Tom Shreds called “The Final Countdown” “radio shred” in a video I saw and it got me thinking what are some other radio hits (from any era) that have either “shred” or otherwise killer guitar solos?
Off the top of my head (besides The Final Countdown)
A fair amount of ‘80s stuff, but Seventeen from Winger was the first that came to mind.
Oh fun thread! First to come to mind:
Journey - Don’t Stop Believing: the little intro line is not easy, and up to speed I think counts. Also, the run leading up to the solo!
Living Colour - Cult of Personality
Satch is probably the best example that comes to my mind. Dee Snyder lists some bands that got good radio play.
Bark at the Moon from Ozzy
No More Tears from Ozzy
Any Way You Want It from Journey
Water from Brad Paisley
Symphony of Destruction from Megadeth
Any tune that made it to the radio of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s
Not quite shred and not very hard but perception matters, so maybe Enter Sandman from Metallica
Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone
Played by the one and only Dann Huff.
This is a great one by Dann Huff as well.
Alannah Myles, she’s pretty much only famous for Black Velvet being a massive hit (fun fact until Nita Strauss’ song with David Draiman from about a year ago this was the highest charting song by a solo female hard rock artist.)
A couple songs on her debut have a shreddy blues thing going on reminds me of early Danzig or The Cult style leads. Pure 80s AOR ear candy.
Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love, this was I believe the first song released after Nils Lofgren joined the E Street Band replacing Steve Van Zandt who left shortly after the Born in the USA album was recorded. Nils dropped a very nice wah solo in the title track which has a couple of what sounds like bends with taps. He plays with a thumb pick and has a very unique lead style.
Bruce has since let him go off on a couple songs live.
Oh I don’t see Still of the Night from Whitesnake. Absolutely brutal fast ascending run in that one.
Stop! was fairly big for Jane’s Addiction, and there’s a pure shred pattern right in the solo (cued up). I remember hearing it for the first time and being pretty surprised Dave could play something like that.
Been Caught Stealing always sounded to my like Navarro’s take on EVH.
One of my favorite things to do on these threads is cheat. More Than Words - Extreme
The radio version gutted the cool tapping thing Nuno did around the 5 minute mark. I guess awesome playing like that would have made the average listener’s head explode. And of course tapping is pretty “easy” but it’s much more of a challenge on acoustic. Nuno of course crushes it
Epic, from Faith No More. Not “shred”, exactly, but pretty epic-sounding (
) harmonized soloing with a nice speedy pentatonic ending.
Fun fact: The Real Thing, and Please Hammer Don’t Hurt 'Em, were the first two albums I convinced my mom to buy me at age ten.
What’s the criteria?
Lisa Lisa Cult Jam - All cried out
Stil they ride - Journey
Stagefright - Def Leppard
Running with the night - Lionel Ritchie (Ripping)
Impressive how they snuck that metal guitar snippet into such an R&B song!
Yeah it was a big hit back then. I remember my gf liked it and then I did too.
Another one by Saga - On the loose - sounds a little scalely
Kerry King being Kerry King on No Sleep 'til Brooklyn.
Not shred exactly, but it always got my attention in the context of the song.
Guitar solo was played by Andy Taylor from Duran Duran.
It sounds like we are being a loose on the definition.
Michael Jackson Black or White.
Almost every Van Halen song.
Tons of 80’s era Journey songs.
Quite a few Phil Collen Def Leppard songs (photograph, let’s get rocked, rock rock etc.)
Any winger song that made it to radio
Some Sykes and vai era White snake songs that made it to radio.
Vivian Campbell era Dio (some did chart on rock charts)
I’m sure I could think of a lot more. All lot was played on the radio back in the day.
Great mentions in there. Definitely stuff like Rainbow in the Dark and good call on MJs Black or White. That pentatonic lick from hell in the middle is no joke.
Just thought of a sort of trolling submission.
Soundgarden, Black Hole Sun. Semi shred level speed. Accuracy? Meh…moral of the story may be when in doubt, step on the wah pedal. As goofy as that solo was it did fit the song, somehow.