Warning: you are not going to agree with this list. That’s because all lists like this are subjective and therefore flawed.

Some, however, are more flawed than others. Here’s one that ranks the Foo Fighters higher than Nirvana, a sign that the writer needs a good ear exam or a great therapist.

Hopefully this list is, if not less contentious, somewhat less ridiculous. Unranked except for the obvious first two entries, the only rules are that the group must be rock (so no The Cure) and must be a band (so no Bruce Springsteen). Without further ado, let the comment thread cyber-shouting begin.

Top 10 Most Overrated Bands

20 The Beatles

Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way: no list of top rock bands would be viable without the Beatles and the next band, the Rolling Stones. From 1963 until their breakup in 1970, the Fab Four enjoyed the most condensed run of brilliance in history, bar none. In the process they became bigger than Jesus^[1] and had their own mania named after them.

The numbers are just otherworldly. Over an eight-year run the Beatles had an astounding 27 #1 hits, and dozens others nearly adding to that total. They’ve sold 183 million records, the most ever. Perhaps most tellingly, no reliable figure exists for concert attendance… because fans were so rabid that the Beatles stopped touring in 1966.^[2]

Equally impressive is the band’s maturation. In less than a decade, they went from suited pop stars strumming simplistic ditties like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to serve as soundtrack to the fast-changing times. They went from “Hard Day’s Night” to “Revolution” to Abbey Road’s “Come Together” and, along the way, tripped out with “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

Any band in which the infinitely talented George Harrison is only the third most influential member is going to rank among the greatest ever.

19 The Rolling Stones

I was in high school in 1994 as the rock world mourned the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain. That summer, a band that had been going strong for three decades dropped its 22nd studio album. The album was “Voodoo Lounge,” and the band was the irrepressible Rolling Stones.

The breakout single, “Love is Strong,” was testament to the fact that, even in the heart of the grunge era, a good rock song is a good rock song, period. Several years later, Sopranos creator David Chase chose the lulling, haunting “Thru and Thru” to close the show’s second season,^[3] cementing the record’s legacy.

This anecdote is a microcosm: The Stones are a refreshingly stubborn counterpoint to the Beatles; while the latter quickly adapted to reflect the tumultuous 1960s, the Stones catalogue is defiantly unaffected by its surroundings.

1971’s “Brown Sugar,” a song about sleeping with a black girl, seems out of place amid the Civil Rights movement, while 1966’s “Under My Thumb” is antagonistically misogynistic, flying in the face of the simmering women’s lib movement. Meanwhile, songs like “Wild Horses” and “Angie” reflect neither their times nor the band’s remaining catalogue; their commonality is that they are, quite simply, damn good songs. When a band has two of the greatest songwriters of all time, timing and even consistency mean nothing.

18 The Ramones

From this point forward, the list is in no particular order, except for this writer’s opinion that the greatest American rock band ever is and always will be The Ramones.

For starters, the Ramones were genre pioneers – a distinction that should elevate a band on any list (SEE: REM, Nirvana). Along with the Sex Pistols, the Ramones are generally credited with birthing punk rock. Emerging from the depressing early 1970s, their music, appearance and attitude were an amplified middle finger to everything from the societal status quo to conventional rock music.

Their music was never meant for the airwaves. If you’re listening to “Blitzkrieg Bop” on the radio, slowed down to less than half measure, you’re doing it wrong. No, the Ramones are the type of band whose music is meant to be played at warp speed and ear-splitting volume. We can and should enjoy “Rockaway Beach,” “Sedated” and “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” in their natural habitat: live, loud and at machine-gun pace.

I leave you with this: The Ramones Greatest Hits Live is the greatest (and at 37 minutes, the fastest) “best of” album ever. Mic drop.

17 Nirvana

Nirvana was the best rock band in one of its best decades: the 1990s. It is hard to overestimate Nirvana’s influence on both the music scene and pop culture. They were a transformative force despite fewer than five years in the limelight—a phenomenon abruptly ended with front man Kurt Cobain’s suicide in April 1994.

For starters, Nirvana launched grunge music with its 1991 breakout album, “Nevermind,” and a music video, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” that juggernauted the band to superstardom and has since become only the decade’s second to reach one billion YouTube views. Almost overnight, flannel and ripped jeans were in style and 80s power ballads outdated.

Nirvana’s music lived up to its stardom, driven by a generational genius with unparalleled songwriting talent and the uncanny ability to scream on key; “Lithium,”^[4] a song whose refrain is simply the word “Yeah” yelled rhythmically, is a prime example of Cobain’s rare vocal gift.

“Nevermind” and the band’s final full album, “In Utero,” might be the two best consecutive albums in rock history, and its incredible November 1993 MTV Unplugged performance leaves a haunting chill given Cobain’s tragic end just a few months later.

16 Pearl Jam

But what about the other Seattle-based grunge band with a heroin-addicted lead singer?

With lead singer Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam was less grungy than Nirvana but more diverse in its range of songs. Sampling the band’s first three albums – “Ten,” “Versus” and “Vitalogy” – fans were presented with tracks that, despite certainly fitting into the burgeoning alternative music genre, were essentially a spaghetti-at-the-wall smattering of random, terrific songs. And as evidenced by their breakout song “Jeremy” and subsequent hit “Daughter,” rhyming lyrics were optional.

The majority of those seemingly arbitrary songs were, simply, great. “Animal,” “Corduroy,” “Black,” “Alive,” “Evenflow.” Pearl Jam’s bench of hits was so deep that, in the early to mid-1990s, it seemed like a month couldn’t pass without a new one breaking onto the airwaves and ascending the Billboard charts.

Pearl Jam is an uncomplicated recipe: Eddie Vedder is on a short list of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, and the band’s legend lives on his broad shoulders.

15 The Clash

The Clash is the most aptly named band on this list, because they’re what happens when punk rockers write what is essentially pop music. They were bad-asses with good rhythm.

Most of The Clash’s catalogue was written by some combination of front man Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones. Wherever the source, one can see the hand of impromptu providence in such catchy hits as “Rock the Casbah” and “I Fought the Law,” as if a gritty, gutty punk rocker sat down to write a gritty, gutty punk song… but what popped into his head were epiphanies that, regardless of subgenre, are simply good rock songs.

The Clash, then, are punk rockers in their hearts but more traditional rock stars in practice; they couldn’t write non-catchy music if they tried. Ironically, on 1979’s “London Calling,” Strummer croons that “phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust.” It wasn’t true. The torch had simply passed to another set of geniuses whose image and attitude belied the immovable fact that a rock hit is a rock hit however it is packaged and presented.

14 Hole

No, Hole didn’t make the cut to add some gender diversity to an inevitably male-dominated list. They’re included because they absolutely wailed, both because of and despite lead singer Courtney Love’s electric volatility.^[5]

Calling them a chick band counterpoint to contemporaries like Nirvana – an obvious comparison given Love’s marriage to Kurt Cobain – sells them far short. They embodied a feminine heroin chic that resonated with disenchanted young Gen X women, a “Meh Generation” gender symbol giving the middle finger not just to men but everything else, including themselves. Hole captured female angst, fear and depressed self-loathing better than any rock band ever.

Their music reflected this mix of external rage and internal inferiority-complex wounds. On the 1994 album “Live Through This,” the refrain of “Violet” screams “Go on, take everything,” leaving listeners to wonder whether Love is confronting a male tormentor or declaring herself deserving of his torment. The lulling yet haunting “Doll Parts” has a similarly ambiguously placed hurt.

It was 1998’s “Celebrity Skin,” however, that cemented Hole’s legacy. A handful of hits, including the title track’s graphic depiction of a girl headed to Hollywood, headlined an entire track list worthy of a “best of” compilation. To this day hits like “Awful” and the addiction-addled “Malibu” are both catchy and gripping—meaningful melodies that stick inside our heads.

13 Metallica

Metallica holds the mantel of most influential metal band. The band grabbed an underground head-banging movement and took it mainstream… then were criticized for being too mainstream. Ah, the perils of success.

And successful they were. Even as the grunge/alternative music revolution simmered, 1991’s self-titled album, also called the “Black Album,” showed heavier stuff still had a place with hits like “Sad But True,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” and “Enter Sandman,” whose intimidating riffs and lyrics became both soundtrack and nickname for the greatest relief pitcher in baseball history.^[6] Meanwhile, power ballads like “Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” displayed their lingering 80s roots and timeless songwriting bona fides.

Metal traditionalists will point to a softening of Metallica’s sound over the years, particularly on the underrated 1996 album “Load.” But earlier efforts like 1986’s “Master of Puppets” and the follow-up “And Justice for All” were sufficiently hard to place them atop the all-time metal music mountain.

12 R.E.M.

Like any groundbreaking band, the mainstream music world’s first reaction to R.E.M. was probably “What the hell is this?”

That was 1987, and an obscure band with a cryptic name (it stands for “Rapid Eye Movement”) had just answered hair metal and cheesy pop music with “Document,” whose two smash hits, “The One I Love” and “It’s the End of the World,” were unlike anything before them.

In the process, R.E.M. made alternative music far less, well, alternative. Like Pearl Jam, the band has an “anything goes” approach whose signature sound is noticeable only by the distinct voice of its lead singer, Michael Stipe.

Starting in the late 80s and continuing through the 90s, R.E.M. put together a string of hits rivaling any band over any stretch, with the exception of the Beatles. “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts,” “Stand,” What’s the Frequency Kenneth,” “Orange Crush,” “Shiny Happy People.”

Their songs became so ingrained in pop culture that the 1999 biopic “Man on the Moon,”^[7] about the life of legendary alt-comedian Andy Kaufman, is named after the band’s hit single of the same name – an acknowledgement that everyone not only knew the song but that it chronicled Kaufman. That level of societal saturation is rare indeed.

11 The Heartbreakers

The Heartbreakers hold the title of “best band no one knows by name.” Hint: It’s Tom Petty’s group.

The Heartbreakers make the cut despite several obstacles. First, they’re a traditional rock band whose peak success came when traditional rock really wasn’t too big; starting with their 1976 self-titled breakout album, which featured “American Girl,” through 1991’s “Into the Great Wide Open” (the last to gain significant mainstream airplay), the band persevered through disco, punk, 80s pop, metal, alternative and grunge despite having exactly nothing to do with any of them.

The second hurdle was Tom Petty. Not Tom Petty the extraordinarily talented songwriter; Tom Petty the below-average lead vocalist.

I’ll go ahead and say it: Tom Petty’s voice is annoying. It’s nasally and weird. But like Bob Dylan before him, the songs are so good it doesn’t matter. From “Free Fallin’” to “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” to “Learning to Fly,” the Heartbreakers flew through headwinds into music immortality.

The only downside of Petty’s genius? Politicians using “I Won’t Back Down” as their campaign theme song.^[8]

10 Led Zeppelin

All “best of” lists are subjective – in the eyes (or in this case, the ears) of the beholder. But sometimes certain items make a list simply because the writer would look silly otherwise.

I do not like Led Zeppelin; they simply aren’t my cup of tea. But unlike other huge bands that didn’t make this list – Kiss, the Eagles, Radiohead – I feel compelled to include Led Zeppelin. They are beloved and critically praised enough that I must recognize their genius regardless of my personal taste. For God’s sake, Rolling Stone literally has an article called “The 40 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time”.^[9] In the face or such rarified air, who am I to omit them?

Their playlist is undeniable – albeit, in my opinion, a bit played out. “Stairway to Heaven,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “Ramble On,” and “Gallows Pole” are all objectively terrific songs even if I subjectively never need to hear any of them again, ever. Oh, and naming your albums Roman Numerals is unoriginal and arrogant – there, I said it.

9 Guns N’ Roses

In justifying GNR’s appearance on this list, we need look no further than the band’s Greatest Hits album, which stacks up against any in rock history. In order: Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Patience, Paradise City, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Civil War, You Could Be Mine, Don’t You Cry, November Rain, Live and Let Die, Yesterdays, Ain’t It Fun, Since I Don’t Have You, Sympathy for the Devil.

Those songs alone let Guns N’ Roses snake dance^[10] onto the list, but let’s dig deeper. Despite its distinctly metal vibe, GNR’s legacy is driven by a lead singer with nearly unlimited range and a collective songwriting with completely unlimited range. Seamlessly, GNR pivoted from speed metal to power ballad to songs so soft that Cheryl Crow can cover them.^[11]

The band also holds an interesting distinction: At nearly nine minutes long, 1991’s “November Rain” is the longest song ever to break into the Billboard Top 10. The lilting, rolling piano ballad, interspersed with classic solos from lead guitarist Slash, became an airwaves mainstay for months.

