Greatest guitar solos

It’s a cliche because it’s true….but any other answer than Stairway to Heaven in just wrong.

* kudos though to Werewolves. Not a great movie but loved that scene

Second vote for Stairway. It's cliche for a reason.
Also a big fan of Sweet Child O' Mine and several other Slash solos, and I've always liked the solo in Alive by Pearl Jam, although I'm not sure if anyone else would put it among the tops of all time.

I'm not sure I could pick one favorite, but here are my top 10 in no particular order.

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Van Halen - Eruption
B.B. King - Three O'clock Blues
Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
Prince - Purple Rain
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues
Metallica - Fade to Black
Cream - Crossroads

I’m a fan of all the classics, including those listed by whodey above, but I also love the late great Terry Kath on Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4. Do a YouTube search for the Ukrainian cover band Leonid and Friends covering this song - their young guitarist is absolutely killer. My other favorite solo is Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on Bodhisattva with Steely Dan. The solo is long, complex, and elegant. Let’s hear some more!

led zep live 1973 nyc - stairway to heaven and no quarter
roy clark on the odd couple-malaguena
stevie ray vaughn-little wing
deep purple-highway star
ozzy osbourne-crazy train, bark at the moon and no more tears
skynyrd-freebird
bill haley-rock around the clock

Slash - November Rain

I went to David Bowie concert in late 80’s. He was introducing the band and said his guitarist was sick but one of his mates was going to fill in for him. He then introduced Eric Clapton. Pretty good for a sub.

Sonic Youth: Diamond Sea (technically it isn't a solo b/c both Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore play a bit on it)
White Stripes: Icky Thump
Black Keys Thickfreakness
Jimi Hendrix: Machine Gun.
Alice in Chains: Rotten Apple (though really anything from Jar of Flies could make a list)

Special call out to John Cale on Black Angel Death Song as the greatest use of viola ever

Lots of great solos out there. Three lesser known ones that I like are:

Megadeth, Marty Friedman - Tornado of Souls

Great White, Mark Kendall - Rock Me

Robert Randolph (pedal steel guitar) - Thrill of It

I was raised on Maggot Brain

It’s eruption by a mile.

That solo changed the way that every guitar player looked at their instrument. Especially with regard to practice. As in “oh shit I really need to practice more”. Every single technique in that song had already been done, and even the chords at the beginning were copied from another band. However, the proficiency and energy were unparalleled, groundbreaking.

There have been lots of great solos, but only one that had this level of impact.

A few awesome solo's I like, and many above that have already been listed.

Mr. Crowley (Ozzy, Randy Rhoads); Superstitious (Europe, Kee Marcello); Don't tell me you love me (Nightranger, Brad Gillis); Edge of Thorns (Savatage, Criss Oliva); Here I come Again (Damn Yankees, Ted Nugent); and pretty much any White Lion solo by Vito Bratta!

David Gilmour's live solo in Comfortably Numb at the Pulse concert 30 years ago (for the time constrained, starts at 4:30):
https://youtu.be/7kWl-ZGMwkQ?t=268

Honorable mention to Prince at the R&R HOF 20 years ago (starts at 3:15):
https://youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y?t=192

@Iwantheronme:

Maggot Brain came to my mind first. Eddie Hazel, George Clinton, some Acid.....and an idea....

Limelight (Rush, Alex Lifeson)
Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan, Larry Carlton)
Return to Serenity (Testament, Alex Skolnick)
Reckless (Judas Priest, Glenn Tipton)
Time (Pink Floyd, David Gilmour)
Another Day (Dream Theater, John Petrucci)

That's a handful off the top of my head.

@azdd: "My other favorite solo is Jeff “Skunk” Baxter..." Not many know in the mid-1980s he became a very good missile defense consultant for the Pentagon.

AC/DC - Malcolm Young "Thunderstruck"

@jaybud999 Wish Eddie Hazel had lived longer.

I thought about November Rain and Eruption too.

