Guitar solos when you least expect them.

Of course, rock and metal thrive on guitar leads — but sometimes you get the Awesome Guitar Solo in various other genres....

THREAD

Starting with the obvious.

Michael Jackson.

There’s 3 clear cut examples where MJ wanted a hard rock guitar solo to take the song to another level.

Dirty Diana - Steve Stevens
Give in to Me - Slash

...and obviously THE benchmark:

Beat It - Eddie Van Halen

So here’s some tremendous guitar solos that fly under the radar

Lionel Ritchie - Running with the Night. 1983

Steve Lukather (from Toto). What’s incredible is that this was his first take. His warm up. Completely improvised.

Solo starts at 4:05

YT:

Next.

Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street. 1978.

Known for its signature saxophone melody...

...but Hugh Burns (session guitarist) ripped out a great solo here

Guitar lead kicks off at 4:49. Simple but super effective up against that sax.

YT:

Next up.

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights. 1978.

Magnifico! *chefs kiss*

Also been covered by Pat Benatar & Angra. But don’t gloss over that sweeeet outro guitar solo at 3:10 - pure lush.

Ian Bairnson (Alan Parsons Project) making his guitar sing.

YT:

Ok last but not least.

Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow. 1983.

I suspect most folks know Oldfield for his Tubular Bells theme (see: The Exorcist). But Moonlight Shadow was this slightly haunting English folk song and the solo at 2:08 is beautiful.

YT:

That’s it!

Hope you enjoy - and gives you a chance to check out the likes of Kate Bush and Mike Oldfield if you’re unfamiliar.

There are dozens of other examples of guitar leads found in more ‘pop music’. Feel free to add - and include a YT link with the timestamp for the solo!