15 Greatest Classic Rock Guitar Solos

A great guitar solo has the potential to elevate a song into truly adored territory, filled to the brim with energy and creativity, as well as providing a chance to show off the abilities of the guitarist playing.

Some of the best guitar solos are the defining features of the songs they appear in, which is no wonder given the excellence of the examples featured in this list. Although the lyrics of a song are used to convey the tone and emotion of said song, a well-crafted and well-placed solo can also achieve the same effect.

The rock genre is filled with plenty of revered solos from generations of great guitarists, all excellent and admired in their own right. For decades, guitar solos have been a staple of the genre, as hundreds of artists have used them to show off and/or provide some extra emotion to a song, a technique that has clearly worked well given the legions of fans that still adore these songs decades after their first release.

Although just about anybody can play a guitar solo, it takes something really special to do what these 15 guitarists have done during some of their finest efforts.

The first single from The Knack's debut album, "My Sharona" was a gigantic hit for them when it was first released back in 1979.

Not only did the song reach the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart upon it's release, but it also managed to place 16th on Billboard's list of the Top 100 Rock Songs of all time.

Although the subject matter of the song is questionable (to say the least), it is still just as catchy and indelible 41 years later as it was when it first came out. This is due in part to the numerous melodic hooks and excellent guitar work that serve to make this song the band's most well-known track.

The main guitar solo is a minute and a half of pure technical prowess, as guitarist Berton Averre plays with exceptional speed and precision, which makes for an outstanding guitar solo overall. The solo is often edited down quite heavily during radio broadcasts of the song, which is quite a shame given how impressive the full version sounds.

Although the track has been lauded as cheesy by some, it is hard to deny how skillful the guitar work in "My Sharona" really is.