8 The Go-Gos

The Go-Gos are the best all-female rock group of all time. They check a bunch of firsts and stand with some of the best.

When they burst onto the punk/new wave scene in the early 1980s, the Go-Gos were, unfortunately, somewhat of a novelty. The idea that an all-female rock band was both writing its own songs and playing its own instruments was new to mainstream music.

Novelty or no, the band’s debut album, “Beauty and the Beat,” became the first from an all-female group to top the Billboard charts on the strength of two smash hits, “We Got the Beat,” which peaked at #2 on US singles charts, and “Our Lips Are Sealed.”

Though the music stood for itself, the nascent music video business – pioneered by the then-fledgling MTV – played a significant role in catapulting the Go-Gos from hitmakers to superstars. As well as having the beat, the fivesome obviously had a look that young women emulated and young men salivated over. With “Vacation,” the title track and lead single of their second album, the Go-Gos proved they were no fluke, and their success continued with 1984’s “Talk Show,” featuring a trifecta of hits: Head over Heels,” “Turn to You” and “Yes or No.”

7 Marilyn Manson

When considering Marilyn Manson’s place in rock legend, close your eyes. Don’t look at the intentionally provocative, arguably Satanic imagery. Set aside the antagonistically gender-bending of its lead singer. Just listen.

Marilyn Manson is the N.W.A. of rock: people were too busy disparaging their look and their lyrics to fully appreciate their immense talent. A contemporary of theirs, Eminem, fell into the same overshadowing trap – and acknowledged that by featuring Manson in his video for The Way I Am.^[12] (“And they blame it on Marliyn/and the heroin/where were the parents at?)”

The group, of course, also brought vitriol upon themselves. In the aptly named “Irresponsible Hate Anthem,” Manson admits he “wasn’t born with enough middle fingers” on an album whose title, “Antichrist Superstar,” was a “f*ck you” unto itself.

But the music was fierce, unique and altogether outstanding. Despite going mainstream with, of all things, a cover of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams,” the band had hit-worthy tracks on albums throughout the 1990s, starting with 1991’s “Portrait of an American Family” (“Get Your Gunn,” “Cake and Sodomy”) through 1998’s Mechanical Animal (“Dope Show”).

Adding to the talent-muted-by-noise factor, 1996’s Antichrist Superstar was both Manson’s most controversial album and its best – the rare album where every track is “best hits” caliber.

6 The White Stripes

The White Stripes are the only band on this list from the 2000s. Along with contemporary acts like the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the band inhabits a rock subgenre called “garage rock revival” – basically a yearning for a back-to-basics approach in a post-alternative environment dominated by boy bands and hip hop.

It didn’t work. Rock died.^[13] But not before Jack and Meg White had something to say about it.

After two solid albums that failed to break through, “White Blood Cells” skyrocketed the band to stardom with “Fell in Love With a Girl.” Fans buying the album quickly realized that the remaining tracks, including oddball anthems like the twangy “Hotel Yorba” and mellow “We’re Going to Be Friends,” bore little resemblance to the breakout hit. It wasn’t what we expected, but it was… well, incredible.

That’s what the White Stripes are: a weird, nerdgasmic band who could also write mainstream megahits. “Seven Nation Army” and “Icky Thump” blended with “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” and “My Doorbell” for a run of unpredictably perfect albums.

5 Queen

If an absolutely awful biopic^[14] could disqualify a band from this list, Queen would not be on it. Luckily it can’t. because Queen’s combination of cultural influence, societal impact and songwriting ability rival any band in rock history.

That “bum bum-BUM!”^[15] sound you hear at every sporting event from the World Cup Finals to Little League baseball? That’s a Queen riff. And when one team is ultimately crowned the best, they play… a Queen song, “We Are the Champions.”

Queen is one of those bands good enough to outshine themselves, meaning their greatest hits were so great that the rest of their catalogue gets overlooked. When you bring the world “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Another One Bites the Dust” “Somebody to Love” and “I Want it All,” the songs that were just a little less remarkable – yet fantastic nonetheless – tend to stall in the background. Googling “Queen hit songs,” one inevitably comes across several terrific tracks that you either forgot Queen performed or forgot, period.

4 Aerosmith

Aerosmith is another band that checks too many boxes to be omitted from this list. A trippy, funky rock edge, versatile songwriting chops and a lead singer in Stephen Tyler with a distinct voice are all factors in them making the cut.

It is their staying power, however, that puts them over the edge. Aerosmith had big hits in three decades, and while having a few lull periods never really went away. Oddly considering the eventual smash hit “Dream On,” their eponymous debut album was recorded in 1973 but not widely received until 1975; in the interim, they released a second album, “Get Your Wings,” that received an equally lukewarm reception.

That all changed with 1975’s “Toys in the Attic.” The album’s breakout hits, “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion,” led to its earlier work being discovered and propelled Aerosmith to superstardom. Hits like “Rag Doll,” “Love in an Elevator,” “Janie’s Got a Gun,” and “Cryin’” kept Aerosmith relevant for decades, and the band even helped Run DMC go mainstream with a hip-hop remake of “Walk This Way.”^[16]

3 The Kinks

In 1964, while the Beatles were asking young ladies to hold their hands, the Kinks had higher aspirations. On the heels of their breakthrough hit “You Really Got Me,” from their self-titled debut album, “All Day and All of the Night” pushed the envelope of radio-permissible sexuality. And like Elvis before them, the reason the Kinks could push the envelope was because they were, quite simply, immensely talented.

Ahead of their time in both music and message, to this day the Kinks are one of the few bands that can get me to dance (poorly); they have a foot-tapping irresistibility that makes their double-album best hits compilation, “Come Dancing with the Kinks,” aptly named.

At the same time, many of their tracks exhibit a seething mockery of idyllic post-World War II Western life, with tracks like “Sunny Afternoon,” and my personal favorite, “A Well Respected Man,” dripping with sarcastic cultural critique. Other tracks, like “Tired of Waiting for You,” fall into a more traditional, “that’s just an incredible song” category indicative of rock legends.

2 Smashing Pumpkins

When considering the final 90s band on this list, it was between Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead. Billy Corgan’s group got the nod because, for all Radiohead’s hits, too much of their catalogue is filler that sounds similar to everything else they’ve done. The Pumpkins were decidedly more diverse and less risk-averse.

Cases in point: After breaking through with their second album – 1993’s “Siamese Dream,” featuring hits like “Cherub Rock,” Today” and the lulling “Disarm,” – most bands would be content to cement their stardom and avoid any accusation of flash-in-the-pan sophomoritis. The Pumpkins responded with a wildly ambitious 28-song double feature, “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness,” widely considered among the best rock albums in a decade loaded with them.

Mellon Collie displayed the bands unsurpassed range – a dichotomy spanning hard rock hits like “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” to the mesmerizing, violin-laden “Tonight, Tonight” (LINK 25) and the loopy, new wave-ish “1979.”

And then? Something entirely different. “Adore,” coldly received^[17] as an abrupt departure from the Pumpkin’s successful recipe, was a dark, slow library of absolutely brilliant songs, proving that the group would and could do pretty much anything they wanted.

1 U2

As we’re running long on word count, it’s tempting to just write “they made ‘Joshua Tree’” and cease typing immediately. But U2 was and is so much more than that, even if I don’t want their worst album free with my apple device,^[18] thank you very much.

All digital disasters aside, it’s hard to find something inventive to say about U2. They’re simply a great traditional rock band that recorded some of the best rock music ever. Even before “Joshua Tree,” 1984’s “The Unforgettable Fire” featured “Pride (In the Name of Love)”; after it, “Achtung Baby” brought “One” and “Mysterious Ways,” and 1993’s “Zooropa” successfully changed up the pace with “Lemon” and the rappy “Numb.”

And all that was before 2000’s “Beautiful Day,” a blockbuster hit even as the band entered its third decade and N’ Sync poisoned the airwaves. U2 wrote classic rock songs that would have been hits in any decade – a calling card of rock immortality.

When rock art is a little strange, things get interesting. Ranging from the controversial to the paranormal, some aren’t what they appear to be, while others remain downright inexplicable. More and more, ancient paintings and carvings are revealing the behaviors and obsessions of long-gone cultures and, incredibly, even genetic mysteries from prehistoric times.

10 Neolithic Nativity Scene

In 2005, geologists made a discovery that belongs to the Neolithic or Paleolithic era but is still very recognizable today. While in a small cave in the Sahara Desert in Egypt, somebody looked up, and on the ceiling sat an apparent nativity scene. It certainly doesn’t show the baby Jesus. The painting is 3,000 years older than the famous Christmas spread, but the elements are there.

A newborn infant is raised, as if important and valued, between its parents. Two animals and a star in the east complete the picture. The animals aren’t domestic barnyard types, either. One is a baboon-like creature, and the other a lion missing its head. Researchers are intrigued by the meaning of the dark red ocher creation. No nativity scenes were known to have existed before the early Christian age.

9 The Sudan Sites

In Sudan, 15 sites with ancient rock art confused archaeologists upon their discovery in 2011. The desert valley of Wadi Abu Dom is etched with carvings, from single images to almost 30 at different places. The collection grew over time and was added to by different artists. Those chiseled around 1,500 years ago fit with when Christianity arrived in Sudan: crosses, a church, and what might even be St. George on his horse. The 3,000-year-old pieces contain well-drawn cattle.

The batch aged 5,000 years mystifies code-crackers. The art is simply unexplainable. There are spirals coiled so precisely that some theorize them to be an early mathematical notion. Another type is geometric but lacks any recognizable form and is patterned like a fishing net. Archaeologists also found “rock gongs.” When hit with a smaller stone, they emit clear sounds that can travel quite a distance. Of unknown age, they may have been signaling devices.

8 Tiny Hands

In the Sahara, the Cave of the Beasts was named for the weird, headless beings painted on its walls. Discovered in 2002, the decapitated creatures weren’t what drew attention, but 13 baby handprints were. Some sat inside the handprints of adults. This nurturing scene melted hearts until one anthropologist noticed that the infant hands weren’t proportionally correct. The 8,000-year-old imprints were even tinier than premature newborns. The fingers were also abnormally long. They couldn’t have been human.

Analysis proved that they came from an animal, probably the front paw of a desert monitor lizard. Added at the same time as the hands, the same pigment was used for both. The reason behind this relationship remains a mystery, but it appears to have been a close one. Apart from being found inside people’s prints, the paws were also found arranged in friezes, a design usually made by human hands.

7 The Venus Of Hohle Fels

She’s a different sort of cave art: an ivory statue. The Venus of Hohle Fels was found in a German cave of the same name. The figure is a nude female without arms or a head. It’s been called “prehistoric porn,” and at 40,000 years old, it’s also the oldest human sculpture.

The hand-sized lady renewed a debate about the meaning of animal statuettes previously exhumed from Hohle Fels and neighboring caves. Some argue these were talismans to attract certain game, but they don’t match the bones found on-site. Long-ago locals ate hoofed animals, but most statues were of predators. One half-man, half-lion could be a copy of a shaman’s vision. The Venus might represent prehistoric beauty and health, but perhaps the carver just wanted a naked doll. Most scholars agree it’s nearly impossible to prove what the statuettes were for.

6 The Scottish Swirls

The Cochno Stone is a mysterious rock found in Scotland. Somebody did some serious decorating on this slab, including geometric swirls known as cup and ring marks. While not unique, the stone ranks among the best examples of such spirals in Europe. The Glasgow artifact was dug up in 1887, but above the ground wasn’t the best place for it. Something that measures 13 meters (43 ft) by 8 meters (26 ft) and carries funny markings is bound to attract attention.

By 1965, vandals and weather had done their damage. An archaeologist attempting to prove the swirls were an eclipse forecast left enough paint lines on the surface to make any sensible conservationist weep. For protection, the stone was reburied.

In 2016, the 5,000-year-old slab was unearthed, scanned, and photographed for better study before being returned to the Earth once more. The message on the Cochno Stone, if there is a message, remains a mystery.

5 Special Toes

When it comes to extremities, hands don’t get all the glory. A thousand years ago, feet were revered by a Pueblo culture that lived in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Want to honor your walls? Forget about buying a Picasso. The Chacos plastered feet and sandals all over. This community had a special physical trait: polydactyly, which is when hands or feet have an extra digit. Not everybody had an additional toe, but the Chacos had the highest percentage of any ethnic group, based on a study of over 90 Chaco skeletons.

Chaco art revealed the true depth of their respect for polydactyly. Sandals were everywhere, from real ones to shoe-shaped stones to prints against walls and floors. On some, researchers noticed adjustments to make an extra tootsie comfortable. Bare feet and hands also appeared, but those with more digits were positioned more often near the entrances of important rooms.

