Every great song needs a suitable intro. Strumming a chord is simply not enough to win the attention of one’s audience! In fact, a great intro is often the trademark of a song, like a fingerprint that makes it instantly recognisable. Guitar riffs are like this in general, but sticking one right at the beginning of your song is the best way to grab your audience and avail them of your intentions.
Here are the best examples of that, in ascending order of greatness.
The Greatest Intros at a Glance
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
(I Can’t Get No ) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Layla - Derek and the Dominoes
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Ain't Talkin’ ‘Bout Love - Van Halen
Sweet Child O’ Mine - Guns ‘n’ Roses
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
Break Stuff - Limp Bizkit
Two big chonky notes is all Wes Borland needed to make it onto today’s list. Those big crunchy chords tell you exactly what you’re in for. It’s hugely simple and to-the-point, like all the best intros, really. Borland is obviously the best thing about this band, and is full of inventive musical ideas. This is pretty low-key for him, actually, but he sets up the song perfectly, thus serving it like a professional. NOTE: guitarguitar does not condone ‘packing a chainsaw’, nor ‘skinning’ anybody’s ‘ass raw’, ok?
Enter Sandman - Metallica
I may be a minority here (I’ve never actually asked), but I reckon the clean intro guitar part to Enter Sandman is a better riff than the main one. I’m not sure why, so please don’t push me to back up my claims, but it might be its atmospheric properties. Imagine the same song without it, if it just launched into the distorted riff at the start: it’s nothing like as good, eh?
It’s also a masterclass in building tension and then releasing it, and also setting up that creepy quasi-horror movie vibe of the lyrics. Eeeexit Liiide!
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
It’s a confident move when you have an intro riff as strong as this one and hardly employ it throughout the song: it only shows up once again after the guitar solo! It’s some intro though, coming right after Ozzy’s maniacal ‘All aboard!’ and a cool bass and drums built up. Randy Rhoads was the talent here, of course, and the verse riff is also super-cool, but a distant second to the one that opens the tune.
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
That guitar roar when this song kicks in still gives me goosebumps, even though I’m thoroughly sick of hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit. No matter what, though, it will forever be the sound that opened my eyes and ears to the raw, huge power of an electric guitar put through a distortion pedal.
When this song was released, I was nine years old and Kurt was alive, and I believe that intro (let’s not discount Dave Grohl’s perfect decisions on the drums here) cemented something in my brain and taste that has remained all these years since. It’s not Nirvana’s best song by any stretch, but it was their hugest statement, and oh my goodness was it effective.
(I Can’t Get No ) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
It’s iconic stuff. A very simple riff, played with a ton of attitude and a filthy fuzz tone. Just imagine how many Maestro fuzz pedals this must’ve sold back in the day! I know Jagger was singing about not finding satisfaction anywhere, but maybe he should’ve listened a little harder to his own tune, because it’s all right there at the beginning!
Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
It’s the blues lick that most of the universe knows note for note. For anyone under 50 years old, it’s because Marty McFly launched into it at the apex of Back to the Future, delivering a guitar hero for the ages. For anyone older, it’s because innovator and guitar legend Chuck Berry wrote them the rulebook on electric guitar lead playing, and this intro is his coolest and most famous example.
Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
You know it straight away. It sets up the slightly elegiac mood perfectly, and then the song itself comes in with completely different music. It’s a true ‘intro’, because it’s introducing the atmosphere and setting the tone. Guitarist John Frusciante was still a teenager when he wrote this part, which spoke to the dark side of a scene he knew only too well. It’s an eternal classic, and a guitar shop perennial.
Hotel California - Eagles
This epic about over-indulgence and decadence matches its subject matter with some pretty indulgent guitar moves throughout its 6 and a half minute running time. Thankfully, it’s all excellent, inspirational playing, and those Eagles start as they mean to go on: those 12-string arpeggios in the intro are blissful and immediately recognisable. As soon as you hear them, you know you’re in for a smooth ride.
Wicked Game - Chris Isaak
Talking about smoothness, it don’t get no smoother than this brooding ballad from crooner/actor/boxer/talk-show host Chris Isaak. I’d say that you know this song immediately from the very first dipped note, whilst the second note - bending from flat to in-pitch - merely confirms your recognition. It’s a deceptively tricky part to get right, too: listen to ten guitarists playing it and you’ll hear ten different things!
