*Editors Note: This is the compressed list version of this feature. Click here for the full version with videos.
There are some songs that everyone knows and love. There are rock songs that have become more of anthems than just tracks. We covered most of those during our 80s Hard Rock Fantasy Draft and Cory Jones broke down the indie side of rock, but what about those rock songs that are truly underappreciated? If we were going to put together the 50 most underrated rock songs of all time, I wanted to bring in help from guys who definitely knew the genre.
I asked my pal, and drummer, Bob Bryar to help me out with some of the picks as well as Rob Zombie bassist Piggy Demon to contribute some suggestions. With their assistance, we put together the 50 most underrated rock songs of all time. Enjoy!
50. Alice Cooper – Halo of Flies
Year Released: 1971
Album: Killer
Why It’s Awesome: It was only released in the Netherlands so not only is it awesome, it was extremely hard to find.
49. Jimi Hendrix – Lover Man
Year Released: 1971
Album: Isle of Wight
Why It’s Awesome: There are four different versions of the song, but the earliest was performed at Woodstock in 1969.
48. Black Label Society – Bleed For Me
Year Released: 2002
Album: 1919 Eternal
Why It’s Awesome: As hard as Black Label Society rocks, this might be one of their hardest, and most underappreciated, tracks.
47. The Animals – It’s My Life
Year Released: 1965
Album: Television Show Hullabaloo
Why It’s Awesome: The song premiered with a live performance that featured women sticking their heads through a wall like mounted animals, which was quite progressive for the time.
46. Mountain – Nantucket Sleighride
Year Released: 1971
Album: Nantucket Sleighride
Why It’s Awesome: How many other songs do you know about being towed in a boat by a harpooned whale?
45. Butthole Surfers – They Came In
Year Released: 2001
Album: Weird Revolution
Why It’s Awesome: Listening to this song is like doing a bunch of drugs without the consequences of doing a bunch of drugs.
44. New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
Year Released: 1986
Album: Brotherhood
Why It’s Awesome: While it never saw much success in the US during its initial release, it was a top five hit in Australia. It paved the way for a series of top 40 hits for New Order.
43. System of a Down – Innervision
Year Released: 2002
Album: Steal This Album!
Why It’s Awesome: It was the only single released from the album to be non-airplay only and it’s only been played live on rare occasions.
42. Ramones – Commando
Year Released: 1977
Album: Leave Home
Why It’s Awesome: Commando was one of the best tracks off the Ramones second album that showed so much growth and improvement from the band’s first release.
41. Cream – Take It Back
Year Released: 1967
Album: Disraeli Gears
Why It’s Awesome: With so many big hits, somehow Take It Back gets completely forgotten even though the style and sound define everything that was Cream.
40. The Doors – End of the Night
Year Released: 1967
Album: The Doors
Why It’s Awesome: Lyrically it’s one of the best songs Jim Morrison ever penned and that’s coming from a huge fan of The Doors.
39. Deep Purple – Speed King
Year Released: 1970
Album: Deep Purple in Rock
Why It’s Awesome: It’s more metal than almost anything in the 70s and is still harder than most of the songs released today.
38. Nirvana – Breed
Year Released: 1991
Album: Nevermind
Why It’s Awesome: As amazing as the entire Nevermind album is, this may be the most musically complex track of them all.
37. Black Sabbath – Sweet Leaf
Year Released: 1971
Album: Master of Reality
Why It’s Awesome: You know it’s going to be awesome as soon as it starts and you hear Tony Iommi coughing after hitting a joint. Ah, the 70s.
36. Poets of the Fall – Late Goodbye
Year Released: 2005
Album: Signs of Life
Why It’s Awesome: You may recognize the Finnish rocker’s track from the video game Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
35. Led Zeppelin – Achilles Last Stand
Year Released: 1976
Album: Presence
Why It’s Awesome: It’s the third longest studio song ever recorded by Zeppelin and features some of the best drumming of John Bonham’s career.