4 Acoustic Art

A 2014 study determined a remarkable link between prehistoric doodles and sound. Such art is more likely to be found at locations with a tendency to echo loudly. Additionally, many depict scenes connected with thunderous sounds. In Europe, India, and Indonesia, hoofed herds in full charge adorn caves where resonance can get rowdy. Where echoes carry in North America, sometimes there are Thunderbirds. The creature’s beating wings are said to be where thunder comes from.

Even when researchers investigated places known for booming echoes but with no known drawings, they were rewarded with several discoveries of brand new rock art. It’s feasible that prehistoric humans, not fully understanding the nature of echoes, saw them as manifestations of something sacred. An old myth from the Canadian Shield interestingly connects a rock spirit, the Memegwashio, to both cave art and echoes.

3 The Higgs Bison

The Higgs bison represents one of the few times when science received backup from cave paintings. After testing ancient bison DNA, the results were odd. Unexpectedly, the DNA wasn’t a close match with modern European bison. Instead, a mysterious ancestor was hinted at, one researchers dubbed the “Higgs bison.” Like the infamous Higgs boson, they suspected but couldn’t prove its existence.

The tests delivered another zinger: the Higgs bison was a hybrid. Two bovine groups roamed ancient Europe: aurochs and the Steppe bison. Around 120,000 years ago, something rare happened. The two distinct mammals species produced fertile offspring that led to an entirely new species.

Incredibly, this evolution was captured in French and Spanish Ice Age art. Paintings older than 18,000 years show long-horned, powerfully built animals resembling the American bison, a Steppe bison offshoot. Horns and humps diminished with younger art, resembling today’s European bison.

2 The Charama Aliens

Indian archaeologists were throwing around the words “UFOs” and “aliens” after looking inside a cave in 2014. In the rural village of Charama in Chhattisgarh, residents are very familiar with the 10,000-year-old paintings. Their ancestors told of a legend wherein the so-called Rohela people would come to the village. These small people would land in a round object and welcome a few villagers aboard before flying off again. In the past, the tribal people of Charama even worshiped the paintings.

Done in colors that archaeologists claim remain fresh-looking despite being prehistoric, the images show humanoids dressed like spacemen and holding what could be weapons. The creatures are lithe, somewhat orange, and lack any noticeable mouths and noses. The alleged UFO image shows a disk-type object with three legs and what local archaeologists describe as a “fan-like antenna.”

1 Neanderthal Enigma

In Spain, an underground cave is making waves. On the walls of El Castillo are painted dots and hand stencils. The reddish creations are over 40,800 years old, making them the oldest known cave art. They might not even have made by humans. During the time of the art’s creation, the cave was a Neanderthal neighborhood, making it possible that they created the historic marks.

Neanderthals are seen as a separate hominid species, but this art could reclassify them as a race of humans instead. Scientific doubts over whether Neanderthals could even create art, let alone symbols, are being challenged by previous discoveries at Neanderthal sites such as pigment, beads, sculptures, and decorated bones. The way they progressed culturally was the same as Homo sapiens, a strong indicator that Neanderthals were also human and not another hominid species.

It takes a unique soul to become an artist. Some have it, some don’t. But with any artist, sometimes a creative mind can be a burden and drive them into some pretty dark places. Substance abuse and outright violence are common issues, especially with musicians. A study conducted on popular musicians from 1956 to 2006 showed that the median age of death in North America was only 45.2 years. Needless to say, these ten real-life scenarios of pure insanity are listed from simply felonious to outright brutal and murderous. Rock on, lunatics!

Top 10 Musicians Who Sold Their Soul To The Devil

10 The Theft of Jim Morrison’s Headstone (May 9th, 1988)

Even though he only lived there for six months before his mysterious death, Jim Douglas Morrison is buried in Paris’ legendary Napoléon-built, Père-Lachaise necropolis in division 6. In 1981, for the tenth anniversary of his death, Croatian Mladen Mikulin placed a 280 pound (127 kilo) sculpture of the singer’s bust on his grave. Even in death, The Lizard King drove French authorities insane as his grave (which is the same hallowed ground that holds Édith Piaf and Oscar Wilde) became the hottest spot to throw a Black Mass or have an orgy with prostitutes. On May 9th, 1988 it was stolen in the middle of the night by two self-professed “fans” on a motorbike. They even gave an anonymous interview gloating about the theft and posing for photos with the bust. In the early 90’s, the Morrison family placed their own rectangular head stone with a Greek inscription that means “True to His Own Spirit”. The gravesite is now heavily policed and surveilled, with up to 300 riot police on-call in case of any further incidents. There is currently a petition to allow Mikulin to place an already cast replacement on the gravesite. Rest well, sweet prince.^[1]

9 That Time Grace Slick Tried to Drug Nixon With LSD (April 1970)

Yes, you read that right. Grace Slick, legendary singer from the most rebellious and groovy band of the era, Jefferson Airplane, received an invitation to the White House and immediately concocted her plan. With a 600mg tab of LSD hidden under her long finger nail, she planned to strike up a conversation with Nixon and try to casually drop it into his drink. The plan was doomed from the very start as it wasn’t actually the president who invited Slick, it was his daughter, Tricia (both her and Slick attended Finch woman’s college in New York City). As it was an alumni party, she had no chance to get near Nixon. Another mistake was bringing hippie prankster and activist Abbie Hoffman with her. Hoffman was a tour-de-force antagonist and too disobedient to go undercover. Even with a crisp suit and his hippie frock slicked-back, he immediately got into an argument with the secret service as Slick badly stuck-out amongst the preppy and brightly dressed women all adorning pageboy hairstyles. Demanding that he was Slick’s bodyguard, he was abruptly turned away from the entrance. Walking past the White House gate, he quickly pulled a marijuana-leaf “Yippie” flag and hung it up (it was taken down almost immediately). Slick was busted too, but ran to Hoffman and both were quickly driven away by another Jefferson Airplane bandmate. Ambitious plan, terribly executed.^[2]

8 Billy Idol VS. The Thai Military (1989)

Billy Idol is straight-up one of those “un-killable” rock stars. With 19 overdoses and 7 flat-lines under his belt, Idol lived so fast he almost was killed by the Thai military as they forcefully evicted him from a Thai hotel. In 1989, he flew with Michael Jackson and a man named Bubbles to Thailand for a perverse drug-fueled weekend. Jackson, according the Idol himself, disappeared to engage in the ripe “Ladyboy” scene that Bangkok is notorious for as Idol dedicated his time to drugs in his room at the Orient Hotel. Things go so out hand, Idol racked up a $250,000 bill ($140,000 of it in damages alone) in three weeks and Thai Military officials needed to be called as he was formidably holed-up in his room. Forcibly subdued, they strapped both Idol and Bubbles to stretchers and they endured the 14 hour flight back to the states in the luggage hold as they still had not calmed down. Idol admits that this incident made him think of his kids and has been sober since. It takes A LOT to have the military called on you in notoriously rambunctious Bangkok, but Idol managed to do it and survive the ordeal.^[3]

7 James Brown, PCP, And A Shotgun (September 24th, 1988)

James Brown is a flat-out force of nature. The Hardest Working Man in Show Business had an office in Georgia near an insurance office holding a quiet seminar. Brown, who was horribly addicted to PCP at the time, grabbed his pump shotgun and burst into the seminar, high as a kite, and started accusing the mortified onlookers of using his office’s restroom. Police quickly arrived at the scene when Brown hopped into his car with his wife and took off (his wife was also addicted to PCP and once stabbed a woman in the butt thinking she slept with her husband). Brown wildly drove around a V-shaped police barricade, which then prompted him to pull into a parking lot where two detectives fired 17 rounds into the car, almost hitting the gas tank. They then shot out his tires and tried to rip him out of the vehicle through a broken window when he then proceeded to drive across the Savannah River and another 6 miles on only his rims. Brown, who at this point had an army of cops on his tail, finally junked his bullet-ridden vehicle in Augusta and was apprehended. In jail he would have his teeth implants knocked out. Shockingly he only served two years in jail but in 1998 he was arrested for basically the exact same type of charges. Brown claims this was all fabricated and that the cops were intentionally trying to kill him. It should be noted that the FBI file was kept secret for 18 years.^[4]

6 The “Suicide” of Kurt Cobain (April, 8th 1994)

A few days before Kurt Cobain’s death he smoked a cigarette outside of a California rehab facility and proceeded to climb a brick wall and escape, making his flight back to Seattle before Courtney Love could cancel his credit cards. At this point, his team was constantly supervising him after a botched suicide attempt (which was flagrantly denied) in Rome, where he downed 50 pills of rohypnol (roofies). The story goes that Cobain shot himself up with the last of his heroin and shot himself with a shotgun in the head. Now the strangeness begins, as the suicide note was actually a draft of something Cobain had been working on for a while as a break-up letter that was intended for his band. Cobain was done with grunge and was actually going to collaborate with Michael Stipe of REM before his death. The theory goes that Courtney had tried to hire punk singer El Duce (who was interviewed in Kurt & Courtney but was killed by a train two days after being filmed) for $50,000. When he refused, Love hired a private detective to find him after his rehab breakout and they figured out a more ingenious way to kill Cobain. Forensically speaking, Cobain did have too much heroin in his body to lift a heavy shotgun and get the round off. Also, his suicide note is brashly finished up in blatantly different handwriting. Love has said that she would “follow Cobain through hell” and although she tried to cease and desist multiple documentaries about the “suicide” it is thought she never moves forward as she doesn’t want the truth to come to light. The park across the street from Cobain’s last residence is an unofficial memorial to the late singer.^[5]

Top 10 Truly Disturbing Classical Pieces

5 Teen Stabbed During a Rolling Stone Performance (December 6th, 1969)

Meredith Hunter was your average 18 year-old with a touch of rebellion and adventure, as he had just started to wet his appetite with live concerts and festivals. Hunter grew up in Berkeley and was very progressive, and as a young African American man in the late 1960’s, he was still quite naïve about the aggressive racism that lied on the fringes of Alameda County. Ignoring his sister’s advice, Hunter borrowed his mother’s boyfriend’s 1965Mustang and the dashing 6’2” music fan drove towards the free festival with his white girlfriend, Patti Bredehoft, and a .22 revolver for protection. The arriving attendants were unaware that the Hells Angels motorcycle gang were hired as event security for only $500 worth of beer. The event took a while to get started and it was actually the Hells Angels who started riling up the crowd. Hunter, at some point, thought the whole event was a drag and consumed some methamphetamine. This was when, against the wished from his girlfriend, he scaled one of the speaker boxes to get a better view as the event quickly turned into chaos. Just as the Rolling Stones finally took the stage, it happened very quickly. Hunter was dragged off the speakers by two Angels and beaten. Instead of leaving, he turned back to the stage for more and when he was surrounded by a group of Angels, he pulled out his revolver. Footage from a news camera possibly shows a flash, but no bikers were hurt. Hunter died right there at the Alameda Speedway awaiting a helicopter, succumbing to 6 stab wounds, a severely broken nose, and multiple head and torso wounds. The craziest thing about all of this is barely anyone, from performers to the crowd, had any idea a man was killed. Hunter was buried in an unmarked grave for decades until a tombstone was finally placed.^[6]

4 The Death of Elliott Smith (October 21st, 2003)

Elliott Smith was an Oscar-nominated musical genius that could exude despair and sadness like no other. A whirlwind of a personality, Smith suffered with substance abuse and mental illness for years. At the end of his Figure 8 Tour, Smith started using heroin. It got so bad that it was rumored he would smoke about $1,500 a day in crack and heroin. Failing a project with Jon Brion for DreamWorks Records, he became deranged and lashed out at executives trying to find out why he was hell-bent on his own sabotage. He even threatened to kill himself if they didn’t cut him from his contract with the studio. Distancing himself from friends and loved ones, he became sickly and paranoid of the record label, thinking they were following him constantly in a white van. On the day of his death, his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba who he lived with and was used to relentless suicide threats from Smith, called 911 at 12:18PM. Her side of the story says they got into a fight and Smith disappeared into another room. When she came in to check on him he was standing silently facing the wall, as he turned to Chiba he exposed his chest wounds with a kitchen knife sticking out. As terrifying as it is to think of plunging a kitchen knife, twice, into your own chest, Smith had been spotted with self-inflicted wounds in the same torso area before. It should be mentioned that Chiba acknowledged in her statement that they both were in the midst of a massive fight. The coroner could also not determine if the wounds were self-inflicted. And although Smith was a very unique individual, statistically only 2% of suicides are by stabbing. An extremely sad end for a man I don’t think wanted to get better.^[7]

