Hard Rock & Classic Rock

The riff gets heavier and the stages get bigger: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, AC/DC and the arena-rock giants.

Part of Rock

40 moments in this segment.

1. 1968-01-01 - Cream - Crossroads. Clapton's blistering live 1968 Crossroads is a hard-rock guitar landmark.
2. 1969-11-07 - Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love. Led Zeppelin's 1969 riff monster helped invent hard rock.
3. 1970-01-01 - Free - All Right Now. Free's 1970 riff-rock anthem is one of hard rock's most enduring.
4. 1971-06-25 - The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again. The Who's synth-and-power 1971 epic is one of rock's great statements.
5. 1971-07-01 - The Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post. The Allmans' improvisational blues-rock defined Southern rock at the Fillmore.
6. 1971-11-08 - Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven. The 1971 epic that became rock radio's most requested song.
7. 1972-03-25 - Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water. One of the most famous riffs ever, from Deep Purple's 1972 Machine Head.
8. 1973-01-01 - ZZ Top - La Grange. ZZ Top brought Texas boogie to hard rock with La Grange in 1973.
9. 1973-06-01 - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird. Southern rock's grand statement, and the ultimate concert encore, from 1973.
10. 1974-06-01 - Bad Company - Can't Get Enough. Bad Company distilled hard rock to its swaggering essence in 1974.
11. 1975-02-24 - Led Zeppelin - Kashmir. Zeppelin's towering 1975 epic married hard rock to orchestral grandeur.
12. 1975-03-19 - Kiss - Rock and Roll All Nite. Kiss turned hard rock into a fire-breathing spectacle.
13. 1975-04-01 - Nazareth - Hair of the Dog. Scotland's Nazareth gave hard rock one of its grittiest riffs.
14. 1975-08-01 - Aerosmith - Walk This Way. Aerosmith's 1975 swagger would later spark the hip-hop crossover with Run-DMC.
15. 1975-08-25 - Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run. Springsteen's 1975 anthem made him rock's great American storyteller.
16. 1975-10-31 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen's 1975 six-minute opera-rock and its pioneering promo video changed everything.
17. 1976-01-01 - Rainbow - Stargazer. Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio built epic, mystical hard rock.
18. 1976-03-01 - Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back in Town. Thin Lizzy's twin-guitar 1976 anthem is hard rock at its most joyous.
19. 1976-05-01 - Blue Öyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper. Blue Öyster Cult's 1976 classic married hard rock and eerie melody.
20. 1976-08-25 - Boston - More Than a Feeling. Boston's layered 1976 sound defined American album-oriented rock.
21. 1976-12-08 - Eagles - Hotel California. The Eagles' 1976 title track became one of the best-known songs in rock.
22. 1977-01-01 - The arena rock explosion. By the late '70s, hard rock filled arenas, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Foreigner and Journey.
23. 1977-02-04 - Fleetwood Mac - Dreams. From Rumours, one of the best-selling albums ever, in 1977.
24. 1977-02-14 - Heart - Barracuda. Ann and Nancy Wilson made Heart one of the '70s' fiercest hard-rock bands.
25. 1977-03-08 - Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time. Foreigner perfected melodic arena rock in the late '70s.
26. 1977-10-07 - Queen - We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions. Queen's 1977 double-anthem became the sound of stadiums everywhere.
27. 1978-02-10 - Van Halen - Eruption. Eddie Van Halen's 1978 solo reinvented rock guitar overnight.
28. 1979-07-27 - AC/DC - Highway to Hell. AC/DC's 1979 anthem, Bon Scott's last album, is hard rock distilled.
29. 1980-07-25 - AC/DC - Back in Black. AC/DC's tribute to Bon Scott became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
30. 1984-03-24 - Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane. Germany's Scorpions became global hard-rock stars in the '80s.
31. 1986-09-29 - Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer. Bon Jovi's 1986 anthem became the sound of stadium rock.
32. 1987-04-07 - Whitesnake - Here I Go Again. David Coverdale's Whitesnake topped the charts in the '80s hard-rock boom.
33. 1987-08-03 - Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar on Me. Def Leppard perfected the polished 1980s arena-rock sound.
34. 1988-08-15 - Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine. Slash's riff made Sweet Child o' Mine GN'R's only US number one.
35. 1989-09-01 - Aerosmith - Janie's Got a Gun. Aerosmith's 1989 comeback proved hard rock could tackle serious themes.
36. 2022-10-12 - Måneskin - The Loneliest. Released in October 2022 ahead of the album Rush!, this ballad was the band's biggest single of that year. It showed Maneskin reaching past the glam-rock stomp that had made them famous.
37. 2023-05-03 - Greta Van Fleet - Meeting the Master. A single from Starcatcher, released in May 2023. The Michigan band spent the record loosening the Zeppelin comparisons that had followed them since their debut.
38. 2023-09-05 - Måneskin - Honey (Are U Coming?). A 2023 single from the Rome band, released alongside the expanded edition of RUSH!. Maneskin were by then the most visible rock act to break out of Europe in years.
39. 2024-02-14 - Greta Van Fleet - Sacred the Thread (live from RCA Studio A). A live studio performance of a Starcatcher song, filmed at RCA Studio A in Nashville and released in 2024. Stripped of the arena staging, it shows how much of the band's sound is played live in a room.
40. 2026-05-29 - Greta Van Fleet - Play Your Games. A 2026 single from Greta Van Fleet, released ahead of the album Palace for the People. It marked the band's return after three years away from new music.