34. Tool – Eulogy
Year Released: 1996
Album: Enima
Why It’s Awesome: It’s one of the best Tool songs ever recorded, plus Danny Carey claims it’s a jab at Scientologist founder L. Ron Hubbard.
33. Ozzy Osbourne – Miracle Man
Year Released: 1988
Album: No Rest for the Wicked
Why It’s Awesome: Just like Tool’s Eulogy, Miracle Man was considered a shot at evangelist Jimmy Swaggart.
32. Billy Idol – Eyes Without a Face
Year Released: 1983
Album: Rebel Yell
Why It’s Awesome: Idol’s vocals are perfectly complimented by guest vocalist Perri Lister who sings background on the chorus.
31. Pink Floyd – Echoes
Year Released: 1971
Album: Meddle
Why It’s Awesome: It’s 23:31 of pure Pink Floyd in a track written by all four members that features massive instrumentals. It actually took up an entire side of the record.
30. Guns N’ Roses – Civil War
Year Released: 1991
Album: Use Your Illusion II
Why It’s Awesome: War protest songs rarely rock this hard. The track went from being a riff they played during sound-checks to one of their most powerful anthems.
30. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Readymade
Year Released: 2006
Album: Stadium Arcadium
Why It’s Awesome: Off a double album filled with incredible solos, it’s impossible to listen to John Frusciante shred at the 2:31 mark in Readymade and not get goosebumps.
28. Avenged Sevenfold – Second Heartbeat
Year Released: 2003
Album: Waking the Fallen
Why It’s Awesome: If you’re even the slightest bit of an Avenged Sevenfold fan, you need this song in your library. It hits as hard as anything they’ve ever made.
27. Soundgarden – Spoonman
Year Released: 1994
Album: Superunknown
Why It’s Awesome: I have no idea what a Spoonman is, but it’s an incredible song that’s even more fun to play on Rock Band.
26. Judas Priest – Beyond the Realms of Death
Year Released: 1978
Album: Stained Class
Why It’s Awesome: The dual guitar solo will literally melt your face off of your body. Just be warned before you listen.
25. Rainbow – A Light in the Black
Year Released: 1976
Album: Rising
Why It’s Awesome: It’s one of the best songs on an album that was voted the best album of all time by Kerrang! magazine.
24. Duran Duran – New Religion
Year Released: 1982
Album: Rio
Why It’s Awesome: The band described it as a dialogue between the ego and alter-ego, but it still has the feel and vibe of the most popular Duran Duran songs ever released.
23. Rainbow – Stargazer
Year Released: 1976
Album: Rising
Why It’s Awesome: How can you possibly go wrong with a rock song featuring an orchestra that’s about a wizard that’s enslaving people to build him a tower?
22. The Animals – Around and Around
Year Released: 1964
Album: The Animals
Why It’s Awesome: Originally a Chuck Berry song, The Animals’ cover isn’t necessarily better, but they put a unique touch on it and made it completely their own.
21. R.E.M. – What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
Year Released: 1994
Album: Monster
Why It’s Awesome: Michael Stipe says the song is about trying to understand what motivates the younger generations, but no matter what the subject is, the guitar solos may be the best that R.E.M. has ever produced.
20. The Beatles – Happiness is a Warm Gun
Year Released: 1968
Album: The White Album
Why It’s Awesome: Some people think the song is about sex while others think it’s about shooting up heroin. Most likely it’s a reference to a Peanuts comic that claimed happiness is a warm puppy.
19. Sevendust – Live Again
Year Released: 2001
Album: Animosity
Why It’s Awesome: It’s not just Sevendust’s most underrated song, it’s, without a doubt, their most underrated video as well.
18. Metallica – Hit the Lights
Year Released: 1983
Album: Kill ‘Em All
Why It’s Awesome: This is the song that technically started it all for Metallica. It’s the very first track on their very first album and hits just as hard as anything they’ve made ever since.
17. George Harrison – Wah Wah
Year Released: 1970
Album: All Things Must Pass
Why It’s Awesome: After Harrison left the Beatles he started getting slammed by McCartney and Lennon. This was his response to their criticism and it’s simply fantastic.