3 Literally, Death Metal (April 29th, 1993)

How can you write about insanity in music and not mention death metal? In 1992, teen Hendrik Möbus founded the band Absurd and was one of the first right-wing extremist death metal bands. In 1993 one of his bandmates, the 17 year-old Sebastian Schauseil, was having an intimate relationship with an older married woman. A 15 year-old boy named Sandro Beyer was privy to this poisonous information and got a bit cocky with it, spreading rumors and basically blowing-up Schauseil’s spot. Well, the 17 year-old death metal musicians decided to take things into their own hands. They invited Beyer to a campfire in the woods and wound up strangling the young boy with an electrical cord. As Beyer ceased to live, bandmate Andreas Kirchner famously quipped “Oh s***… now I’ve completely ruined my life.” All of the musicians were released in 1998 because they were technically minors when they murdered Beyer. Möbus would have a long history post-prison being either assaulted or having his property destroyed by anti-fascists. He almost started a riot at a metal concert in 2019 for handing out nazi propaganda. He also was rearrested years later for a hammer attack on an American national socialist who was actually putting Möbus up with money and place to sleep. The band still exists, just without a single original member.^[8]

2 Sid Murders Nancy (October 12th, 1978)

John Simon Ritchie, famously known as Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, was the purest form of rock and roller. Addicted to drugs, vibrantly insane, and famously useless with a bass guitar; he simply brought attitude to the table and couldn’t care what anybody else thought. Nancy Spungen was born to a middle class Jewish family in Pennsylvania, but things became identifiably clear that she had issues. Diagnosed with schizophrenia at 15, she wound up getting kicked out of school at 17 and moved to London (supposedly to hunt down Jerry Nolan of The Dolls), and settled with The Sex Pistols where she honed in on Sid. I don’t think Johnny Rotten wouldn’t have been her type as he didn’t drink or do drugs. Sid and Nancy would go on to have an extremely tumultuous and legendary 19-month relationship that ended with Spungen being found dead with a single abdomen knife-wound on the bathroom floor of their room in the Hotel Chelsea. Out on bail, Sid Vicious himself would be found dead four months later before he could go to trial. The NYPD closed the case, but punk-rock historian Phil Strongman believes that stand-up comedian and actor Rockets Redglare actually killed Spungen in a drug-deal gone wrong. Redglare’s personal friends also have spoken about how he would get massively intoxicated and “confess” to the murder to a shocked audience. Honestly, Gary Oldman as Vicious in the 1986 film (of the same topic) is his best role. Every music fan should see Sid & Nancy.^[9]

1 The Murder of Dimebag Darrell (December 8th, 2004)

Darrell Lance Abbott was one of the founding members of Pantera and Damageplan and is considered one of the godfathers of death metal and was a world-renowned guitarist. Dimebag Darrell was simply there to perform that Wednesday evening in Ohio and entertain his 200+ fans when 25 year-old Nathan Gale walked onto the stage and fired several close-up shots into the legendary guitarist’s torso, killing him instantly. Gale then began to cowardly fire into the audience, killing three more individuals including venue staff and a bodyguard. This is at the top of the list as it was during a live performance and shooting spiraled into a savage hostage situation when luckily patrol officer James Niggemeyer overheard the 15 rounds going off at 10:18 PM. By 10:20 PM Niggemeyer had snuck into the venue through a side door and saw Gale holding a hostage in a headlock about to kill again. That’s when the patrol officer took out Gale in one perfectly aimed shot with his shotgun. In the footage of the chaos, a body guard says “You had to do it” to an absolutely stone-cold Niggemeyer who was still holding his rifle in hand. No one truly knows what Gale’s intentions were. Darrell was so beloved by fans, that as his body lay on the stage bleeding profusely, fans held his hands and feet with several trying, in vain, to give him CPR. RIP Dimebag Darrell, and as Rob Zombie was quoted after the shooting “I’m speechless.”^[10]

Top 10 Iconic Moments From The History Of Music

It is widely accepted that “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston And His Delta Cats was the first ever rock ‘n’ roll song. However, many rock fans are not on board with this, as they feel that “That’s All Right, Mama” by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup should receive the honor of being the first-ever rock ‘n’ roll tune. Other candidates include “Good Rockin’ Tonight” by Wynonie Harris and “Saturday Night Fish Fry” by Louis Jordan & The Tympay Five.

Rock ‘n’ roll has come a long way since those early songs and there have been many memorable rock moments over the years. On this list are just a handful of people who contributed greatly to rock music and will continue to be remembered in generations to come.

Top 20 Best Rock Bands Of All Time

10 “Ooh! My Head” – Ritchie Valens

Richard Steven Valenzuela became the first Hispanic rock star while he was still in high school. He was signed in 1958 by Del-Fi Records which was a small record label owned by Bob Keane. Richard soon changed his name to Ritchie Valens to be different from the ‘bunch of Richards around at that time.’ Valens recorded many hit songs, the most notably of which were “Donna” and “La Bamba” and his career became so demanding that he dropped out of high school.

Valens appeared in the 1959 film “Go, Johnny Go” in which he performed “Ooh! My Head.” The movie also featured Chuck Berry, Jimmy Clanton, and Alan Freed and was Valens’ sole movie appearance. Shortly after filming Valens died in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. He was only 17 years old.

9 “Sweet Little Sixteen” – Chuck Berry

While Ritchie Valens was considered a pioneer of the Chicano rock movement, Chuck Berry was nicknamed the “Father of Rock and Roll” after developing rhythm and blues into the distinctive sound of rock music. Even though Berry had several run-ins with the law and served time in prison, he overcame his troubled past to become one of the greatest rock artists of all time and was one of the first musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, James Brown and more.

Berry appeared in the film, Jazz on a Summer’s Day, which was released in 1959. In it, he performed the song “Sweet Little Sixteen.” This excellent performance inspired Keith Richards to pursue a career as a rock star, after seeing the film as a teenager.^[1]

8 “Runaway” – Del Shannon

“Runaway” was one of the most popular songs recorded by Charles Weedon Westover, better known as Del Shannon, in 1961. Shannon was popular in the UK and became the first American singer to record a cover version of a Beatles song, “From Me to You, which charted in America before the Beatles version did.

Shannon eventually re-recorded “Runaway” for the NBC show Crime Story and enjoyed renewed popularity. Unfortunately, Shannon suffered from alcoholism and depression and he took his own life on 8 February 1990. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

7 “Barracuda” – Heart

Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart performed an electric version of their song “Barracuda” at Cal Jam 2 in 1978. Ann later revealed that the song was written out of the anger that she and Nancy felt towards Mushroom Records after the recording label released a fake story about an incestuous relationship between the two sisters.

The song was named “34th Best Hard Rock Song of All Time” by VH1 in 2009 and features on a multitude of compilation albums.

6 “Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas

“Carry On Wayward Son” is instantly recognizable not only because of Supernatural and South Park, but because of the excellent intro especially when played live. Rock band, Kansas, recorded the song in 1977 and it was certified gold in 1990. Today, the song is certified quadruple platinum.

After releasing three successful albums by 1976, Kansas had yet to come up with a song that would get radio airplay. And they desperately needed one after all the big bands at the time became wary of Kansas opening for them as the band was a tough act to follow. After writing seven songs, chief songwriter Kerry Livgren brought in a last-minute idea. As soon as the rest of the band heard “Carry On Wayward Son” they knew they had something special. It soon became the hit they needed.

10 Groupies That Majorly Impacted The History Of Rock ‘N’ Roll

5 “I’ll Stand By You” – The Pretenders

In 1978 Chrissie Hynde founded the rock band, The Pretenders. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 after producing a number of hits including “Brass in Pocket”, “Back on the Chain Gang”, “Don’t Get Me Wrong” and the hugely popular “I’ll Stand By You.” This song was covered by many artists over the years and Noel Gallagher famously said, “he wished he’d written it.” “I’ll Stand By You” was written by Chrissie Hynde and released in 1994. The band performed the song live at Glastonbury that same year.

4 “Paranoid Android” – Radiohead

Radiohead also played at the Glastonbury Festival in 1997 and their performance was credited with helping to rescue the then flailing event. It had been raining heavily for weeks leading up to the festival leaving the grounds where it was to take place soggy and muddy. One of the stages began to sink into a pool of mud, and Neil Young as well as Steve Winwood dropped out of the festival. Things were truly looking bleak. Then Thom Yorke and company took to the stage and what followed was one of the most memorable rock performances of the 90s.^[2]

3 “Zombie” – The Cranberries

It is hard to imagine the 90s without hearing Dolores O’Riordan over the radio or picturing her smashing it at a live concert with The Cranberries. By 2019 the band had sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide. Tragically, O’Riordan was found dead in a London hotel room the year before and the remaining members confirmed that their final album that was to be released in April 2019 would be their last as they didn’t want to continue without her.

One of The Cranberries most iconic songs was released in 1993 and even though multiple great covers have been done of “Zombie”, nothing compares to O’Riordan singing it live with her incredible voice.

2 “Lightning Crashes” – Live

Live released “Lightning Crashes” in September 1994 and even though it wasn’t released as a single in the US, it was played on the radio so often that it peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1995. The song was dedicated to a long-time friend of the band, 19-year-old Barbara Lewis, who died after being hit by a drunk driver in 1993.

Record executives told the band that the song would never become a single because it was too long. However, it became one of Live’s biggest hits after its debut at Woodstock ’94 and constant airplay on MTV. The band performed it live many times, including at Pinkpop, Holland in 1997, which has been hailed as one of their best live performances.

1 “Last Kiss” – Pearl Jam

Wayne Cochran released “Last Kiss” in 1961 but it wasn’t a success on the charts at the time. The song was recorded by other artists including J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, and Wednesday, and became enormously popular once recorded by rock band, Pearl Jam. “Last Kiss” also became the band’s highest charting single in both Canada and the US. The cover was released as a single in 1999 and the proceeds went to assist the refugees of the Kosovo War. The song earned around $10 million in relief aid.

Eddie Vedder performed the song live in San Francisco in 2006, while standing in the crowd who were singing along at the top of their lungs.

+ The Sound of Silence – Disturbed

Paul Simon wrote “The Sounds of Silence” while living with his parents in 1963. He would sit and play his guitar in the bathroom with the faucet turned on and came up with the words to what would turn out to be a massive hit song for Simon & Garfunkel, eventually. The song attracted airplay in 1965 and producer, Tom Wilson, remixed the track. The remix was released in September 1965 and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1966. Renamed “The Sound of Silence” the song was named the 18th most-performed song of the 20th century in 1999.

Simon & Garfunkel were a folk-rock duo and “The Sound of Silence” has been covered by artists in many genres of music. The most recognizable cover however came from heavy metal band, Disturbed. Paul Simon sent the frontman of Disturbed, David Draiman, an email in 2016 praising his performance to which Draiman responded “… your compliment means the world to me/us and we are eternally grateful.”

Disturbed performed the song live in Houston in 2016 alongside Myles Kennedy, frontman of rock band Alter Bridge which made for an extremely memorable music moment.

10 Rocking Facts About Bands From The Golden Age Of Music

Dozens of cover songs flood radio stations every year. Sometimes cover versions happen on the spur of the moment during a live concert and other times covers are thoughtfully put together with the hopes of either reviving a band’s popularity or in tribute after the original singers pass away.

Many cover songs have been recorded in different genres to the delight of fans worldwide. These include “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails covered by Johnny Cash, “Red Red Wine” by Neil Diamond covered by UB40, and “Higher Ground” by Stevie Wonder covered by Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

That being said, rock covers of well-known songs are immensely popular. On this list are just a few of the songs that have gotten the rock treatment over the years.

15 Brilliant Videogame Music Tracks

10 “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” – Creedence Clearwater Revival

“I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was written in 1966 and first released in 1967 after which it went to number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. When Marvin Gaye recorded and released it as a single in 1968, it went to the top of that same chart and stayed there for seven weeks. Gaye’s version was eventually included in the Rolling Stone list of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ and covered by several artists.
Creedence Clearwater Revival also got in on the action in 1970 and recorded an 11-minute version of the song for their Cosmo’s Factory album. In this video, they’re performing the song live and putting their unique CCR spin on it.

9 “Heartbreak Hotel” – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton wrote “Heartbreak Hotel” with some input from Elvis Presley. Presley recorded the song in 1956 after which it was released as a single that topped several charts for several weeks. It became one of the best-selling singles of 1956 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1995.
The song, believed to be about a man who committed suicide by jumping from a hotel window, was covered in spectacular fashion by rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, during a tour performance in Atlanta in the early 90s.

