The Greatest Guitar Riff Ever: 1962
The year that brought us the debuts of the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Who has the best riff of the year?
The Best Riff of 1962
Much better crop this week. We’re cooking now. The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, Dick Dale and Willie Nelson all debut this week. A handful of my GOATs! Not the best albums by almost any of them, but cool to finally get some names a bit more familiar. Before we get to the nominees, I did a blurb for my friends over at Even Better where they asked what our worst movie theater experience was. Check it out, really fun write-ups from everyone. Alright, back to riffs.
The Beach Boys - Summertime Blues
Gotta be honest, this one surprised me a bit. When I think The Beach Boys, guitar isn’t really the first thing I think of or the second or third. Probably not in the top 10. Super ornate production, especially as the band continues, but the riffs aren’t really there. However, this early stuff 1:1 with surf rock, down to the artwork and album title, and this riff is fun. It isn’t the best version of the song, but I love the spring reverb and it fits Mike Love (burn in hell bozo) and his voice perfectly.
Dick Dale and His Del-Tones - Miserlou
A real frontrunner. As a song, I’m not fully loving this, as it lasts four minutes and shouldn’t really last more than the first 15 seconds. Those 15 seconds though! Kind of a near-all-time guitar moment? The entire surf rock genre boiled down into one riff! The story goes that Dick Dale wrote this because some fan made a bet with him that he couldn’t write a song on one string. One string is all you need for a riff, brother!
The Tornados - Telstar
I’ve known about this song for a bit now because some Patrick Lore about me is that I loved the band Muse when I was 15 years old and, apparently, the guitarist of the Tornados is the dad of the dork who sings and plays guitar for Muse. This song rocks and Muse completely rips off the melody for their best song lol. Can you plagiarize your dad? Thanksgiving dinners are one type of awkward but imagine having to get litigious because your failson rips you off. Hilarious image to me. Anyways, this song is cool and the riff is sick.
Willie Nelson - Funny How Time Slips Away
I love country music and I love Willie Nelson. I didn’t fully start to love Willie’s stuff until Shotgun Willie over a decade later but, of the albums released before that, the debut is the best. It feels like Trigger is part of the Willie iconography at this point but on his debut, he hadn’t bought the guitar yet. But the Willie-style of playing was baked in from the start and is shown at its best on “Funny How Time Slips Away.” The platonic ideal of a ‘60s country riff, only made better by how perfect Willie’s vocal is. What a tune.
What is the Best Riff of 1962?
I want to give it to Willie for sentimental reasons and it feels like the Beach Boys are the bigger name but c’mon: it’s “Miserlou.” It’s Dick Dale. It’s obvious.
Does it top the previous Best Riff?
Man. Now we are talking. Finally some real competition. I think “La Bamba” is unquestionably a better song than “Miserlou.” But we’re judging riffs here. I think it is similarly unquestionable that “Miserlou” is the better riff. Shoutout to “La Bamba” though - three in a row rules!