The 40 best acoustic guitar songs of all time

So while it’s probably possible to count the members of the Mr Big fan club on a horse’s foot, and this much derided classic represents one-hit-wondership at its most genre-defining and bafflingly wonderful, it remains the perfect pick-up and play campfire classic. One of the big Mac’s most frequently performed songs, Landslide charts Stevie Nicks’ notoriously on-off relationship – both professional and personal – with Lindsey Buckingham, while the man in question delivers dense layers of delicate fingerpicked passages beneath. And with the acoustic element so obvious (but barely present in the finished mix) it’s an ideal easy-pick for any acoustic player looking to impress. Some are included by virtue of putting the acoustic to the fore. Others feature the acoustic sound more subtly but feature its vibe and rhythm as vital components to their success. Some are easy to play… And some not so much… But all are great to listen to and learn from.

Finally, producer George Martin suggested that McCartney perform the song solo on an Epiphone Texan steel-string acoustic. Afterwards, Martin convinced a reluctant McCartney to allow him to add a string quartet as backing. A solo acoustic-folk performance by Paul McCartney, with the Beatle gently plucking a moveable, two-finger pattern on a Martin D-28 that was inspired by Bouree In E Minor by Bach. The only other sounds on the track are McCartney keeping time by tapping his feet, and some soothing bird chirps that came courtesy of a sound effects collection. Needle And The Damage Done can be counted as a major cornerstone in the great lineage of touching acoustic songs written about the perils of heroin abuse.

Bob Marley – Redemption Song

Although written on an acoustic, Everlong first appeared as a pummeling, unhinged full-band electric track on the Foo Fighters’ 1997 album, The Colour And The Shape. And that’s where its legacy might have stayed had Dave Grohl not performed an impromptu solo acoustic version of the song that same year on Howard Stern’s radio show. Likewise the acoustic strumming that, for all the interesting electric bass, piano, flute and mandolin-picking elsewhere, bely the song’s entire reason for being. It’s a song that for all its wall-of-sound, ambient complexity would sound just as good on a single, joyously strummed acoustic. At first, The Beatles tried recording the song as a band (one version had Lennon playing the organ), but nothing sounded right.

• Forget Madonna’s ill-advised cover (in fact, we apologise for reminding you of it) – Don McLean’s original take on his acoustic opus will stand for all time as the definitive recording of it.
• And top marks to anyone who can hit those high notes, for you are a better singer than MusicRadar.
• Over 100 hours of studio time in multiple facilities and cities were required to capture the intricate fingerpicked guitar parts played by Paul Simon and session man Fred Carter Jr.
• If you’ve ever tried to play this song and found that it doesn’t sound quite like the original, it may be because Mick Taylor used Nashville tuning on his acoustic when he recorded it.
• Considering the tragic circumstances surrounding this song, it’s hard to understand how Eric ever played it to anybody at all, never mind recorded and toured it.

Over 100 hours of studio time in multiple facilities and cities were required to capture the intricate fingerpicked guitar parts played by Paul Simon and session man Fred Carter Jr. Now, Fake Plastic Trees builds into something altogether not acoustic, but that doesn’t stop it being one of those songs that’s endlessly pleasurable to play solo. And top marks to anyone who can hit those high notes, for you are a better singer than MusicRadar. Rumour has it that Dust In The Wind started out as a fingerpicking exercise for guitarist Kerry Livgren, before he brought it to the rest of the band and turned it into a prog-folk masterpiece. If you’ve ever tried to play this song and found that it doesn’t sound quite like the original, it may be because Mick Taylor used Nashville tuning on his acoustic when he recorded it.

Freddie’s performance here is vulnerable, hurt and hopeful all at once – and then there’s the guitar work. Brian May’s playing is nothing short of majestic, the perfect accompaniment to a perfect vocal. The success of Yesterday had a profound musical impact on The Beatles, who would soon begin experimenting with different sounds, instruments and varying configurations of the band.

Hits by Decade

And with no amp or additional faff required, acoustic guitars were, and always will be, the perfect gateway for new music makers looking for instant, easily won props via a wealth of much-loved music that is (whisper it) probably easier to play than its creators would like to let on. Overrated… ‘Real’ guitarists know that a guitar’s genuine excitement is best earned via the more personal connection of the player plus the resonant wooden body of an acoustic. MusicRadar is the number one website for music-makers of all kinds, be they guitarists, drummers, keyboard players, DJs or producers… It’s incredibly long, but let’s face it there is some mightily impressive guitar going on in this unplugged version of Eagles’ classic Hotel California.

This stripped-down, rearranged version of Layla is one of the LP’s highlights, though it’s ironic to recall that it was this laidback performance that beat Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit to the Best Rock Song Grammy in 1992. In early 1965, Paul McCartney woke up one morning with a melody in his head and the words “scrambled eggs” on his lips. “It was just there, a complete thing,” he has said about Yesterday, the bleak, aching take of regret that now ranks as one of the most-covered compositions in history (over 2,500 versions and counting).

Its finger-picked minor chords and intertwined, gravely vocal lines are a flawless example of the power of more delicate and tender ends of ’90s grunge. Recorded as part of their 1996 MTV Unplugged session, this stripped-down version of Dirt’s Down In A Hole sees Alice In Chains at their most personal and emotive. Sweary John, angry John, Dylan-channeling, music for events in the UK three-chords and an acoustic John, is the best version of Lennon post-Beatles, if you ask us (which you didn’t, but there you have it). But strike up that rapid strumming any time, and within seconds you’re yanking at the reins of a certified crowd-pleaser. One of the great acoustic storytellers, Taylor uses Fire And Rain as a cathartic ode to the suicide of his childhood friend, as well as his own brushes with drug addiction and fame.

Arguably, the studio recording is trumped by the Unplugged version, but either way it’s one of old Slowhand’s best. Throw in a positively biblical Rick Rubin arrangement and you’re looking at a career-defining performance from a then 70-year-old Cash. When it first appeared, it was widely assumed that the lyrics concerning a “poor boy” who arrives in New York City were about Bob Dylan. While Simon has gone on record as saying that the song is largely autobiographical, Dylan seemed to prefer the first explanation, as he covered The Boxer on his 1970 album, Self-Portrait.