8 “The Man Who Sold The World” – Nirvana

David Bowie was one of the most influential music artists of the 20th century. He was known for his dramatic flair and expressed himself through numerous alter egos including Ziggy Stardust. Bowie sold over 100 million records worldwide and received several awards including 6 Grammys. The star died on 10 January 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his last album, Blackstar.

Kurt Cobain was the legendary frontman of Nirvana and his influence lives on in modern music. Cobain has been credited with forcing music to evolve and he inspired many songs after his tragic death. In 1993, Nirvana covered David Bowie’s song “The Man Who Sold The World” during a performance on MTV Unplugged.

Nirvana went on to perform the song a further 30 times during their final world tour.

7 “Tiny Dancer” – Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl was the drummer for Nirvana and became the founder of rock band, Foo Fighters, after Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994. The Foo Fighters went on to win 12 Grammys and a host of other awards. Grohl credited Cobain as being an influence on his songwriting saying “Through Kurt, I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that’s stripped down.”

In this video Grohl covered “Tiny Dancer”, a hugely popular song by the legend that is Elton John, on the David Letterman show.

6 “(Oh) Pretty Woman” – Van Halen

In 1982, Van Halen decided to cover a song by Roy Orbison, “Pretty Woman”, to buy themselves some time to work on their new album. It was going to be a stand-alone song to tide their fans over in the meantime. The band also filmed a bizarre music video for the song, which MTV initially refused to air. The cover song was a huge hit however, and the band’s record label demanded that they release a new album asap. The result was the Diver Down album, which contained a mix of covers and originals. On this video, Van Halen performed “Pretty Woman” live, the way only they could.

5 “Stand By Me”– U2 / Bruce Springsteen

Ben E. King wrote “Stand By Me” and first performed it in 1961. The song became an instant classic and was used on the soundtrack of the 1986 film of the same name. Over the years more than 400 artists covered the song, including John Lennon, Tracy Chapman, Ike and Tina Turner and Meat Loaf.

In 1987, Bono from U2 dislocated his shoulder after he slipped and fell on a wet stage during a performance. This prevented him from playing the guitar for the remainder of the US tour the band was on at the time. Towards the end of their set at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on 25th September 1987, Bono looked on as a roadie set up a second microphone stand on the stage before he asked the crowd: “…Would Bruce Springsteen like to play my guitar?” When Springsteen came into view, the crowd went wild. Even more so when Bono and Springsteen proceeded to do an awesome cover of “Stand By Me.”

4 “I Feel Love” – Red Hot Chilli Peppers

“I Feel Love” by Donna Summer has been credited as being one of the most influential records ever made and was extremely popular during the disco era. Summer recorded the song in a single take and the result was an awesome dance tune that influenced great artists such as David Bowie and Blondie and was covered by, among many others, Sam Smith.

In 2004, Red Hot Chilli Peppers covered the song complete with unique dance moves and an excellent falsetto done by John Frusciante.

3 “Faith” – Limp Bizkit

Rap rock band, Limp Bizkit’s angry-sounding music was a big deal in the late 90s and early 2000s. After Woodstock ’99 the band became the centre of controversy when they were blamed for riots, fires and assaults that broke out during their set. Their popularity continued however, and the band won several awards between 2000 and 2003.
Long before the drama however, Limp Bizkit made the decision to cover George Michael’s “Faith” in their live performances starting in 1997. Fred Durst told Billboard afterwards “I love George Michael and decided to cover “Faith” for fun. We like to do really aggressive versions of cheesy pop hits.”

Guitarist, Wes Borland, stated at one point that George Michael hated Limp Bizkit’s cover and also hated the band for doing it.

2 “Rolling In The Deep” – Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory is one of the most popular albums in the world. Linkin Park achieved international fame with this album which was released in 2000. For their subsequent albums, Chester Bennington and his bandmates experimented with pop, electronic and heavy rock sounds, which further cemented their success. Fans were shattered in 2017 when the news broke that Bennington had taken his own life, and the band went on a long hiatus before announcing in 2020 that they were working on new songs.

During happier times though, Linkin Park delighted fans in 2011 during the iTunes Festival when they covered “Rolling In The Deep” by Adele. Chester Bennington’s vocals were flawless throughout, and the video of this fantastic performance have garnered almost 50 million views on YouTube.

1 “Nothing Compares 2 U” – Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell was the lead vocalist and guitarist for Soundgarden and Audioslave and he also had a famed solo career. His vocal abilities were outstanding as he possessed a nearly four-octave vocal range and he put it to good use when compiling his extensive musical catalog. Cornell was another great talent lost to suicide on 18 May 2017. He and Chester Bennington were close friends and Bennington performed a moving rendition of “Hallelujah” at Cornell’s funeral. Bennington committed suicide two months later on what would have been Cornell’s birthday, 20 July 2017.

Before Cornell’s tragic death, he gave the world many memorable performances, some of which included covers of several songs including “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles and “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson.

In 2015, he sang an intense version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Prince version) during a live performance at SiriusXM.

+ Dirty Diana

On a bit of a lighter note, and since there are no female rock singers on this list, here is a video of rock band, Evanescence, doing their version of “Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson. Evanescence was founded in 1995 by lead singer Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. The band became famous for their hit songs “Bring Me to Life” and “My Immortal” that appeared on their first album, Fallen. That album sold more than 17 million copies. After a hiatus that stretched from 2012 to 2015, the band started touring again and their new (fifth) album is expected in March 2021.

10 Strange Collaborations In Music

Rock music has been, well, rocking audiences for a long time. Rock stars make magic with musical instruments and their voices and the combination never gets old. There is a genre of rock for just about everyone including alternative rock, rock ‘n roll, country rock, glam rock, folk rock, pop rock, hard rock, heavy metal and many more.

A lot of songs from these different rock genres were huge hits back when they were first released and they remain popular to this day. On this list are just some of the rock tunes still pumping up the party in 2021.

Top 10 Performances In Rock Music History

10 “Should I Stay or Should I Go” – The Clash

On March 9, 1991 English rock band The Clash scored their only U.K. Number 1 single with the catchy “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” The track was originally released in 1982 but gained renewed popularity after it was used in a Levi’s TV ad. The lyrics led some fans to believe that it was written by vocalist, Mick Jones, about his impending dismissal from the band. However, Jones denied this saying that it was just the band’s attempt at writing a classic.

The song has also been listed in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. More recently, it featured in the Netflix smash hit series: Stranger Things.

9 “Born to be Wild” – Steppenwolf

“Born to be Wild” is often credited with being the first heavy metal song and for the first use of the phrase “heavy metal thunder.” It became Steppenwolf’s most successful single and was used in the soundtrack of the 1969 film, Easy Rider. The song was initially meant to be a folk ballad but Steppenwolf increased the tempo and the iconic tune was born.

In 1994, Ozzy Osborne recorded a memorable duet of the song with Miss Piggy after which it was released on an album named Kermit Unpigged.

8 “Sweet Child ‘O Mine” – Guns N’ Roses

Featuring one of the most recognizable intros in rock music history, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” hit one billion views on YouTube in 2019, after averaging around 600,000 daily views. The song was released in June 1988 as the third single off Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction Album and it became their only number one US single.

During a warm up session, lead guitarist Slash was goofing off and played a ‘circus’ melody that soon inspired the rest of the band to come up with chords, a bassline and a beat. Lead singer Axl Rose was upstairs in his room at the time, listening to the band playing and he starting writing the lyrics to “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, completing the song by the next afternoon.

7 “Proud Mary” – Creedence Clearwater Revival

In 1967, two days after being released from active duty in the Army Reserve, John Fogerty bought a notebook and a pen. He wrote “Song Title” on the first page and week later he wrote the words “Proud Mary” next to it.

A few months passed and Fogerty started putting some chords and words together before he realized his song was about a river boat. “Proud Mary” sold a million copies in the US alone and reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The success of the single was followed up by the famous cover done by Ike and Tina Turner in 1971, which won a Grammy Award.

6 “You Shook Me All Night Long”- AC/DC

“You Shook Me All Night Long” is AC/DC’s first single with Brian Johnson as lead singer after the death of Bon Scott. There have been several claims over the years that Bon Scott wrote the lyrics to the song. Scott’s late former girlfriend said during an interview that she knew for sure that the song was written in her flat in London in 1976 and the band’s booking agent Dough Thaler also said that the lyrics were written by Scott.

In 2020, AC/DC celebrated the 40th anniversary of their Back In Black album by sharing a rare performance video of “You Shook Me All Night Long” from their 1981 tour.

5 “Rock And Roll All Nite” – Kiss

“Rock And Roll All Nite” is said to have been inspired by the Slade song “Cum On Feel the Noize”. It was written by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and introduced during a concert at Cobo Hall in Detroit in 1976. The song eventually replaced Kiss’ closing number “Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll” for their ongoing tours. A live version of the song reached number 12 on the Billboard singles chart in 1976 and it was named the 16th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1 in 2008.

Kiss also had the highest grossing hard rock tour at Madison Square Garden during 1996-1997 and were among the highest grossing touring bands in 2019 alongside Metallica and Fleetwood Mac.

4 “Love Bites” – Def Leppard

While some fans might debate whether “Love Bites” is rock or pop song, it is a hugely popular power ballad recorded by rock band Def Leppard and is their only number 1 single on the US Billboard Hot 100. Not your typical upbeat tune, but it remains a staple of party playlists worldwide and even wedding receptions.

“Love Bites” was originally a country song, but Def Leppard added their magic touch by introducing power rock elements and backing vocals. The song helped their album Hysteria reach over 12 million in sales in America alone.

3 “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

“I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll was first recorded by the Arrows in 1975 but became a hit after Joan Jett & The Blackhearts put their spin on it in 1982. The cover was a huge success and became the number 3 song of that year. It sold 2 million copies and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.

Britney Spears also found success with a cover of the song recorded in 2002. It was used in her film, Crossroads and received many positive reviews, but of course none that could rival that of Joan Jett’s version.

2 “Purple Haze”- Jimi Hendrix

“When I die, I want people to just play my music, go wild and freak out, do anything they want to do.” – Jimi Hendrix

Hendrix was an extraordinary musician that left a lasting legacy even though his music career only spanned four years. He played his Fender Stratocaster upside down because he was left-handed and even played guitar with his teeth. He was self-taught, inspired by Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and was discovered by Chas Chandler of The Animals. The rest is history.

One of Hendrix’s most popular songs is “Purple Haze” and it was ranked number 2 by Rolling Stone on a list of greatest guitar songs. “Purple Haze” was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Jimi Hendrix died on 18 September 1970 at the age of 27, and he will forever be remembered as described by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music.”

1 “Radio Ga Ga”—Queen

Queen are one of the greatest success stories in the music industry. By the time the early 1980s rolled around, the band were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world. Their 1985 Live Aid performance went down as one of the greatest in rock history and Freddy Mercury will forever be remembered for his spectacular voice and stage presence.

Queen had a slew of fantastic songs, including “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, “We Are The Champions”, and “Under Pressure.”

Queen performed another one of their hits, “Radio Ga Ga”, at every one of their concerts between 1984 and 1986 including the aforementioned Live Aid concert. The song was written as a commentary on how TV was overtaking the popularity of the radio and was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in 1984.

In recent times, Lady Gaga credited her stage name to “Radio Ga Ga” saying that she loves Queen and their hit song made her love the name.

+ “Poison” – Alice Cooper

What is a party without a little glam rock thrown into the mix?

“Poison” by Alice Cooper was released in 1989 and became one of the singer’s biggest hits in the US, and an even bigger hit in the UK. The song was written by Cooper and Desmond Child who also wrote songs for Kiss, Bon Jovi and produced Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell III album.

Top 20 Best Rock Bands Of All Time

Rock ‘n’ roll makes the world go ‘round. Rock music has its own ‘personality’ and fans see it as the superior genre. It is also no secret that rock ‘n’ roll has influenced society in a way no other genre of music has. On this list are just some of the many rock songs that shook the world at one point in history.

Top 10 Performances In Rock Music History

10 “Helter Skelter” – The Beatles

“Helter Skelter” is regarded as a key influence in the development of heavy metal music. Paul McCartney found the inspiration for the song in a published interview with Pete Townshend from the Who and wanted “Helter Skelter” to be the loudest, most raucous song The Beatles had ever released.

The song was released in November 1968 and quickly became very popular. It wasn’t an easy road however, as it took 18 takes of around 5 minutes each to complete the recording. It has since been covered by a number of bands including Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, U2 and Oasis.