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin’s best guitar riff (it is). Led Zeppelin’s second best drum groove. No time wasted at all; they dive straight into the action. There is no messing about here, and the whole song is about two and a half minutes long, which is why it’s okay to stick it on five times in a row.
Now, I don’t want to hear any blabbing out Stairway to Heaven’s intro, because this one kicks it’s arse. It’s so obvious. Are we clear? Okay, put it back on again, from the start!
Layla - Derek and the Dominoes
We hopefully all know by now that Eric Clapton did not play the super-cool signature lick that kicks this tune into the stratosphere. It was Duane Allman’s work, and whilst it’s not RIGHT at the start, it’s practically the intro, so it totally counts. If you ever need to instantly impress a casual guitar fan, this is one to have under your fingers and in your back pocket.
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
One of the all-time great guitar tracks, this no.2 hit for the Blue Oyster Cult is now immortal thanks to that SNL ‘more cowbell’ skit with Chris Walken and Will Ferrell. There’s examples of fantastically lyrical guitar playing all the way through the tune, thanks to Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser. That intro riff, though! If the definition of a great riff - and great intro - is in being able to immediately identify it in three or four notes, then this is a masterpiece!
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
The lightning, the rain, the distant bell ringing…and then THAT riff! The most evil of musical intervals strikes, and a dark legend is born. Never has an intro so well explained the song’s subject matter. It’s so full of dread, and that’s before you get to Ozzy’s semi-hysterical vocal. Black Sabbath are so good at riffs - and intro riffs - that the main issue is in deciding which is the best! The ‘Hammer Horror’ sound effects on this one helped it pip the post, but the riff is a sinister thing of perfection all by itself.
Ain't Talkin’ ‘Bout Love - Van Halen
The main trouble with Van Halen intros is the same problem you get with Black Sabbath intros: which one do you go for? There are tons! Do I choose Panama, Unchained…Hot For Teacher? How can you beat these intros?
I guess the one I went for just out-cools the other ones. In fact, it’s so awesome that the tune that it’s attached to falls a little short, in my opinion. It’s fine, but that intro is so good, it’s like it has been cast out of space titanium or something! The note choice, the tone, the phaser on the last four notes…it sounds simultaneously off-the-cuff and very premeditated. Therein lies the greatness!
Sweet Child O’ Mine - Guns ‘n’ Roses
There was no way this genuinely iconic guitar intro wasn't going to rank highly on the list! It’s status as number three isn’t because it’s a better intro than the Van Halen one below it (I’d call them equal) but because the song it introduces is better. It just is, isn’t it? Even if you’re not a fan of Slash ‘n’ Axl, there’s no denying a belter of a rock anthem when you hear it, and this is precisely that.
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Little Wing is about a tenth of a percent behind this in terms of great intros, but when it comes down to it, how many songs do you recognise from a guitar part that isn’t even playing any notes? When all hell breaks loose in this tune, it’s one of the most thrilling episodes in guitar playing history, but that ‘wacka-chakka’ wah-wah intro tells you so much about the wild genius behind it. Literally every guitar player who has ever stepped on a Crybaby owes something to not only Jimi, but this epic intro.
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
No matter what types of music you’re into and who your preferred guitarists are, this is the ultimate guitar intro. The best one ever.
Of course it is! Nothing else comes close. This intro has it all: a huge dramatic build up with drum fills, a hyperventilating synthesizer, a slightly silly Sting backing vocal (essential), and then an immense payoff where every other instrument drops out, leaving the listener with possibly the world’s very best Gibson Les Paul tone. Thank you Mark Knopfler!
I guarantee you every time someone hears this, they are keeping an ear out for that riff, and they'll grin like a kid as soon as it starts. It’s immense, it’s laid back, it’s straightforward and it’s everything that’s brilliant about electric guitars.
And that TONE! Full disclosure: it’s a Les Paul Junior on the song, not that suave tiger-top ‘59 Standard he’s playing in the iconic video. I reckon Mark could do that on any guitar though, let’s be real!
