You may have to go to You Tube and watch Purple Rain to get the guitar ridt out of your head
Roger McGuinn’s openings to “Mr Tambourine Man” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
The opening to “Teach Your Children.”
Paul Prestopino’s riff in the Chad Mitchell Trio version of “The Marvelous Toy.”
Keith Potger’s lead-in to "A World of Our Own’ and “I Know I’ll Never Find Another You.”
Am I showing my age here?
The Zombies - Time of the Season.
(really)
mmm
Take Five by Brubeck. Any two notes of it, really.
Zombie, by The Cranberries.
The Ethiopian crime-reenactment TV series “Ketezegaw Dose” has two great ones. The first one on piano, apparently for the network or production company, and then another one with percussion for the show itself. Both of them are memorable and compelling:
The whole show, by the way, is a very professionally produced series. All in Amharic, but fun to watch just to see the gritty real-life scenes of Addis Ababa.
Da-Domp-Boom, Da-Domp-Boom, Da-Domp-boom
Summer in the city-Loving Spoonful.
Supernaut by Black Sabbath
Another great guitar riff - the one from “Gay Bar” by Electric Six.
And although it’s been nearly 12 years I feel obligated to point out that there’s no “e” in Aaron Copland’s name.
As a guitarist I have too many fav riffs. There’s a ton of memorable riffs that IDs the songs so how can I name a few?
Anybody mention “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain yet?
I fessed up to this over in the confessions thread; I’ve developed an autonomic response
wherein, when the opening riff of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” comes on the car radio, my hand snaps out and gives the knob a hard twist all the way to the right.
Movin Out by Aerosmith.
Answering Machine by the Replacements
Beck Hansen said his favorite riff of all time was Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young.
When the guitar kicks in & plays with the organ on Pipeline Sequence by Honk.