And while the seemingly innocent lyrics were about a playground slide as a metaphor for the rise and fall of an empire, mass murderer Charles Manson interpreted them very differently. To him, they incited murder and an inevitable race war. During his trial he stated “I hear what it relates. It says rise. It says kill. Why blame it on me? I didn’t write the music.”

9 “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” – The Darkness

In September 2003, “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles chart. It was an instant hit and was eventually named 47th of the 101 Greatest Guitar Tracks in 2005. The song ranked number one on a list of ‘Greatest Rock Songs of the Noughties’ and according to a 2020 poll the song was ranked ‘The Greatest Song of the Century.’

The catchy tune was covered by many different artists including Panic! At the Disco, Hanson and Delta Goodrem and featured in several commercials. Sadly, the band saw a rapid decline in popularity, and disbanded in 2006 when frontman Justin Hawkins entered rehab.

In 2011, the original four members of The Darkness reunited and by 2012 they had returned to the UK charts with a new album titled “Hot Cakes”. A few months later they opened for Lady Gaga on her Born This Way Tour. To date they are still playing shows and touring the world.

8 “House of the Rising Sun” – The Animals

The Animals’ 1964 version of this traditional folk-rock song was the most successful version and hit number one on the UK Singles Chart. Distinctive vocalist, Eric Burdon, revealed during an interview that he’d heard the song sung by Johnny Handle and that the band had chosen to record it because of its ‘different’ sound. They started closing out their set with the song during their joint tour with Chuck Berry and was amazed at the overwhelming reaction from the audiences.
It is said that Bob Dylan was inspired to ‘go electric’ after hearing the Animal’s version of the song over the radio.

7 “Seven Nation Army” – The White Stripes

The legendary first seven notes of “Seven Nation Army” have made the song a hit with football fans. The song wasn’t an immediate hit when released by rock duo The White Stripes, but it took a mere six months for the tune to become a staple of football matches. Its extreme popularity in football stadiums is credited to Belgian team Club Brugge, who sang the riffs of the song after celebrating their victory against AC Milan in 2006.

Eventually “Seven Nation Army” was named one of the best songs of the 2000s and greatly contributed to the popularity of The White Stripes.

6 “American Woman” – The Guess Who

During their most successful streak, Canadian rock band The Guess Who released a total of eleven studio albums. The most well-known of the lot is their 1970 American Woman album which quickly reached number one on the charts in Canada.

The song “American Woman” stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks and also performed very well in other parts of the world. There have been a lot of speculation surrounding the song’s lyrics, with some believing it was an attack on US politics and others seeing the lyrics as being exceptionally chauvinistic. When the band were invited to play at the White House in 1970, Pat Nixon made it clear that the song should not form part of the playlist.

Guitarist, Randy Bachman, said during an interview in 2014 that “American Woman” was an anti-war protest song and expressed the band’s feelings regarding the Vietnam War.

5 “We’re Not Gonna Take It” – Twisted Sister

Twisted Sister was originally known as Silver Star and shook up their member list quite a few times before settling on the line-up that most fans knew and loved. The heavy metal band disbanded in 1988 after their latest attempt at an album was a complete failure and fans started criticizing the pop sound of it.

Twisted Sister reunited in 1997 and recorded new albums, headlined benefit concerts and played several festivals. In March 2015, the band’s drummer A.J. Pero died in his sleep while they were on tour. A month later the band announced their final tour which included tribute shows in honor of Pero. Their final concert was played in November 2016.

Even though the band no longer performs, they will always be fondly remembered for their stand-out hit, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” The inspiration for the song came from glam rock band, Slade, as well as the popular Christmas carol, “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

The song was also used as the theme song for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign with reports saying that songwriter, Dee Snider, had given Trump permission to do so. He later retracted the permission and asked the presidential candidate to refrain from using the song during rallies.

4 “Pour Some Sugar on Me” – Def Leppard

Def Leppard are one of those bands parents warned their teenagers against. The band’s very famous song “Love Bites” was thought to contain subliminal satanic messages. There were rumors of posters featuring the band, catching fire for no reason or rolling up by itself.

Despite all these rumors, Def Leppard was and remains one of the most beloved rock bands in the world. Their signature song “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, inspired by Aerosmith and Run-DMC’s “Walk This Way”, was part of their Hysteria album which sold 3 million copies in 1988 alone.

Lead vocalist, Joe Elliott, and producer Mutt Lange, used microcassette players and ‘sang noises’ into it after which they swapped the players and tried to translate each other’s noises. This ultimately led to the writing of the hit song as we know it today.

3 “My Generation” – the Who

The Who is still considered one of the best and most influential rock bands of the 20th century. The band sold over 100 million albums and they are credited with the development of rock opera, the use of the synthesizer as well as the Marshall stack.

They are well known for songs like “Substitute”, “I Can See for Miles”, and “Pinball Wizard.”

Their highest-charting single in the UK, “My Generation”, includes a vocal stutter and became a massive hit. It has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and was also the center of a strange rumor that said the lyrics were inspired by the Queen Mother who had guitarist Pete Townshend’s Packard Hearse towed away from his house.

Townshend refuted this saying that the song was in fact about drawing a line between people who lived through WWII and people who were born at the end of it.

2 “Comfortably Numb” – Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd has been referred to as a band for the ages and remains extremely popular to this day. They were the force behind The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, among others, and are cited as the greatest progressive rock band of all time.

The band’s backstory includes very dark moments, including lead singer Syd Barrett’s mental health decline which forced him to retire from the band in 1968. These moments made their way into many of the songs recorded by Pink Floyd, sadness palpable in the lyrics.

In 1980, the band released what would become a monster hit: “Comfortably Numb.” The song is regarded as one of Pink Floyd’s best and many fans have stated that David Gilmour’s guitar solo is the best ever. Roger Waters who wrote the lyrics, said that he was inspired to write them by remembering how he felt as a child whenever he was sick with a fever.

1 “Under Pressure” – Queen & David Bowie

In 1981, Queen and David Bowie collaborated on one of the most unforgettable songs in music history. Freddy Mercury and Bowie decided that while recording improvisations, they each shouldn’t hear what the other had sung, which gave the song its unique construction. The name of the song was originally going to be “People on the Streets” but Bowie insisted that it be called “Under Pressure.” He also insisted on being present when the record was mixed.

The result of the collaboration at Mountain Studios in Switzerland was a song that remains a timeless classic, and exceptionally popular.

Top 20 Best Rock Bands Of All Time

Showbiz is an industry that is notorious for chewing people up and spitting them out or forgetting them altogether. But it also has a tendency to put women through the wringer far more than it does men. So here are ten of the women rock history left out who you really should listen to. They all deserve their due.

Related: 10 Groupies That Majorly Impacted The History Of Rock ‘N’ Roll

10 Poly Styrene

Some artists make an impression the moment they hit the scene and cast a long shadow over pop culture despite having very short careers or small bodies of work. If you listen to Live at the Roxy WC2, the legendary documentary of England’s punk scene in its early days, you’ll hear what was X-Ray Spex’s second live performance ever. The band was fronted by Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, also known as Poly Styrene, and the show was electrifying. X-Ray Spex were proud underachievers who only made one album during punk’s heyday (and another comeback album in the ’90s), but bi-racial Poly, who dressed in day-glo with braces on her teeth, had a voice that could drill through sheet metal. She was unforgettable in the nihilistic, male-dominated punk scene.

On the surface, Poly’s story sounds tragic and mysterious—even a little disturbing. In one of the most repeated anecdotes about her, she shaved her head after the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious threatened her with a scythe. About the incident, she’d only say that “I’d read that girls in concentration camps did that after being raped by the Nazis… You do it to be cleansed,” refusing to expand.

She did tell NME in 1978 that “You know, I said that I wasn’t a sex symbol and that if anybody tried to make me one, I’d shave my head…” After retreating from punk, she joined the Hare Krishna movement. However, she fled due to reports of pedophilia in the sect and “attempts to marry her off.” But Poly was not the hermit you’d expect, being active in the arts until her death from breast cancer in 2011. In life, Poly refused to be defined by tragedy.^[1]

9 Meg White

Given that they were a two-person band, it would be tempting to think of The White Stripes’ singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jack White as the creative force behind the band and think of drummer Meg White simply as “the other one.” But let’s be real, despite Jack’s polymathy, Meg was The White Stripes. She casts a shadow that Jack, in his solo career, just can’t escape; he’s asked about her in every interview he gives.

Moments before taking the stage at a show in Southaven, Mississippi, in 2007, Meg unexpectedly told the band’s archivist that this would be The White Stripes’ last ever concert. It was. The rest of the tour was canceled; the reason given: Meg’s acute anxiety.

We’ve come a long way in our understanding of mental health, but society’s attitude to mental health is still problematic. Ongoing struggles are too bleak to countenance; we want a recovery narrative. When a celebrity retreats from the spotlight due to mental health issues, our support and sympathy are contingent on a quick comeback with an album or a tell-all memoir about their triumphant recovery. Meg White has not made a public appearance since 2010 and is not on social media. Despite intense public curiosity, one-half of the noughties’ most influential rock bands has disappeared completely, presumably to somewhere happier, and I can’t think of anything braver.^[2]

8 Sister Rosetta Tharpe

The Rock’ n’ Roll Hall of Fame is a very strange and problematic institution, but say this for them, they made Sister Rosetta Tharpe a household name when they inducted her in the early influencers category in 2018, over 100 years after she was born. Rosetta Tharpe died in 1973 and did not even have a headstone on her grave until 2009. This was despite being the first gospel singer to cross over into the R&B charts (this was so long ago, the Billboard R&B chart was referred to as the “race records”) and being cited as an influence by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Bob Dylan.

So many different figures are called the “inventor” of rock ‘n’ roll that the term is meaningless, but I would argue that Rosetta Tharpe deserves the title. It’s easy to think of rock ‘n’ roll as having sprung forth fully formed from the Sun Records studio somewhere around 1952. As much as we all know intellectually that rock ‘n’ roll evolved from earlier R&B and gospel, it’s sometimes hard to hear the link. Trust me when I say that Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the missing link—the true first rock star! Her 1938 hit “This Train” is one of the first recordings to feature heavy distortion on the electric guitar; her guitar playing was startlingly ahead of its time and sounded like nothing that should have come from the 1930s.^[3]

7 Karen Dalton

Speaking of those who influenced Bob Dylan, Dylan’s memoir Chronicles Volume 1 may well be the first time many people ever heard of Karen Dalton. A passing but glowing mention. “My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. She was a tall, white blues singer and guitar player—funky, lanky, and sultry. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday’s and played guitar like Jimmy Reed, and went all the way with it.” But anyone inspired by this Dylan connection to look her up would find a disturbing parallel between the two folk troubadours.

Listening to Dalton, one thing strikes you: her voice. The comparison to Billie Holiday is accurate, but unlike Holiday, Dalton’s voice is worn and cracked, a quality that imbues every syllable with portent and emotion. That’s sometimes hard to listen to, just like Bob Dylan’s famous “voice like sand and glue.” But what Karen Dalton had to offer never caught on. Another supposed reason for her lack of success was her inability to compromise or play the part of an entertainer. At one point, she was in talks to form a group with John Phillips, but her need for control, as well as her purist view of folk, led him to seek other singers, with whom he’d form The Mamas and the Papas. In other words, a raspy confrontational voice and an uncompromising artistic outlook were an asset to one ’60s Greenwich Village folk singer and the ruination of another.

Karen Dalton passed away in 1993 from AIDS while living in a mobile home, poetically in Woodstock, New York. Her daughter believes she contracted AIDS from sharing needles. A fire then destroyed hundreds of tapes of demos and rehearsals, leaving us with just two breathtaking albums.^[4]

6 Nico

The name Nico appears on the cover of one of the most influential albums in rock history, yet the woman herself is a mystery. We all know her face from publicity shots of the Velvet Underground circa 1967, her white suit standing out coolly against the rest of the group’s uniform black. Yet, even though she’s an indelible part of the band’s image, the band’s history barely mentions her, as she only sang four of the songs on their first album. Her partnership with The Velvet Underground was a marriage of convenience. Andy Warhol was obsessed with The Velvet Underground but found Lou Reed lacking as a frontman, while the band wanted Warhol’s stamp of approval. Thus, a role was there to be filled by a pretty face.

Christa Päffgen began modeling in 1953 at the age of 15 and was dubbed Nico by a photographer at around the same time. Biographer Jennifer Otter Bickerdike recalls that she asked “over 100 people” if they’d ever heard her say “call me Christa,” and apparently, no one had. In 1988 when she passed away, the German daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung reported it with a headline referencing her affair with French heartthrob Alain Delon. Nico was a role that consumed Christa Päffgen, reducing her to said role, an assumed identity defined by others.

