Top 10 Songs with the Most Famous Guitar Intros

The Top Ten
1 Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple

Instantly at the top because it's the easiest to play, even though most beginners play it wrong at the start. Anyone who picks up a guitar automatically knows this riff, and at the very least, every pro musician, no matter what genre they play, knows this.

My friend and I only jammed once in the garage, bass and drums. Never found anyone else to play, never jammed again. We learned and practiced one thing: this thing. Also, the story of how it was written in a hotel by Lake Geneva is epic.

The title is "10 Most Famous Guitar Intros", and this is the best-known guitar intro ever. It's great, but I hate that this riff is so commercial.

2 Sweet Child O'Mine - Guns N' Roses

This should be the number one song on this particular list without a doubt! As far as guitar intros go, this is as good as it gets, period.

Easily one of the most iconic guitar intros of all time. It's amazing.

Sweet Child O' Mine has to be No. 1. It is the most noticeable guitar intro easily.

3 Enter Sandman - Metallica
4 Thunderstruck - AC/DC

Played a lot at sports games and events, etc. It's catchy as hell too!

5 Hells Bells - AC/DC

One of the best and easily the most famous. It gets you hooked on the song, and the bell adds a nice sound to it. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica tried to replicate this and make it their own (and I admit, it is amazing), but it's not as good as the song they got the idea from.

Incredible intro, absolutely unforgettable. Picture: slow-motion walking, smoke around your ankles, dark sunglasses, backlit. And this song.

Number 1 (Smoke on the Water) and number 2 (Sweet Child O' Mine) are phenomenal riffs. But the greatest INTRO is Hells Bells. Let's be real.

6 Iron Man - Black Sabbath
7 Metal Meltdown - Judas Priest
8 The Trooper - Iron Maiden
9 Phantom of the Opera - Iron Maiden
10 Money for Nothing - Dire Straits
The Contenders
11 Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
12 Holy Wars... The Punishment Due - Megadeth
13 Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
14 Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne

I knew this intro without even having ever heard the rest of this song. To be honest, it is better than the rest of the song!

Let's you know what's coming, and that it might be too much for you to handle.

15 Strike of the Beast - Exodus
16 Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Not only does this jump at you from the first note, but it scares you because it just says "anarchy to follow".

17 Layla - Derek and the Dominos

Because the intro riff goes throughout the song, it's incredibly memorable!

As classic as it gets, a staple of the classic rock community.

Wow, clearly the most memorable intro by one of the greatest guitarists ever, Eric Clapton.

18 Desecration of Souls - Mercyful Fate
19 Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
20 Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin

I would have thought Whole Lotta Love would be on this list instead, but I can see this.

The greatest intro and song ever.

21 Day Tripper - The Beatles

Simple but perfect. Which takes genius, and these guys recorded genius as a matter of course.

One of the earliest, and one of the best, opening guitar riffs ever.

22 Urgent - Foreigner
23 Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin

Top of the Pops helped make this incredibly well known in the UK.

24 Black Metal - Venom
25 Voodoo Child - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
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