, but I won’t, all this talk has got me itching to go practice. Before I go I will leave you with a shortlist of some of my faves.
Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd
Painkiller-Judas Priest
Detroit Rock City-KISS
Little Wing-Jimi Hendrix
Wonderful Tonight-Eric Clapton
Hotel California-The Eagles
Gimme’ Three Steps-Lynyrd Skynyrd
Black Dog-Led Zepplin
Message In A Bottle-The Police
Sweet Child O’ Mine-Guns n Roses
Back In Black-AC/DC
Pretty Woman-Roy Orbison
Crazy Train-Ozzy Osbourne
Master Of Puppets-Metallica
Hallowed Be Thy Name-Iron Maiden
Ziggy Stardust-David Bowie
YYZ-Rush
Satch Boogie-Joe Satriani
Sunday Bloody Sunday-U2
Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison
There are so many more that could be added to this list. Feel free to add what I missed in the comments below.
That’s it for now,
Darrin 