In contrast, Nico’s solo music career, while never successful, has the air of authentic expression. Someone playing a role defined by others would never have produced anything as unceasingly gloomy and dark as Nico’s solo records. And given the anecdotes about her violent (and racist) tendencies, we know that the darkness of those records came from deep within.^[5]

5 Jackie Fox

Reading about the first fateful meeting between Jackie Fox (then Fuchs) of The Runaways and the band’s manager, Kim Fowley, in her 2015 interview with Huffington Post, one’s stomach churns. At the point where a fifteen-year-old Fuchs is brought to Fowley’s disheveled pill-strewn apartment to hear his stream-of-consciousness rant about an all-teenage girl hard rock band, you know there’s no way any of this could end wellLink10. It’s perversely surprising that we’re only talking about one incident here. Though in light of the allegations that Jackie Fuchs made against Fowley, many others came forward with similar allegations.

Troublingly, they also came forward with corroboration of Fuch’s account. In 2015, after Kim Fowley’s death, Fuchs alleged that Fowley had raped her at a New Years Eve party in 1975 in front of bystanders and witnesses, including bandmates Cherie Currie, Joan Jett, and Kari Krome. Krome and Currie have differing accounts of what happened (Krome claims she saw Jett and Currie watching and snickering, while Currie claims she spoke up, then stormed out). However, both confirm that a teenager was raped, in front of witnesses, by a man who remained free until his death forty years later. Crucially, Joan Jett denies witnessing the incident.

Jackie Fuchs is now an attorney. In 2013 she appeared on game shows The Chase and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. And in 2018, she was on Jeopardy, winning four nights and $87,089.^[6]

4 Kate Schellenbach

In listicles of songs that fans miss the point of, the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” is typically number one with a bullet. Frequently taken as a big dumb song about drinking and partying, the song was actually intended as a parody of big dumb songs about partying and drinking. But looking at the Beastie Boys’ early career, one must question if claiming it was a parody was just a cover—an excuse to release a big dumb song about partying and drinking while still appearing to be above doing so. The Beastie Boys’ early days were torn between notions of punk authenticity and an emerging frat bro image. In 1981, the Beastie Boys were a hardcore punk band with a female drummer. However, as the group gravitated toward hip-hop and a macho bravado aesthetic, there was no room for drummer Kate Schellenbach. As Adam Horovitz (aka Ad-Rock) said:

“Sloppy drunk dudes trying to creep on young women was repugnant to punks in ’81. Unfortunately, when you’re a straight guy in your late teens/early twenties, you can easily fall into the stereotype’s own trappings. And we fell in. Like, from the high diving board. We got so caught up with making fun of that rock-star persona that we became that persona. Became what we hated. It got so bad we kicked Kate out of the band because she didn’t fit into our new tough-rapper-guy identity. How f**ked up is that!?!”

Kate Schellenbach founded the band Luscious Jackson and is a successful TV producer.^[7]

3 D’arcy Wretzky

When D’arcy Wretzky left The Smashing Pumpkins in 1999, it pretty much initiated the beginning of the band’s end. Soon after, the band entered a period in which Billy Corgan was the only original member, and most fans stopped paying attention. So, Billy Corgan clearly had a vested interest in making the 2018 reunion of the original line-up a success, or at least in absolving himself of the blame for its failure.

When the reunion was first announced, original bass-player Wretzky was left out, with the simple explanation from Corgan that she had refused to take part. Except Wretzky then produced text messages showing that Corgan had asked her to be a part of the reunion, then rescinded the offer. That was only the beginning of the ugliness. Wretzky then gave an interview in which she discussed his narcissistic controlling ways. Corgan’s final missive in the war of words takes the cake, though.

Corgan’s longtime friend, the unbelievably named DJ Mancow, leaked a picture of Wretzky taken by the police after she’d been assaulted, implying that her horrific state shown in the photo was due to drug use. D’arcy Wretzky has been very open about her addiction issues, and Mancow took advantage to allow Billy Corgan to control the narrative. Suddenly the video for “Try, Try, Try” makes a lot more sense.^[8]

2 Clare Torrey

Clare Torry’s voice is the centerpiece of one of classic rock’s most famous documents. “The Great Gig in the Sky” closes side one of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. On an album that itself is a singular achievement, “The Great Gig in the Sky” sounds like nothing else in the rock canon. It’s a song comprised of non-lexical vocables. In other words, vocal sounds that aren’t words but eerie, evocative, and unforgettable sounds that say far more than any lyrics could. Clare Torry’s performance on the track makes Dark Side of the Moon more than just a collection of songs.

The vocal performance was improvised, meaning she was more than a singer for hire. She’s basically responsible for the song. However, she was paid £30 for a night’s work (and only that much because it was double time on a Sunday) and was left with the impression that her performance would not make it onto the final album. Meanwhile, Dark Side of the Moon went on to be one of the best-selling albums of all time and remained on Billboard’s Top 200 chart for a record-breaking 26 years. It wasn’t until 2005 after she had retired, that Torry pursued fairer recompense in a court case that Pink Floyd, to their credit, did not contest. Details of the case were sealed, but copies of Dark Side of the Moon printed after 2005 list Torry as a co-writer, as they should’ve always done.

In 2018, Alice Glass of the Indie Band Crystal Castles came forward with abuse allegations against bandmate Ethan Katz. Katz had claimed that her improvised vocals on their 2006 hit “Alice Practice” was merely a mic test he’d recorded (hence the title), a claim intended to diminish her contributionslink19. What these cases have in common is the theory that a woman’s improvisation does not constitute songwriting.^[9]

1 Natasha Shneider

In 1976, 20-year-old Natasha Shneider defected from the USSR to the West and arrived in New York City with no money or connections. Her son was born just two months later. In 1978, she met Berry Gordy and was signed to Motown records as part of an R&B group called Black Russian. In 1984, she starred in 2010: The Year We Make Contact, a little-remembered but beloved (by me, no one else) sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1999, she co-produced and co-wrote songs for Euphoria Morning, the solo debut from Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. And in 2006, she was a member of the hard rock outfit Queens of the Stone Age.

Even a dry accounting of a handful of Natasha Shneider’s achievements is ridiculously compelling. The throughline to her Zelig-like career was Eleven, a band that she formed in 1987 with Jack Irons of Pearl Jam and her husband Alain Johannes. which made a few small dents in the Billboard charts during the 1990s and 2000s. Sadly she passed away from breast cancer in 2008. After her passing, Chris Cornell took to performing his song “When I’m Down,” accompanied only by a vinyl record of Shneider on piano, the analog technology eerily conjuring her presence.^[10]

Rock music’s explosive and introspective nature has always provided a haven for outcasts, angsty teenagers, and broody types alike. But over the years, some musicians and songwriters have taken rock’s naturally emotive tendencies to new extremes. The results are records that daringly peer into the deepest depths of the human psyche, taking curious listeners along for the ride.

The records on this list explore feelings of anger, despair, and depression but also tackle dystopian futures, occult rituals, murder, death, and disease. In a sense, they are to music what horrors and thrillers are to movies. But the records here aren’t just gloomy either. Instead, these albums are also some of the best pieces of music from rock music history.

Related: 10 Rock Songs That Shook The World

10 Turn Loose the Swans by My Dying Bride

My Dying Bride was already an established force known for their slow and doomy metal sound when they released Turn Loose the Swans in 1993. However, the second album would be a considerable departure stylistically from their debut. For starters, lead vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe added clean vocals and spoken parts alongside his usual growl. Meanwhile, pianist/keyboardist/violinist Martin Powell found himself with a lot more room to work with.

The musical changes resulted in an album that carried a far more gothic vibe, with long atmospheric moments taking the place of the band’s previous brutal approach. But while the album may not be as aggressive as their earlier outings, it is undoubtedly one of the gloomiest and darkest albums ever made and a landmark metal release.^[1]

9 My War by Black Flag

1984 proved a landmark year for the legendary punk group Black Flag. The band would record no less than three albums (My War, Family Man, and Slip It In) and perform over 170 shows. It would be the first of these albums, My War, that ultimately proved to be the most memorable, though. Here, the band, known for their relentless pace, took influence from the likes of MC5, the Stooges, and Black Sabbath and opted for a slower, more experimental, but equally darker sound.

Adding to the “grungy” musicianship was the lead singer Henry Rollin’s almost schizophrenic and paranoid-sounding vocal performance, most notably evident on the title track that sees him screaming “You’re one of them!” at the listener. Of course, none of this would bother the charts all that much at the time, but its chaotic sound proved hugely influential and essentially paved the way for the Seattle grunge rock scene in its wake.^[2]

8 Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath

Released in 1970 on Valentine’s Day (of all days), Black Sabbath’s first album might sound tame by today’s standards, but it had to get a mention. Inspired by Aleister Crowley, Dennis Wheatley, H.P. Lovecraft, and J.R.R. Tolkien, Black Sabbath—four blokes from Birmingham, England—delved into subject matter that others had yet to dare, including depictions of the occult and Satan himself.

But, of course, the music itself proved pretty revolutionary for the time too. Indeed, the combination of the hard blues-rock style of guitarist Tony Iommi and dark lyrical themes essentially set the blueprint for all heavy metal. Amazingly, their influence on metal—and music in general—began more than fifty years ago. In fact, Iommi once noted that “I didn’t hear us cited as an influence until bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Metallica, and some of the punk stuff, like the Stranglers, came along.”^[3]

7 Dummy by Portishead

While its trip-hop beats and vocal-centered sound made for what some considered a chill-out album, you’d have not to be paying attention to not realize Dummy is also one of the gloomiest albums ever made. Inspired by a 1970s TV drama of the same name about a deaf woman who becomes a prostitute, Portishead’s first album is a jarring and visceral album at its core. It carries with it undertones of political and social criticism lingering underneath songs of desperate longing and despair.

Even though it debuted in 1994, the album remains fresh, attracting new listeners to the sultry, folky vocal style of singer Beth Gibbons paired with Geoff Barrow’s unique sampling choices. Their distinctive sound helped them crossover from the club scene to an indie audience waiting to soak up their music.^[4]

6 In Utero by Nirvana

When Nirvana started work on their final 1993 studio release, they found a vast shadow lingering over them. Their previous record Nevermind had changed the alternative music scene forever, but its success proved problematic for a band rooted in a DIY, anti-establishment aesthetic. Lead vocalist Kurt Cobain would even go on record to call Nevermind “candy ass,” resenting its highly accessible sound and hoping to return to something more raw with In Utero.

While the debate will forever rage about which album was better, there’s little doubt that In Utero is an entirely different beast. Not only because of the buzzy, anti-approachable, and chaotic sound but also the lyrical content. Themes regarding sickness and disease are all over the record. But while the lyrics seem actively impersonal, fragments of Cobain’s struggle peer through. Such is notably the case on the album’s opener, “Serve the Servants,” where Cobain touches upon his success (“Teenage angst has paid off well, now I’m bored and old”) and relationship with his father (“I tried hard to have a father but instead I had a dad”). Regardless of the tragic events that happened after, the album is a visceral and, at times, disturbing work.^[5]

5 Closer by Joy Division

Released two months after the band’s vocalist, Ian Curtis, committed suicide, Closer is another album where it is all too easy to judge against real-life events. Still, it’s hard not to hear Curtis on this record and hear a man struggling with his inner demons.

According to interviews, most of the band were in good spirits while recording Closer, bar Curtis, suffering from epilepsy and depression and having an affair—he was in a generally awful place. Such seems obvious in vocals such as “I’m ashamed of the things I’ve been put through/I’m ashamed of the person I am.” Unfortunately, however, his bandmates didn’t realize how bad things were. As Stephen Morris would put it in a 2018 interview: “I honestly thought Ian’s lyrics were really brilliant, but that he was writing about somebody else.” In any case, there’s little doubt that Closer is one of the darkest sounding pieces of music ever created.^[6]

4 Dirt by Alice in Chains

Dirt is one of those albums that feels contradictory. Its big riffs and belting choruses make it a fist-pump-worth slice of stadium-ready hard rock. Meanwhile, Jerry Cantrell and Layne Stacey’s harmonious and often haunting vocal tandem, moments of abrasive instrumentation, and dark lyrical themes reveal a darker beast beneath.

