10 Hit Songs Played on TAYLOR Guitars

You love Taylor guitars. I love Taylor guitars. This is a good start. Now, do you know which huge hit songs have been recorded using Taylor acoustic guitars?

It’s a fair question. With many guitar brands, we choose them because we’ve seen some rock god/goddess/whatever else wield one and we’ve wanted some of that mythical power. With Taylor, I happen to believe it’s more likely that we went shopping for acoustic guitars, tried a selection of guitars, and the Taylor one stuck out like a gloriously sore thumb. 

Their modern aesthetic and clear, rich sound is pretty distinct in a market that prizes century-old heritage association. And it’s not that I don’t love all that stuff too (I really do), but it’s good to be offered alternatives, and Taylor are a very powerful alternative.

Anyway, I wanted to present to you a collection of famous songs that I know to have been recorded using a Taylor guitar. A number of these songs have other brands in the promo video, but I can assure you that a Taylor was used in the studio, and it’s a Taylor that you hear.

In fact, on over HALF of these top tunes, it’s one single Taylor guitar in particular, so I’ll tell you about that briefly first, and then on to the tunes!

If ever a guitar earned its money back, it would be this one. Named after King Arthur’s famously gifted sword, this guitar may not have emitted a blinding light or protected the owner from being wounded in battle, but it has certainly proven to be the acoustic that ruled the 90s.

Producer Rob Cavallo is hugely respected within the industry as a collaborator, musician and hands-on hitmaker. Throughout the 90s and 00s, he was one of the top Los Angeles go-to men for radio-friendly alternative rock. In addition to some of the acts listed below, Cavallo also worked with Phil Collins, Kid Rock, Linkin Park and even Black Sabbath! 

This guy knows his guitars, and one of his main choices is the hallowed Excalibur. But what is Excalibur? It’s a straight up, completely normal production model Taylor 514c. No special bells, no special whistles. As you’ll see throughout today’s article, this one guitar has quietly dominated the alt rock radio waves for decades. I’d hardly call any 500 Series Taylor ‘humble’, but Excalibur is a standard, normal production guitar (made with cedar and mahognay, interestingly), and it stands as an amazing illustration of just how effective an off-the-shelf Taylor - albeit a highly priced one - can be in the correct hands.

The 2026 equivalent to Excalibur: the Taylor 514CE Next Generation

This Green Day song launched as many new guitarists into the world as Wonderwall! The 1997 megahit from the band’s Nimrod album was a global sensation and elevated them from popular punks to international stars. 

This was played on Excalibur, and you’ll be reading that phrase a fair bit in this article! In the promo video, singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong strums a Gibson J-45, but that ain’t what you’re hearing!

For a while there, Jason Mraz was absolutely everywhere, wasn’t he? Much of that hype was centred around his song I’m Yours, which was written and performed on a nylon string Taylor NS72ce.

It’s rare that you’ll hear about ol’ Clappo strumming away on anything that isn’t his own 000-28 Martins, but that’s the power of Excalibur for you! Yes, it’s that magical Taylor 514e again, and this one agreed with Eric so much, he ended up ‘borrowing’ it for over 9 months, the cad. He used it on this tune, which came from the soundtrack to the Julia Roberts movie Runaway Bride, but eventually returned it to its owner Rob Cavallo.

I think Vertical Horizon were the sort of American alt rock band who were fairly sizable in the states during the 90s but didn’t quite get it together over here in the UK. I say that because I’ve never heard of these guys and had to look them up. From chin beards to PRS guitars, expensive lighting and ‘grungey’ strumming, it’s all here, and it proved to be a hit in the US and Canada. You can hear a Taylor 812ce on this track.

By far the Goo Goo Dolls’ biggest hit, this tune from the mediocre Nic Cage movie City of Angels has lasted the test of time for sure. Singer Johnny Rzeznik strums a Guild guitar in the video (and looks through a LOT of telescopes), but as we found in the Green Day video, this is not the guitar used on the recording! 

Can you guess which one it is? Correct! Ten points to you for successfully identifying the Excalibur 514c again!

Alanis absolutely ruled the alternative scene in the 90s. Her Jagged Little Pill album was the biggest record in the universe and she was on MTV seemingly every other song. This song choice wasn’t actually from that flawless album, but from the unusually good soundtrack to that thoroughly mid City of Angels film I just mentioned. 

This is another song graced by the immortal Excalibur guitar, and this time its owner actually co-wrote the song and played the guitar on the recording! It made a difference, clearly, because this song won two GRAMMY awards for best rock song and best female rock vocal performance.

In the pre-Alanis Morissette alt rock 90s, this tune by Lisa Loeb stood tall. It’s an eccentric and vivacious tune that was timeless pretty much as soon as it was released. Get this: it was used in the 1994 Ethan Hawke/Winona Ryder movie Reality Bites, and became the first ever number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for an artist without a recording contract! What an achievement! Lisa used her Taylor 512c for this one (though not Excalibur, so ANOTHER one!).

Another Green Day song? Say, that strummy acoustic guitar sounds awfully familiar…

Hey, is that Excalibur AGAIN?

You know it is! 7 years after they made the smash hit Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), Rob Cavallo placed the same hallowed Taylor 514c into Billie Joe Armstrong’s hands and they knocked out this colossal hit. How many of you are now searching up Taylor 514c guitars on another tab? I knew it!

As an aside - in case you wondered - Taylor did make the 514 with a cutaway and without electronics back in the 90s. Nowadays, the model you want would be a 514ce, which has a pickup system.

Jewel was like an alternative Alanis, back when Alanis herself was the alternative queen. Jewel’s tendency to yodel didn’t stop her from being an alt rock megastar in the late 90s, when songs like Who Will Save Your Soul and You Were Meant For Me (see below) helped her debut album go TWELVE TIMES PLATINUM.

In the era of Dawson’s Creek, Jewel was a huge star, and she performed mostly with a Taylor 912ce.

Shinedown are another of those bands who have quietly risen to arena status throughout the world, whilst keeping a fairly low profile. Their brand of accessible grunge-tinged rock gave guitar-based rock a shot in the arm during the mid 00s, and they’ve kept that flag flying ever since.

Second Chance was a top ten Billboard Rock chart hit for the band in 2006. You know what’s coming, don’t you? The song was produced by Rob Cavallo, and the guitar was…

…you already know the answer to that.

I didn’t know anything about Excalibur before starting research on this article. Now it seems that it’s the central story, so entwined within 90s and 00s rock that it is. Does Cavallo still have it to hand in his studio? What other hits has it graced its magic upon in the years since?

When reading this blog, do you feel that Talyor hit some sort of zeitgeist in the 90s? They obviously record beautifully, and that was in the era of big budgets, when artists could use anything they wanted. Taylor’s rich and bright signature sound plays well on these songs, and in fact is pretty definitive for ‘acoustic rock’ in general.

Whatever your own personal taste in music, there’s no denying how great Taylor acoustics sound, and, I guess, the 514c in particular right? “The ancient sword of my fathers, whose powers were meant to unite all men…”

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