Sweet Child O' Mine voted greatest guitar riff of all time

Sweet Child O’ Mine, by eighties rockers Guns ‘N Roses, has the best guitar riff of all time, according to a new survey.

The 1988 hit received 33% of the public vote with people commenting that the riff was so instantly recognisable you could tell the song ‘from the first three notes’.

Coming a close second in the poll is the Led Zeppelin rock anthem Whole Lotta Love. The seventies mega-hit, known to generations of Brits as the theme tune to Top of the Pops, received 28% of the vote, with one respondent describing it as ‘epitomising what guitar riffs are all about’.

Voodoo Chile by Jimmi Hendrix came third in the survey with 24% of the vote. The song was recorded in 1968 and the 15 minute track was Hendrix’s longest ever studio recording.

Flying the flag for the noughties, the White Stripe’s Seven Nation Army was fourth in the poll, with 13% of those questioned judging it to contain the best guitar riff.

Respondents were also asked which decade they viewed to have produced the best music. Leading the pack were the 70s with 36% of the vote, followed by the 60s and 80s, sharing joint second place with 21% of votes each. Limping along in final place were the recently-demised noughties, with only 9% of those questioned judging it to have produced the best music.

The survey was commissioned by Universal Pictures UK to celebrate the launch of ‘rockumentary’ It Might Get Loud.

Directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), the film is an inspirational ode to the electric guitar. For the first time, three generations of rock royalty – Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White – are brought together to discuss their musical journeys and reveal all about their life-long love affair with the most iconic of all instruments.

It Might Get Loud is out to own on DVD and Blu-ray from Monday 18th January.