The guitar solo is a trademark staple of any legendary Rock and Roll song. From shrill and screaming to hard and heavy, guitar solos allow the player the opportunity to really show off their chops (guitar skills). Complicated rhythms, lightening speed and long stretches down the guitar neck are standard guitar solo tricks that have been used to highlight the player’s talent. Through the years, the guitar solo has been stretched to its limit, showcasing not only skill, but also endurance.

While it’s difficult to determine exactly who holds the record for the longest guitar solo, there are plenty of ear-pleasing possibilities to choose from. Typically, live performances render the longest guitar solos, compared to the solos found on an album. However, without any real way to quantify the difference between solos other than by length, the longest guitar solos still remain relatively uncharted. That said, here’s a list of our favorite long guitar solos of all time:

5. November Rain by Guns n’ Roses

The guitar solo in ‘November Rain’ gained recognition as the longest solo to be included in a Billboard Top Ten single. Guns N Roses guitarist, Slash , has quite a few long guitar solos under his belt but we think this one stands out from his distinguished and top-hat clad body of work

4. Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd

 Legendary guitar player, David Gilmour, lends his incredible abilities to the 9 parts, ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’. The song includes several guitar solos, including one of the longest in rock history. This solos in this song are so long that even the digital copies are broken up into multiple files.

3. One by Metallica

From Metallica’s fourth album, ‘…And Justice For All’, the guitar solo in the song ‘One’ features a lengthy guitar solo by Kirk Hammett and a dueling guitar solo by both Hammett and James Hetfield. One of the most notable metal heads of all time, the boys from Metallica pulled out all this stops with this one.

2. Hotel California by The Eagles:

Ben Felder and Joe Walsh, The Eagles dueling virtuoso guitar players used up twice the length of their usual work with the extended guitar solos ending their band’s most famous tune. Felder and Walsh trade solo parts until they meld together in typical perfect Eagles harmony as this song fades out. Just imagine how long this bad boy would have been if they didn’t cut this solo section short!

1. Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

As one of the most widely recognizable, this classic tune by Lynyrd Skynyrd features one of the longest guitar solos recorded on an album. Both Allen Collins and Gary Rossington contributed to this 5 minute and 12 second long solo.

The longest guitar solos on this list only begin to touch the wide variety of face-melting, awe-inspiring displays of talent. With so many genres and live recordings on the market, there are a host of other long guitar solos. The moral of the story here is, yep, you guessed it, you have to practice a ton to get good enough to pull of a long solo like these. So, what are you waiting for…

Keep Rockin’!

Photo of Slash Taken from Flicker.com by Gingertail on July 14, 2010