Whole Lotta Love voted Greatest guitar riff of all time

[Jonny Come Lately]

Listeners of the UK radio station BBC Radio 2 have voted for Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love as music's greatest guitar riff:

BBC News - Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love voted best guitar riff

The full top ten is given in the article above, I'm personally pretty satisfied with their number one choice - it's instantly recognisable and a perfect fit for the song. However, BBC Radio 2 listeners are not necessarily the most adventurous of listeners so the list is fairly populist, and the top ten of their top albums list as voted for by their listeners last year made for perplexing reading with a couple of exceptions. Having said this, their top 10 guitar riffs list seems fairly reasonable. Also, only one entry per artist was allowed (otherwise I reckon about half the songs from Led Zeppelin II would be in with a decent shout).

 

[bugara1]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[Musikwala]

That link is taking forever to open but I agree that Whole Lotta Love is a pretty excellent riff!

 

[Riff Raff]

Greatest riff would be a stretch in my opinion. I think LZ have done better. Not that I care that much anyway. Lists people make aren't definitive by any means.

 

[Mistral Wind]

It's a great riff indeed... but I don't think it's the best of all time...

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

Nah, I disagree. Zeppelin probably has the most consistent output in the way of riffs and sure, "Whole Lotta Love" is one of their most popular songs but it's also one of their most simple riffs and nowhere near the best. Not the best for that album, not the best from the band, and certainly not the best of all time. I mean....if you look at the list:

1. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
2. Sweet Child O'Mine - Guns 'N' Roses
3. Back in Black - AC/DC
4. Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
5. Layla - Derek and The Dominoes
6. How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths
7. Down Down - Status Quo
8. Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
9. You Really Got Me - The Kinks
10. Money- Pink Floyd

It's just a lot of the same tired things in a different order. The Smiths and Status Quo are the only one I can't say I saw coming. The fact that they didn't put "Iron Man" in the top ten is a major oversight as far as I'm concerned (though something tells me people would vote for "Paranoid" over it because why not).

I guess when it comes to polls that are voted on by popularity contents it's just always going to be the same ol', tired nominees.

 

[PapaJacques]

The list seems fair enough- I was actually listening to the countdown yesterday afternoon. The only thing I don't really understand is Pink Floyd's 'Money'. Don't get me wrong, its one of my favourite songs from one of my top albums, but I always considered 'Time' to have a better riff to it.

 

[Riff Raff]

AC/DC have done better riffs than Back in Black too. And no I don't mean You Shook Me All Night Long or Shoot to Thrill.

 

[Jet]

I saw that on ABC World News!

 

[Lynch]

I don't think I'd call it "the best" (well maybe I have in the past), however I would be willing to call it possibly the most iconic opening riff on any album, ever. The riff is quite simple as any guitarist knows, but the tone, the feel and the song itself are outstanding.

Of course, LZ2 is by far my favorite LZ album so maybe I am a bit biased