Ever walk into a music store and see some aspiring rock star wailing on a guitar, playing an all-time classic riff? Of course you have, but according to Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto, there are ten famous riffs that get played the most inside the American musical instrument retailer.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Dalporto revealed the company felt it was time they conducted a survey to determine what songs were played most across its 300-plus locations.
“We went out to our stores leadership with survey and said, ‘Write your most overplayed songs and tell us about any anecdotes, whatever you have,’” Dalporto explained. “It actually turned out to be a really consistent list. What you see is, across stores, across regions, people are generally playing this type of song.”
While Led Zeppelin's epic power ballad "Stairway To Heaven" has long been considered the most overplayed riff of all time, it is actually now Metallica's 1986 rager "Master of Puppets" that reigns supreme. In fact, "Stairway" didn't end up even making the top ten, partly due to a decades-old warning not to play it, which was famously mocked by Mike Myers in Wayne's World.
Thanks to its resurgence from a scene-stealing moment in Stranger Things' season four finale, "Master of Puppets" found a whole new audience nearly 40 years later, entering the U.S. and UK charts for the first time since the song's original 1986 release.
Metallica were one of two artists to have multiple songs on Guitar Center's list, which also included 1991's "Enter Sandman." Nirvana was the other, with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come As You Are," both from 1991's Nevermind.
See the full list below.
The 10 Most-Played Riffs at Guitar Center
1. Metallica – “Master of Puppets”
2. Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
3. The White Stripes – “Seven Nation Army”
4. Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
5. John Mayer – “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”
6. Metallica – “Enter Sandman”
7. Tool – “Schism”
8. Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Train”
9. Nirvana – “Come As You Are”
10. Deep Purple – “Smoke on the Water”