The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time: Honorable Mentions

"The Width of a Circle"
David Bowie (1970)

Bowie's always had excellent taste in guitarists — he's worked with Carlos Alomar, Robert Fripp and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others — but his most classic foil is Mick Ronson, who shreds all over the eight-minute opener of The Man Who Sold the World. Ronson's ceaseless riffing glitters and burns like a sparkler, and set the standard for glam-rock.


"The Width of a Circle"


"Out of Sight"
James Brown (1964)

A year later, Brown's guitarist Jimmy Nolen would invent the choppy, percussive sound of funk guitar as we know it, but Les Buie, the axeman here, pointed the way — barely flicking at the sweet-and-sour blues chords of Soul Brother #1's airy dance tune, and making his guitar's silence as compelling as its sound.


"Out of Sight"


"Bluebird"
Buffalo Springfield (1967)

Stephen Stills' ode to Judy Collins is one of the highlights of his three-guitar psychedelic band's career, and the chord-solo breaks that gleam all over this song had a startling new sound that was actually an old sound: he's playing acoustic guitar. Neil Young's tone-bending electric commentaries are pretty spectacular too.


"Bluebird"