You might do well to consider Chuck Berry’s guitar playing skills case in point even though it’s short ‘Roll over Beethoven’ is pretty memorable as well
My favorites though might be ‘Smoke on the water’ at least the opening as well as ‘’Free Bird’
and has been mentioned‘Stairway to Heaven’

Highly subjective, and lots of great solos nominated, and with that I submit mine...Eagles Hotel California with dueling lead guitars (Felder and Walsh)

This list made me think of many more great solos. Maggot Brain (the whole 10+ minute song), Limelight, Hotel California, and much of Steely Dan (def including Kid Charlemagne). Jeff Beck should be listed too, multiple times.

Extreme - Play With Me

https://youtu.be/nDWjWfLU2kQ?feature=sha…

2:27 mark Nuno Bettencourt goes crazy. Cheesy song but Nuno is on full display.

Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner, from Woodstock
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sjzZh6-h9f…

Shailynn - Nuno is a beast. His solo in Get The Funk Out is my personal favorite of his.

I always enjoyed bands that had less commercial success growing up. A couple of solos I can remember

Michael Schenker -UFO "I'm a loser" live Strangers in the night
Ronnie Montrose- "I got the fire" Paper Money

Some with more success

Dickey Betts - "Blue Sky" Eat a Peach Allman Brothers
Santana - "Europa" and "Samba pa Ti"

Easy to answer this one. It's Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. And Rick(y) Beato agrees with me. I had the good fortune to see Gilmour play it live in London a few years at a Roger Waters concert.

For kicks, I asked a few chat bots for best guitar solos, and the lists I'm getting back largely mirror what you all are saying, lol.

Comfortably Numb is ranked towards the top according to the bots. The only song the bots mentioned that you all haven't yet is Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing."

My fav among all of these suggestions is Pearl Jam's "Alive." Hat tip to @MajorBoobage for mentioning that one. As soon as I read it I could hear every single note of that solo, right up to and past where Eddie comes in with "Yeah, uh huuhhh..." That solo might not be the most technical or as brilliantly innovative as some of the others on this list, but if that solo isn't part of your metabolism, you probably were just born in a different era than I was.

i see a couple of mentions of pearl jam's alive solo - copped from ace frehley, who copped from robbie krieger.

Cortez the Killer by anybody but especially by hometown guy Warren Haynes.

Lot of 70's through 90's stuff on here, and that's all valid; lot of "epic" solos on here, too, all equally valid. I'd humbly submit that there are some slightly-more-recent, amazing solos (and riffs), and fun guitar work, that all do exactly what they need to do, and then get out of the way, such as:

Velvet Revolver - Fall to Pieces (the video should be popular with this crowd, too, maybe?)
Ween - I Don't Want It
Built to Spill - Carry the Zero
Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
Oasis - Live Forever
Beatles - Let it Be (not more-recent, but does the job and gets out of the way)

Isn't that what we look for on this forum? Do the job and then let us get on with life? :)

My favorite guitar solo is on Marquee Moon by the punk rock band Television. A lot of those seventies punk rock bands had short careers and are now forgotten. I was young then so I remember them.

May I submit this solo by Glen Campbell

https://youtu.be/ETkzK9pXMio

This one is even better

https://youtu.be/kboMSfPMLDs

Yeah Glenn was definitely great. Since we’ve brought country into the mix, you have to appreciate Vince Gill’s tremendous Telecaster on songs like Liza Jane and Oklahoma Borderline. Killer riffs!

Some really excellent picks above.
A couple less known players’ bests (IMO):

Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult, “Astronomy” on One Enchanted Evening (Live), and “Then Came the Last Days of May” on “On Your Feet…(Live)”

Steve Hunter on Lou Reed’s “Rock & Roll Animal (Live), esp “White Light, White Heat”; and on Aerosmith’s “Train Kept A’Rollin’” (uncredited but true)

Ritchie Blackmore, Made in Japan (Live) esp “Strange Kind of Woman”

John Squire, Stone Roses, “Good Times” off Second Coming”

Bill Nelson of BeBop Deluxe “No Trains to Heaven” off Axe Victim

And the UFO pick above, could have said that one too.

comfortably numb tribute - paul gilbert

1:17 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe-iisVo…