Best Rock Song of All-Time

[SorgFamily]

I did this on a different forum and it was received pretty well. I consider these four songs to be a pretty good roundup of the greatest rock songs of all-time. You've got straight up classic/hard, operatic, southern and California rock between the four. All feature great guitar solo's and are pretty epic in their own way. I know people will have other opinions but please try to restrict yourself to the choices at hand.

 

[hatehabsforever]

I'm not really sure I would classify either one of these four choices as the best rock song of all time. Four great songs, make no mistake about it, but neither would be the best ever.

Of the four, though, I would picked Hotel California. The Eagles have so many superb songs and even though HC isn't my favorite Eagles song even, I would select this one over the other three choices.

 

[mrbrownstone]

That is really a very subjective question to which there is really no right or wrong answer, merely someones opinion. To illustrate my point I would probably say that neither of your four choices are the greatest rock songs of all time and either Mr. Brownstone by Guns N' Roses or Master of Puppets by Metallica are, yet many may not have even heard of those songs.

Anyway if I had to chose from only those four options then I would chose Stairway to Heaven, that song; is amazingly influential to many guitarists worldwide (myself included), instantly recognisable from the opening seconds, has a fucking awesome solo, has great lyrics which are very well sung and it shows great variety going from a very soft opening and ending up as a hard rock song. Now I know many of those points could be said of the other three but as I said earlier it is all a matter of opinion and that is mine.

 

[Uncle Phatso]

Led zep is what i'm going to put down. I have a slight bit of guilt for not choosing Queen right now. Stairway to heaven is just an amazing song, I love every bit of it. The opening with the flute is awsome. Plant has amazing vocals in the song, Freddie kills the vocals on the whole song. Freddie has allways had amazing vocals on any song.

Really what put it over for me was the use of so many different musical instruments in the whole song. The regular guitars and everything combined just made a monster of a song with this song, And who can't remember the lyrics "If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now". Every time I hear that it just makes me smile.

 

[SorgFamily]

That is really a very subjective question

To illustrate my point I would probably say that neither of your four choices are the greatest rock songs of all time and either Mr. Brownstone by Guns N' Roses or Master of Puppets by Metallica are

I know people will have other opinions

But, Master of Puppets and Mr. Brownstone aren't commonly debated as the greatest rock songs of all-time (not that I don't enjoy them. I do, quite a lot). This isn't just my question with my answers. These answers are the ones that are most commonly used in "Greatest Rock Song of All-Time" debates. With the choices given maybe I should have named the thread "Greatest Classic Rock Song of the Seventies." That's my bad. Still wouldn't make everyone happy but I think it would help a lot of people's problem with the answers.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Out of these top 4 songs, I have to go with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. A song Freddy Mercury wrote while getting a blowjob. How Rock and Roll is that? The song has everything has far as melody and harmonies flowing together. There are great guitar solos, piano and voice solos. Its basically a rock opera. I am sick of all 4 of these songs since I hear them all time on the radio and in bars. I understand why some picked Hotel California since The Eagles have sold a ton of albums. Queen has sold the most albums of any rock band though.

They are behind Led Zeppelin which is more Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal. The Beatles are at the very top followed by Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Stairway to Heaven is a great song but it lasts forever. Freebird has great guitar solos but its another song that can last up to 20 minutes.

Bohemian Rhapsody is short and sweet and can be sung anywhere. My vote is for Queen.

 

[Dagger Dias]

A decent set of four in the poll. At first I thought this was a thread where we pick our own and explain why, but this makes it easier. Any of the four could have easily made it into such a thread. I give my vote to Stairway to Heaven because of the legendary impact it has had on countless guitar players. It has stood the test of time and will continue to forever. It's a song that EVERYONE who has ever picked up a guitar has tried to play. Now, while the other options on the poll are amazing as well.... they are just not at the same level that Stairway to Heaven is. It also changes from slow to fast so well, and the lyrics tell a great story. Now, had this been about us picking our own individual songs? That makes it a pretty tough choice, as I like so many different rock songs. Perhaps "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana due to no other rock song from this generation has even come close to the impact it has made, it will stand the test of time as well.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

Bohemian Rhapsody is my favorite of those 4 songs but I have trouble deciding which is the best of anything. I personally love Elton John's Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding but that doesn't necessarily mean it's one of the greatest ever, of course.

 

[Captain Jive]

Of the choices, its Hotel California. My pick for the best song "of all of the times" as Santino would say, is Simple Man by Skynyrd. That song is amazing, and the Deftones version is SLIGHTLY below it.

 

[Uncle Phatso]

Out of these top 4 songs, I have to go with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. A song Freddy Mercury wrote while getting a blowjob. How Rock and Roll is that? The song has everything has far as melody and harmonies flowing together. There are great guitar solos, piano and voice solos. Its basically a rock opera. I am sick of all 4 of these songs since I hear them all time on the radio and in bars. I understand why some picked Hotel California since The Eagles have sold a ton of albums. Queen has sold the most albums of any rock band though.

They are behind Led Zeppelin which is more Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal. The Beatles are at the very top followed by Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Stairway to Heaven is a great song but it lasts forever. Freebird has great guitar solos but its another song that can last up to 20 minutes.

Bohemian Rhapsody is short and sweet and can be sung anywhere. My vote is for Queen.

Thats the just on my thinking, they last a long time. But they are fucking great. I'm not a big fan of freebird, but really stairway to heaven is tops on the list because of its multiple use of different instruments. It takes true tallent to put that many in a song and not be using an orchestra. Also it gets very hard to have that many different things playing and to get it to sound right.

Many bands use alot of instruments but it makes their songs sound terrible. Stairway to heaven sounds like like that, like angels playing multiple instraments, Mr. Plant's vocals on the song are also very good.

The only thing that queen is doing better in Bohemian Rhapsody is superior vocals. Freddie Murcury will go down in history as one of the best vocalists of all time. If not the best, but Robert Plant is just so close to him its not funny. Bohemian has far greater vocals than that of Stairway to Heaven. But Stairway to Heaven has far superior instrumentals.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I have voted for Bohemian Rhapsody. In my opinion it is the greatest song ever written.

It is not one of my favourite songs, not even in my top 10 favourite Queen tracks...BUT because it features so many styles on music in one song, it is genius. The creativity of Queen to make a song like that is staggering, it is so unique and yet everybody knows and loves it. Plus, it is awesome for a drunken sing-along

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I think it was the creativity of Freddie Mercury, really. I remember reading an article once where guitarist Brian May said Freddie came in with the song already written and it was just up to the band to perform it as well as they could.

 

[Michael_Page]

I had to go with Led Zeppelin's Stairway to heaven. This song has everything a great Rock song should have a great vocalist,guitarist,bassist/keyboard player and The worlds greatest drummer. This song builds as it gets better with each passing minute. This song could be like sex with foreplay at the beginning with the ultimate climax at the end. Trully a timeless piece of music.