Or is it? We asked thousands of GuitarWorld.com readers — and a panel of experts — to answer this simple question: What is Randy Rhoads’ greatest guitar solo?
BACK IN MARCH, we decided to pinpoint and identify — perhaps once and for all, since the results aren’t about to change anytime soon — Randy Rhoads’ greatest guitar solo. So we took two routes: 1. Ask our readers via a poll that appeared on Guitar-World.com for most of the month (and then we shared the hell out of it on social media) and 2. ask our panel of experts. Let’s Start with the poll.
RANDY’S BEST, ACCORDING TO READERS
THERE WAS NO contest at all. “Mr. Crowley” — from Ozzy’s Blizzard of Ozz — got off to an impressive start on the first day of the poll, and it never looked back, claiming more than 37 percent of the overall vote — all by its lonesome. Now, if this information makes you suddenly want to learn how to play “Mr. Crowley” note for note, solo and all, you’re in luck; it’s transcribed in this very issue, starting on page 84 (complete with Performance Notes on page 83)!
As for the rest of the poll results, just check out the graphic to the right. Also, please note that every Randy Rhoads recording got at least one vote, meaning that someone, somewhere, thinks his solo on Quiet Riot’s “Face to Face” is more deserving than his playing on, say, Ozzy’s “Flying High Again.” Just thought we’d mention that!
RANDY’S BEST, ACCORDING TO THE PROS
ZAKK WYLDE: I love ’em all. To me, they’re all his versions of the solos in “Hotel California” or “Stairway to Heaven” — solos that are a song within a song. You could literally play any one of Randy’s leads and name the song; that’s how amazing his solos are. They’re all composed and worked out so they’re an integral part of the song. There’s a recording out there of him playing at the Whisky [A Go Go, L.A.] with Kevin DuBrow [Quiet Riot vocalist] and the guys right before he went out with Oz, and he’s actually playing the solo in “Revelation” without the band. It’s just him shredding that solo by himself in the club, and you immediately know what song it is. I rest my case!
If I had to pick just one? Today I’d say “Flying High Again,” because it’s fun to play and also because of its composition. Plus, there’s the tapping bit over the chord changes at the end, which i