16. Danzig – Long Way Back From Hell
Year Released: 1990
Album: Danzig II: Lucifuge
Why It’s Awesome: Just listen to the intro of this song and what John Chris does with his guitar and you’ll understand exactly why this song is awesome.
15. Andrew WK – She Is Beautiful
Year Released: 2001
Album: I Get Wet
Why It’s Awesome: No one goes harder than Andrew WK and while the title sounds like a love ballad, this is one of his best songs to date.
14. Between the Buried and Me – Astral Body
Year Released: 2012
Album: The Parallax II: Future Sequence
Why It’s Awesome: This is the most recent song on the list, but that doesn’t make it any less deserving. The guitar solos are ridiculously good plus the video is a perfect accompaniment to the amazing track.
13. Queen – Stone Cold Crazy
Year Released: 1974
Album: Sheer Heart Attack
Why It’s Awesome: This was the first song that Queen performed live in 1970 and, while it was never released as a single, it was performed at almost every live show the band did from 1974-1978.
12. The Stooges – No Fun
Year Released: 1969
Album: The Stooges
Why It’s Awesome: Even if you aren’t a fan of The Stooges, you should recognize this track as it’s been covered by everyone from The Black Keys to The Sex Pistols.
11. Cheap Trick – Hot Love
Year Released: 1977
Album: Cheap Trick
Why It’s Awesome: The lyrics aren’t the strongest that Cheap Trick has produced, but vocally and melodically, it’s one of the best tracks on the album.
10. Roky Erickson – Two-Headed Dog
Year Released: 1977
Album: Two Headed Dog
Why It’s Awesome: The entire album is based on sci-fi and horror movie themes so there’s a dark, somewhat futuristic tone to the track. It’s more of an experience than simply a song.
9. Husker Du – Makes No Sense At All
Year Released: 1985
Album: Flip Your Wig
Why It’s Awesome: The band that started out as hardcore punk showed they could be melodic and pop with this track that is considered by some to be the greatest fusion of punk and pop to date.
8. Hot Water Music – Alright For Now
Year Released: 2001
Album: Caution
Why It’s Awesome: I know we throw the word epic around way too lightly, but there is no other word that could describe Hot Water Music’s most underrated track.
7. Queens of the Stone Age – First It Giveth
Year Released: 2002
Album: Song For The Deaf
Why It’s Awesome: Listen to it. That’s why.
6. Metallica – Trapped Under Ice
Year Released: 1984
Album: Ride the Lightning
Why It’s Awesome: It’s probably the most forgotten Metallica song since it’s only been played 21 times live by the band and was not played at all from 1985 to 1999. That doesn’t make it any less awesome and is still a requirement for any Metallica fan.
5. Thrice – The Earth Will Shake
Year Released: 2005
Album: Vheissu
Why It’s Awesome: Lyrically, this may be the strongest track in Thrice’s catalog and that’s saying something considering their growth as musicians and the number of fantastic songs they’ve put out.
4. Led Zeppelin – Fool in the Rain
Year Released: 1979
Album: In Through the Out Door
Why It’s Awesome: This was the last U.S. single the band ever released and to say they went out on top is an understatement.
3. Rush – YYZ
Year Released: 1981
Album: Moving Pictures
Why It’s Awesome: Name me a better instrumental track than this. I’ll give you all the time you need. You can’t do it, can you?
2. The Replacements – Bastards of Young
Year Released: 1985
Album: Tim
Why It’s Awesome: The song became a college anthem and was accompanied by a now famous black and white music video of a speaker that ends with someone getting up and destroying the speaker. It’s a perfect video that doesn’t get in the way of an amazing song.
1. Van Halen – D.O.A.
Year Released: 1979
Album: Van Halen II
Why It’s Awesome: It wasn’t a popular radio song like so many other Van Halen tracks, but there isn’t a better song for rolling down your windows and listening to loudly.
*Editors Note: This is the compressed list version of this feature. Click here for the full version with videos.