Indeed, themes of self-hate, depression, and unbridled anger run throughout the album, all underpinned by the relentless attack of guitars and drums. Elsewhere, lyricist Cantrell evokes a picture of the Vietnam war through his father’s eyes in “Rooster” and pays tribute to Mother Love Bone frontman Andy Wood in the evocative “Would?”^[7]

3 OK Computer by Radiohead

Radiohead built a reputation on angsty but radio-friendly hits with their first two albums, Pablo Honey and >em>The Bends. But with OK Computer, the group began to let their creative inhibitions lead them, thanks to their record company giving them the green light to do as they saw fit. The result would be an atmospheric but claustrophobic sound that conjures an Orwellian feel for the listener.

Lyrical themes on the album ranged from the rush of surviving a car crash (“Airbag”) to severe mental illness (“Climbing up the Walls”). But an underlining fear of digital-dystopia runs throughout, from the chilling declarations of a robotic voice on “Fitter Happier” (“Calm, fitter, healthier and more productive”) to Thom Yorke’s vocals that sound like desperate pleas (“No alarms and no surprises, please”). Thanks to technological advances, the album has only gotten creepier and more vital with age, and the band itself hasn’t looked back to its alt-days since.^[8]

2 The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails

When the most accessible track on a record is about heroin addiction and self-harm and crescendos to a suggestive gun-shot-like finale (and the apparent first single is titled “March of the Pigs”), you know you are listening to something a little messed up. Yet against seemingly all odds, The Downward Spiral proved to be a runaway success, reaching number 2 on the Billboard charts and cementing Trent Reznor as a significant force in the musical landscape.

The album was heavily influenced by Pink Floyd’s The Wall and David Bowie’s Low, taking the instrumental and synthesizer soundscapes of the latter and the overarching concept of a lone wounded figure of the former. But, of course, Reznor also brought his iconic industrial-rock sound to the proceedings. The result is a chaotic, abrasive, and destructive sound that refuses to relent. Plagued by drug problems and relationship issues, Reznor likened the experience of making The Downward Spiral to “climbing down a manhole and pulling the cover over.” When you listen to the album, it’s hard to imagine otherwise.^[9]

1 The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers

With lyrical themes covering such subjects as exploitation (“Yes” and “Faster”), concentration camps (“The Intense Humming of Evil”), and anorexia (“4st 7lb”), The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers is undoubtedly one of the most corrupted things ever put to tape. Even the samples on this album, which include excerpts from an adaption of Orwell’s 1984 (“I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don’t want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt”) and the heartbreaking documentary Caraline’s Story, feel despondent. That the music itself on the record feels almost “punk-pop” at times only results in a startling juxtaposition.

Unfortunately, all the gloominess was very real to rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards who took on the lion’s share of lyrics here. Suffering depression, alcohol abuse, self-harm, and anorexia, Edwards would disappear just five months after the album’s release, with his car found abandoned near the river Severn bridge. His disappearance in 1005 remains a mystery.^[10]

Singles are the movie trailers of the music industry. In order to bait the listening public into buying an album or concert ticket, bands and record labels chum the waters with one or two catchy songs.

Who chooses which tracks breathe such rarified air. Sometimes it’s the artist themselves. Other times, it’s a collaborative effort between the musicians, producers, and the label. By and large, the potential hits are chosen by those who sign the paychecks.

As is the case with any gamble, you win some and lose some. And these 10 winners deserved their spots on the singles charts.

Related: Top 20 Best Rock Bands Of All Time

10 “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles

“Here Comes the Sun” was the first track on side two of The Beatles’ last recorded album, Abbey Road. The song was one of two on the album penned by guitarist George Harrison. The other Harrison track, “Something,” was released as a single along with “Come Together.”

“Here Comes the Sun” was Harrison’s way of venting about tensions within the band and the group’s current business and legal entanglements. Harrison stated, “‘Here Comes the Sun’ was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: ‘Sign this’ and ‘Sign That.’”

One likely explanation for the song being overlooked was that John Lennon didn’t play on the track. Harrison and Lennon weren’t on the best of terms at the time, and John still had more creative tug than George regarding choosing singles. In hindsight, John should have given peace a chance. When The Beatle’s music became available on iTunes in 2010, “Here Comes the Sun” became the top-selling song in the first week.^[1]

9 “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin

To be fair to “Ramble On,” it was released on one of the most powerhouse classic rock albums of all time: Led Zeppelin II. This was the album that finally knocked The Beatles’ Abbey Road off the top spot on the American charts.

Led Zeppelin only released 10 singles from 1969 to 1979. The band and their manager, Peter Grant, put the focus on live performances and full albums. They had no interest in being pigeon-holed into pumping out radio hits. Grant managed to negotiate a deal with Atlantic Records, which gave the band creative control over releases.

“Whole Lotta Love” and “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)” were chosen as being the strongest tracks for a single release, and rightly so. “Ramble On,” with its airy verses and powerful chorus, is steeped in Tolkien mythology, acoustic guitars, and fantastical imagery. The song illustrates the dance between light and dark that became a hallmark of the band’s best work.^[2]

8 “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” by The Rolling Stones

“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is the fourth track on The Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers. The first two and a half minutes of the song are dirty, riff-tastic Rolling Stones. The last four and a half minutes are an improvised, instrumental jam session. The seven-minute and fifteen-second run time made for a tough sell in 1971. In order to improve the chances of radio play, singles were held to around three minutes.

Chop off that end jam, and one is left with just under three minutes of quintessential Stones. The four singles from Sticky Fingers were “Brown Sugar,” “Bitch,” “Wild Horses,” and “Sway.”

“Brown Sugar” and “Bitch” absolutely deserved special treatment. The same could be said for “Wild Horses.” However, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” stands miles higher than “Sway” on the cultural relevance scale. Not only does it bear one of Rolling Stone’s most instantly recognizable guitar riffs, but it’s been included in the movie soundtracks for Casino, Blow, Without a Paddle, and The Fighter.

One of those two songs was used in a Martin Scorsese soundtrack. It wasn’t “Sway.”^[3]

7 “L.A. Woman” by The Doors

The final studio album for The Doors, 1971’s L.A. Woman, was a blues-soaked return to form for the California quartet. Shortly after Jim Morrison’s 1970 trial for profanity and indecent exposure, The Doors recorded early versions of three songs for their new album.

Two of those songs, “Love Her Madly” and “Riders on the Storm,” were released as the album’s singles (at the behest of Elektra Records executive Jac Holzman).

The third song was the title track, “L.A. Woman.” There’s something undeniable about “L.A. Woman.” It kicks off with a revving motorcycle and driving tempo before Jim Morrison utters the iconic “Well, I just got into town about an hour ago….”. From there, the song takes the listener into the seedy underbelly that was Los Angeles in the late 1960s.

The epic track clocks in at nearly eight minutes, including Morrison’s mantric bridge, “Mr. Mojo Risin.” “Riders on the Storm,” the album’s second single, had two and a half minutes cut from the album version to make it more radio-friendly. Surely Jim Morrison’s metaphoric goodbye to the city of angels warranted at least a B-side release.^[4]

6 “Ziggy Stardust” by David Bowie

The album was titled The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It was a concept album about an androgynous musician who falls victim to the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle as well as his own ego. The linchpin of the album’s narrative is the title track, “Ziggy Stardust.”

“Ziggy Stardust” has been widely acclaimed as not only one of Bowie’s best but one of four Bowie tunes included in “Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, the song wasn’t revered by everyone. During the recording of the album, RCA executive Dennis Katz complained that the album did not contain a single. So rather than push for “Ziggy Stardust” to be the single, David Bowie recorded “Starman.”

Bowie himself was more interested in presenting his albums as entire pieces of art, not to be cut up and served on the radio. Because of this, “Ziggy Stardust” never charted.

While “Starman” still sees a good deal of love on classic rock radio, its cultural influence can’t compare to “Ziggy Stardust.” The song and Bowie’s Stardust persona became a major influence on glam rock bands like Suede and T-Rex.^[5]

5 “Space Truckin’” by Deep Purple

1972’s Machine Headwould go on to become the group’s best-selling and most impactful record. This was due, in no small part, to the success of the guitar shop anthem “Smoke on the Water.” “Smoke on the Water” was one of four singles released from the album; the others were “Highway Star,” “Lazy,” and “Never Before.”

Now, Machine Head only has seven tracks, four of which were singles. But “Highway Star” is more than deserving, as is “Lazy.” “Never Before” didn’t exactly have the same shelf life as the others.

The record’s last track found its way onto the shelf and remains to this day. “Space Truckin’” has been a mainstay of the band’s live shows and has been included in all three of their greatest hits compilations. The track’s opening thirty seconds are a thundering force of Jon Lord’s organ, Roger Glover’s bass, Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar, and Ian Paice’s drumkit.

Vocalist Ian Gillan’s space-age lyrics and glass-cracking falsetto make “Space Truckin’” one of the great road trip singalong rockers when one finds themselves dancing around the borealis and space truckin’ ’round the stars.^[6]

4 “Stone Cold Crazy” by Queen

“Stone Cold Crazy” was the eighth track from Queen’s 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. A departure from the band’s operatic sound, “Stone Cold Crazy” has been described by Q Magazine as “thrash metal before the term was invented.”

The song was performed live at almost every Queen concert from 1974 to 1978 and was included on their 1992 greatest hits album Classic Queen. It was even covered by Metallica in 1990 and performed live by Metallica’s James Hetfield, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, and Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992. What the song was not, however, was a single.

“Killer Queen” was the only song released as a single in the U.S. (the track “Now I’m Here” was a single in the UK). Now, “Killer Queen” is tough to argue with as it bears all the elements of a great Queen song. But what “Stone Cold Crazy” lacked in finesse, it made up for in blistering fast drums and guitar.

“Stone Cold Crazy” would have been a well-placed follow-up single, showcasing what the band could do when they stripped away the bells and whistles and just rocked.^[7]

3 “Going Mobile” by The Who

1971’s Who’s Next is arguably the most influential album of The Who’s illustrious career. Touting a track list that involves “Baba O’Riley,” “Bargain,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” Who’s Next is responsible for half of all the CSI theme songs.

There is this one quaint little tune in the middle of the album called “Going Mobile.” It was written by guitarist Pete Townshend and was recorded without lead singer Roger Daltry (Townshend covered vocal duties on the track). The music is tonally uplifting, and the lyrics are about one man’s love of traveling the highways in a mobile home. It may lack the opulence of other Who classics, but it showed what Townshend, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle could do when they sat in a room together and just played.

The record’s singles are rather undeniable: “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and “Behind Blue Eyes” were released as singles. Those songs are great. The thing is, The Who later released other tracks from the Who’s Next sessions as singles. Guess which wasn’t included. “Going Mobile.” The track was given its proper due when it was included in the group’s greatest hits album, Who’s Better, Who’s Best: This Is the Very Best of The Who.^[8]

2 “Casey Jones” by the Grateful Dead

Behind “Truckin,’” “Casey Jones” may be the most recognized Grateful Dead song. Released on the band’s 1970 record, Workingman’s Dead, “Casey Jones” became and remained a staple of classic rock radio. Grateful Dead performed the song live over 300 times after the record’s release.

Despite the laid-back sound of the track, the lyrics were reflective of what was happening with the band at the time. Cocaine use among the band was escalating, eventually resulting in the arrest of frontman Jerry Garcia for drug possession.

Some discussion took place about cleaning up some of the lyrics for the sake of radio play. Since cocaine was the theme of the song, the band decided to leave it as is. While lyrics like “high on cocaine” may raise a few eyebrows, “lugging propane” just wasn’t gonna cut it.

“Uncle John’s Band” was the only track from the album that was released as a single, and it’s a single-worthy track. In the annals of classic rock history, though, it just ain’t “Casey Jones.”^[9]

1 “YYZ” by Rush

For most bands, a four-and-a-half-minute instrumental isn’t likely to get top billing as an album single. Canadian rock trio Rush was not like most bands. Renowned for their virtuosic musicianship, Rush fans leaned into the group’s lengthy musical interludes. Rush’s 1978 record, Hemispheres, even featured a nine-minute instrumental track called “La Villa Strangiato.”

“Tom Sawyer,” the biggest hit of the band’s career, was chosen as the lead single along with “Limelight.” “Vital Signs” was released as a single soon after.

Casual fans can agree that “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight” are two of the group’s most well-known tunes and deserved individual attention. More hardcore fans could also make an argument for “Vital Signs.” The crime was omitting “YYZ” from contention.

Besides being a mainstay of the band’s live shows, “YYZ” was the only track from Moving Pictures that was nominated for a Grammy. In 1982, “YYZ” was up for “Best Rock Instrumental.”

Over the years, “YYZ” has emerged as a fan favorite and withstood the test of time. Besides, if it was good enough for the Grammys, it was good enough for the radio.^[10]