5 Classic Rock Songs We'll Be Blasting On Repeat 'Til The Day We Die

The first time you heard Nirvana on a "classic rock" radio station, your heart probably hit your feet. But have no fear, because "classic rock" doesn't just mean all the rock music that existed up to about 30 years ago. As expected, classic rock does include guitar, drum, bass, and singer, but otherwise refers less to genre and more to time, roughly from 1964 to 1982, at least by The Guardian's parameters, which work well for our purposes. This overlaps neatly, but not perfectly, with the Civil Rights Act through Ronald Reagan's inauguration as president. This was an era of immense social change and artistic experiment; one that produced some profound music that deserves to be blasted till death.

Out of our entire field of irreplaceable, monumental classic rock outfits – The Beatles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Seger, Creedence Clearwater Revival, etc., etc. – it's a bit difficult to limit our choices to a mere five songs. This means that some more-than-worthy bands, and personal reader favorites, are going to be left off our list. So rather than take this article as gospel, the reader can take it in the vein as it's intended, as a holistic snapshot of the mid '60s through early '80s, plucking out highlights that encapsulate the time. We've also avoided one-hit wonders and stuck with songs that represent a relevant artist's entire body of work, as well as limited our choices to popular tracks that have already proven their staying power. Finally, we've chosen songs that have some measure of complexity or repeatability that makes them tolerable to hear again and again. Choices range from the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" to "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac, and more. 

No matter how cliché it's become to make fun of Mick Jagger's stage convulsions or Keith Richards' gradual mummification, The Rolling Stones practically defined the entire notion of a rock 'n' roll rebel. Yes, their early, extremely young work featured them buttoned up and mannerly, much like the Beatles and even David Bowie (back when he was Davie Jones). But as time passed and the Stones really began to roll, they quickly shed their niceties for the more ragged, rowdy  '70s image that they carry with them to this day. And while their catalogue boasts loads of instantly recognizable tracks like "Paint It Black," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "You Can't Always Get What You Want," and the Merry Clayton-featured "Gimme Shelter," we're going to give our nod to "Sympathy for the Devil."

"Sympathy for the Devil" proves that the Stones were much more than flair attached to hooks. A totally unique melange of maracas, rim shots, and samba-inspired rhythms, the songwriting stands out amidst the Stone's repertoire as much as the track embodies their rebelliousness, even towards the "peace and love" ethos of their day. 

Likely inspired by "The Master and the Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov, a Stalin-era Soviet book featuring the Devil as the protagonist, "Sympathy for the Devil" features a polite Devil describing how he's influenced one historical tragedy after another. Released on 1968's "Beggars Banquet," the year after 1967's "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (a send-up of British royalty), the song and its obvious meaning somehow got the Stones accused of Satanism. If this level of boldness, unintentional mayhem, and musical inventiveness — both in topic and composition — doesn't define classic rock, then we don't know what does.

Try to find someone who's never heard a Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) song, choose a track, hit play, and see how long it takes for that person to start singing along. We'd wager that they can join on first listen. Such is the brilliance of pretty much any John Fogerty-written track. From the 2-4 snare-based bop of "Bad Moon Rising," the descending bassline of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain," the opening riff to "Fortunate Son" and its connection to the Vietnam War (made eternal thanks to "Forrest Gump"), CCR songs embody uncluttered, unpretentious songcraft stripped of substanceless flash, like the best kind of communally-sung campfire songs. The band's success is made even more impressive when you know that they were only active from 1967 to 1972, right during the height of the classic rock era that they helped define.  

But out of all of CCR's songs, we're going to make the case for "Proud Mary" being on our five-song playlist, as though the song's "rollin', rollin', rollin' on a river" defines how it could be looped again and again. Fogerty himself, when explaining how he wrote the song on his YouTube channel, called it "the best song I'd ever written." Drafted on the heels of his return to El Cerrito after getting discharged from the army reserves, where he was "workin' for the man every night and day," "Proud Mary" is one part Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" and one part song about a riverboat. The boat's name, Proud Mary, was the very first thing Fogerty wrote in his journal after getting discharged, not knowing where it would eventually lead. Few stories could be so creatively inspiring, much like few songs could be so replayable.   

