Hard Rock & Classic Rock
The riff gets heavier and the stages get bigger: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, AC/DC and the arena-rock giants.
Part of Rock
40 moments in this segment.
- - Cream - Crossroads. Clapton's blistering live 1968 Crossroads is a hard-rock guitar landmark.
- - Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love. Led Zeppelin's 1969 riff monster helped invent hard rock.
- - Free - All Right Now. Free's 1970 riff-rock anthem is one of hard rock's most enduring.
- - The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again. The Who's synth-and-power 1971 epic is one of rock's great statements.
- - The Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post. The Allmans' improvisational blues-rock defined Southern rock at the Fillmore.
- - Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven. The 1971 epic that became rock radio's most requested song.
- - Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water. One of the most famous riffs ever, from Deep Purple's 1972 Machine Head.
- - ZZ Top - La Grange. ZZ Top brought Texas boogie to hard rock with La Grange in 1973.
- - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird. Southern rock's grand statement, and the ultimate concert encore, from 1973.
- - Bad Company - Can't Get Enough. Bad Company distilled hard rock to its swaggering essence in 1974.
- - Led Zeppelin - Kashmir. Zeppelin's towering 1975 epic married hard rock to orchestral grandeur.
- - Kiss - Rock and Roll All Nite. Kiss turned hard rock into a fire-breathing spectacle.
- - Nazareth - Hair of the Dog. Scotland's Nazareth gave hard rock one of its grittiest riffs.
- - Aerosmith - Walk This Way. Aerosmith's 1975 swagger would later spark the hip-hop crossover with Run-DMC.
- - Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run. Springsteen's 1975 anthem made him rock's great American storyteller.
- - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen's 1975 six-minute opera-rock and its pioneering promo video changed everything.
- - Rainbow - Stargazer. Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio built epic, mystical hard rock.
- - Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back in Town. Thin Lizzy's twin-guitar 1976 anthem is hard rock at its most joyous.
- - Blue Öyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper. Blue Öyster Cult's 1976 classic married hard rock and eerie melody.
- - Boston - More Than a Feeling. Boston's layered 1976 sound defined American album-oriented rock.
- - Eagles - Hotel California. The Eagles' 1976 title track became one of the best-known songs in rock.
- - The arena rock explosion. By the late '70s, hard rock filled arenas, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Foreigner and Journey.
- - Fleetwood Mac - Dreams. From Rumours, one of the best-selling albums ever, in 1977.
- - Heart - Barracuda. Ann and Nancy Wilson made Heart one of the '70s' fiercest hard-rock bands.
- - Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time. Foreigner perfected melodic arena rock in the late '70s.
- - Queen - We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions. Queen's 1977 double-anthem became the sound of stadiums everywhere.
- - Van Halen - Eruption. Eddie Van Halen's 1978 solo reinvented rock guitar overnight.
- - AC/DC - Highway to Hell. AC/DC's 1979 anthem, Bon Scott's last album, is hard rock distilled.
- - AC/DC - Back in Black. AC/DC's tribute to Bon Scott became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
- - Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane. Germany's Scorpions became global hard-rock stars in the '80s.
- - Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer. Bon Jovi's 1986 anthem became the sound of stadium rock.
- - Whitesnake - Here I Go Again. David Coverdale's Whitesnake topped the charts in the '80s hard-rock boom.
- - Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar on Me. Def Leppard perfected the polished 1980s arena-rock sound.
- - Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine. Slash's riff made Sweet Child o' Mine GN'R's only US number one.
- - Aerosmith - Janie's Got a Gun. Aerosmith's 1989 comeback proved hard rock could tackle serious themes.
- - Måneskin - The Loneliest. Released in October 2022 ahead of the album Rush!, this ballad was the band's biggest single of that year. It showed Maneskin reaching past the glam-rock stomp that had made them famous.
- - Greta Van Fleet - Meeting the Master. A single from Starcatcher, released in May 2023. The Michigan band spent the record loosening the Zeppelin comparisons that had followed them since their debut.
- - Måneskin - Honey (Are U Coming?). A 2023 single from the Rome band, released alongside the expanded edition of RUSH!. Maneskin were by then the most visible rock act to break out of Europe in years.
- - Greta Van Fleet - Sacred the Thread (live from RCA Studio A). A live studio performance of a Starcatcher song, filmed at RCA Studio A in Nashville and released in 2024. Stripped of the arena staging, it shows how much of the band's sound is played live in a room.
- - Greta Van Fleet - Play Your Games. A 2026 single from Greta Van Fleet, released ahead of the album Palace for the People. It marked the band's return after three years away from new music.