There are guitar solos, and then there are moments that stop time. A truly great solo isn’t just a technical showcase – it’s a statement, a burst of pure human emotion channeled through six strings and an amplifier. Some of these performances have been debated in guitar shops, music magazines, and online forums for decades, and the arguments never quite settle. Still, a few solos rise so high above the rest that they demand recognition, no matter what side of the debate you’re on.
#1 – “Comfortably Numb” – Pink Floyd (David Gilmour, 1979)
Comfortably Numb has been voted the Greatest Guitar Solo of All Time by listeners of Planet Rock radio in a widely followed poll that drew thousands of votes – an open vote in which any rock song in recorded history was eligible. That’s a remarkable achievement, especially considering the competition. The song is notable for containing not one but two guitar solos, though it’s the towering final solo that earns the crown in virtually every ranking.
Guitarist David Gilmour recorded his greatest moment during sessions for Pink Floyd’s The Wall in summer of 1979, with the band working at studios in the South of France before finishing at The Producer’s Workshop in LA. The musical theme for Comfortably Numb was Gilmour’s, written around the time of his 1978 solo album. Gilmour, a legendary perfectionist in the studio, chose the five or six best takes of his solo and took the best bits from each, mixing them to produce the final version heard on the album. His signal chain included his iconic black Strat into a HiWatt DR103 with an EHX Ram’s Head Big Muff pedal – the combination left no hint of harsh treble, and with help from an MXR Dyna Comp, Gilmour had so much sustain that he could hold notes as long as he wanted.
#2 – “Eruption” – Van Halen (Eddie Van Halen, 1978)
Clocking in at one minute and 42 seconds, “Eruption” is an instrumental showcase entirely crafted by Van Halen, and it remains one of the most legendary guitar solos in rock history. “Eruption” introduced two-handed tapping to the mainstream popular rock audience, and it became a popular soloing option throughout the 1980s. The track has been named the 2nd greatest guitar solo by Guitar World magazine, and it continues to sit near the very top of nearly every major ranking published to this day.
Initially, “Eruption” was not considered as a track for the Van Halen album – it was just a guitar solo Eddie performed live in clubs. Producer Ted Templeman overheard it in the studio as Eddie was rehearsing it for a club date at the Whisky a Go Go and decided to include it on the album. Eddie himself recalled: “I didn’t even play it right. There’s a mistake at the top end of it. To this day, whenever I hear it, I always think, ‘Man, I could’ve played it better.'” The debut Van Halen album has since sold more than 10 million copies in the United States, receiving a Diamond certification from the RIAA.
#3 – “Stairway to Heaven” – Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, 1971)
On January 29, 2009, Guitar World magazine rated Jimmy Page’s guitar solo on “Stairway to Heaven” the best of the publication’s 100 Greatest Guitar Solos in Rock and Roll History. In 2016, Classic Rock readers also voted Page’s work on “Stairway to Heaven” the greatest guitar solo ever. Today, “Stairway to Heaven” has more than one billion streams on Spotify alone. That figure, more than 50 years after the song’s release, says everything about its enduring pull.
The legendary solo was played on a 1959 Fender Telecaster, a guitar gifted to Page by Jeff Beck. Page described the recording process as largely spontaneous. He had only a couple of attempts, worked out how to come into it with the first two or three notes, but after that he didn’t plan it – he just played. There are faster, flashier, and more technical guitar solos, but none has the emotional and cultural impact of Jimmy Page’s solo on Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
#4 – “Hotel California” – Eagles (Don Felder & Joe Walsh, 1977)
The title track from the Eagles’ fifth album, and without doubt the song the band will be most remembered for, “Hotel California” frequently tops greatest guitar solo polls. What makes it unique among the greatest solos is that it’s actually a dual performance. The solo begins at 4:20, forming an extended coda over which guitarists Don Felder and Joe Walsh trade licks before joining together to play those iconic harmonized licks at 5:39. It is Felder who wrote the intricate guitar lines, including the legendary 12-string acoustic.
Those harmony lines work in a relatively simple but elegant fashion – Felder and Walsh play an arpeggio of every chord, and the harmony is created by one guitar always playing one note lower down in the chord. For example, the notes of the Bm chord are B, D and F#, so if the higher guitar plays an F#, the lower guitar plays a D. Even if you don’t know the Eagles, you’ve probably heard “Hotel California” – it’s one of the best-selling albums of all time, and the song is the group’s signature hit. The combination of two guitar voices working in harmony gives this outro a cinematic scope that no single-guitarist solo can quite replicate.
#5 – “All Along the Watchtower” – Jimi Hendrix (1968)
Jimi Hendrix’s take on “All Along the Watchtower” transformed Bob Dylan’s folk tune into a psychedelic rock classic, with Hendrix’s solo being wild, unpredictable, and utterly captivating, using feedback, distortion, and wah-wah to create sounds no one had heard before. Guitarists invariably refer to it as a Hendrix cover rather than a Bob Dylan original – proof of how completely Hendrix made it his own. The way his phrasing builds from subtle tension to explosive release remains a masterclass in dramatic guitar storytelling.
The song was Jimi Hendrix’s only top-40 hit in the U.S. and is the second-to-last track on 1968’s “Electric Ladyland,” the third and final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix was a meticulous studio musician who drove his bandmates hard – at one point, bassist Noel Redding walked out. Hendrix recorded each part of the solo separately, with different setups for each, and reportedly used a cigarette lighter to play slide guitar. In a 2023 Rolling Stone poll, it was named the most recognized guitar solo in rock history.
#6 – “Sultans of Swing” – Dire Straits (Mark Knopfler, 1978)
Knopfler composed this pub-rock classic on a National steel guitar but thought it sounded “dull” – until he picked up a Stratocaster, at which point the song “came alive.” Using not a hint of grit on a Fender Twin, he fingerpicks not one but two standout solos. The first features an elegant, Chet Atkins-style lyrical section of single-note and chordal bends, while the outro solo is the real attention-grabber, building to a dazzling set of spitfire 16th-note arpeggios – cleanly played, precise, and rousing every time. Knopfler played with his fingers rather than a pick, which gave the solo a warmth and organic directness that set it apart from every flashier contemporary.
What makes the “Sultans of Swing” outro so remarkable is how effortlessly Knopfler makes the technically demanding look entirely natural. From blistering runs to soulful bends, these are the kinds of moments that defined genres, inspired generations, and continue to resonate worldwide. The solo climbs to a blistering finale without ever losing its sense of melody or groove, a balance that eludes most guitarists entirely. No pick, no flash – just feel. It is the sound of confidence, style, and groove blended into fingerpicked magic.
