Great Guitar Solos in "Pop" Songs

[Viz]

Layla

[Kebabkid]

'Rock DJ' by Robbie Williams has a good outro

Neil Taylor I believe who also played the big end solo on TFF's "Everybody wants to rule the world"

[BobLoblaw]

okay without looking through all 15 pages, I'm betting that a certain MJ song has already been mentioned, but what about Europe's - The Final Countdown?

[Bellycaster]

Spot on with "Physical" which I listed. God awful song but for me, it's one of Lukather's best solos but I'm a big fan of all those LA guys anyway (Mike Landau, Dann Huff, Tim Pierce, Paul Jackson Jr etc). In the 80s, Lukather was reported to be on more than half of the US Top 10 songs. He was so in demand that on many occasions he was trusted enough and given free reign to play "his thing" and could arrange sessions around the studio he'd be at that day.

Gilmour played on McCartney's "No more lonely nights" and didn't Nik Kershaw play on Elton John's "Nikita"? Another I heard was that Tim Pierce, a long-tome co-hort of Rick Springfield's band who's also played on numerous sessions for him and others, played the rhythm guitars on M.Jackson's "Black or white".

Check out Jay Graydon's solo on Manhattan Transfer's "Twilight Zone"

One thing's for sure, the guitar isn't going away in pop any time soon!

Man, you mentioned Paul Jackson Jr. He is one seriously smooth player, I can't tell you everything he's played on, although I think he played a lot on MJ's albums. I always watch Youtube videos of this guy and he impresses me so much. Love Dann Huff too, played on tons of pop stuff in the 80's.

I listened to the M.Transfer song(Jeez, terrible song), BUT that is a great solo. Not heard of that guy before(shame on me). I checked his wiki page out though and wow, he's been on everything too.

About Kershaw and Nikita though, it does say on Wiki that he was "asked" to play guitar on the track.

Long live the Guitar

[Kebabkid]

Jay Graydon was Lukather's mentor and put him forward for session work when he turned to producing. Listen to his Airplay albums for some really well-constructed and melodic solos and a fabulous "LA sound".

Man, you mentioned Paul Jackson Jr. He is one seriously smooth player, I can't tell you everything he's played on, although I think he played a lot on MJ's albums. I always watch Youtube videos of this guy and he impresses me so much. Love Dann Huff too, played on tons of pop stuff in the 80's.

I listened to the M.Transfer song(Jeez, terrible song), BUT that is a great solo. Not heard of that guy before(shame on me). I checked his wiki page out though and wow, he's been on everything too.

About Kershaw and Nikita though, it does say on Wiki that he was "asked" to play guitar on the track.

Long live the Guitar

[Bellycaster]

Jay Graydon was Lukather's mentor and put him forward for session work when he turned to producing. Listen to his Airplay albums for some really well-constructed and melodic solos and a fabulous "LA sound".

I'll give that a listen, sounds like my kind of thing. Cheers.

[bj]

"Perfect" - Fairground Attraction

[bj]

"First time" - Robin Beck

[BucketheadRules]

Layla

But wait!

The title of this thread isn't "Shit and hugely overrated solos in not-really-pop songs"!

[Bellycaster]

OK, I wasn't gonna mention it, BUT....................Jan Hammer "Theme From Miami Vice", especially the crazy run at the end. Just what effect is the guitarist using there(If it is the guitar)?