It'd be pretty much impossible to craft a list of five repeatable classic rock songs without including Led Zeppelin. A supergroup of genius musicians like John Bonham and his unparalleled blend of technicality and pocketed groove, Jimmy Page's strangely inventive, impromtu-feeling guitar riffs, and Robert Plant's gravitational charisma, Zeppelin pushed into experimental territory but retained an energetic '70s attitude that is quintessentially "classic rock." Plus, they were also accused of selling their souls to the devil plenty of times, so they check another square on rock bingo.

But to find a Zeppelin song that we can blast till we die, we've got to bypass the well-treaded "Stairway to Heaven" (Zeppelin's most-streamed song on Spotify, at 1.2 billion) and tracks like "Immigrant Song," which wriggled its way back into popular consciousness via "Thor: Ragnarok" (2017). There in Zeppelin's oeuvre, we find a scruffy little "Black Dog" built around a disgusting riff written not by Page, but by bassist John Paul Jones. The riff tripped up Zeppelin, as it still does musicians to this day. It's cut into sections of 5/4 and 4/4 time that reconnect every 20 measures, has a 4.5-beat bridge that changes keys, and contains loads of stutters and pauses amidst a shifting, syncopated groove. And of course, the song idea from Page was inspired by an actual black dog whom Page imagined was so exhausted because of nightly marathon sex sessions. 

All in all, "Black Dog" feels defiant and brash, much like Zeppelin and classic rock as a whole. It's also one of the only Zeppelin tracks that's a true collaboration that roped Jones into the mix. The music itself, meanwhile, demonstrates enough virtuosity and variety to keep getting played over and over.

At this point in time, Fleetwood Mac's music and their members' interpersonal baggage go unavoidably hand-in-hand, which has perhaps helped elevate their popularity even more. Formed in the late '60s by eponymous drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, and pre-Lindsay Buckingham guitarist Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac started as a blues band but evolved into its sui generis style of fused blues, rock, and hard rock. Fleetwood Mac really only took off once Buckingham and then-girlfriend and that most witchy of stage presences, Stevie Nicks, joined at the end of 1974. Their catalogue of songs at once typifies the free-floating feeling of the '70s and also sits a bit left-of-center of it. But their music has tremendous staying power and re-listenability. They're the second-most listened to classic rock artist in this list, at almost 48 million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

So, while it could be "Dreams" for our playlist, Fleetwood Mac's most-streamed song, at 2.4 billion, or "Landslide," "Silver Springs," "Rhiannon," or Bill Clinton's campaign song of choice, "Don't Stop"? We're going to go with "The Chain," a song that not only gives each member a chance to shine, but which comes equipped with a reprised, 1997 version that far outstrips the 1977 original in terms of confidence, instrumental tone, orchestration, and sheer energy. That version, as seen above, and arguably that show, are Fleetwood Mac at their absolute finest. "The Chain," in particular, is perfectly emblematic not only of classic rock on a whole, but of Fleetwood Mac's rocky relationships and musical legacy. Written about Buckingham and Nick's relationship, the one that made Fleetwood Mac — but also ended it – the chain was indeed broken, though the song plays on.

Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia, it's time for a song from a band who are both so legendary that it'd practically be a crime against humanity to not include them in this list. Queen makes the classic rock cut because they were, indeed, birthed in the '70s, no matter how they arguably reached their peak of fame in the early '80s in the lead-up to 1985's Live Aid. It's almost impossible not to sound hyperbolic when talking about the overwhelming popularity of songs like "Under Pressure," "We Will Rock You," "Another One Bites the Dust," and "We Are the Champions." And what could be said about Freddie Mercury beyond showers of praise for being precisely as godly a frontman as he was? 

But out of the entirety of Queen's catalogue, it's "Bohemian Rhapsody" that stands head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to the precise theatricality and uniqueness that made Queen what they were and has given them almost 51 million monthly Spotify listeners. From the song's highly textured, five-part harmony to the Mercury-played, plaintive piano passages and rock out "So you think you can spit in my eye" bridge, "Bohemian Rhapsody" makes a fine capstone to our list of classic rock bangers. 

Released in 1975 on an album that spoke Queen's awareness of its own style in the title, "A Night at the Opera," Bohemian Rhapsody has nearly 3 billion monthly listens on Spotify. That's a strange feat for a strange song from a strange band, but one that, in their own, glammy way, represented the artistic verve of their time. Few songs of theirs, or any other, could be as worthy of replay, again and again.