Artists' Favorite Rock Songs — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at iconic rock songs that the artists themselves claim was their personal favorite work.

[00:15] Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run. The boss has told so many powerful stories that he may as well favor the road most traveled. Bruce Springsteen regularly claims that his best work

[00:31] is the title track on his 1975 breakout, Born to Run, while he considered his signature song. He describes it as the moment he invented himself after months of obsessive writing under the threat of Columbia terminating the niche artist's contract.

[00:49] The final product was a mainstream anthem that revived rock and roll archetypes in a way that resonated with the contemporary American counterculture.

[01:02] Born to Run has since become a timeless phenomenon, and Springsteen, one of the biggest names in music, he gladly agrees with the consensus that this rush started with one triumph.

[01:17] Tom York, How to Disappear Completely When BBC's The Culture Show asked Radiohead's Strutman about his best work, he didn't say The Benz or OK Computer. He went with the 2000 masterpiece Kid A, specifically the deep cut fourth track.

[01:36] How to Disappear Completely was quietly released as a promotional single, but remains a fan favorite for its atmospheric expression of distress.

[01:49] This is what Tom York felt in the chaos of fame, which he reportedly processed with advice from Michael Stipe of REM. The affirmation of I'm not here, this isn't happening, speaks to anyone who's experienced the pain of a mental health crisis.

[02:10] For all of Radiohead's computerized virtuosity, York feels that the deeply personal how to disappear completely is their most beautiful gem. Ozzy Osbourne, Paranoid.

[02:25] In a 2019 interview with BBC Radio, Ozzy Osbourne had an obvious pick for Black Sabbath's best song, but the title track on the 1970 album, Paranoid, held a special place as the singer's personal anthem.

[02:42] Bassist Giza Butler has been less glowing in his account of hastily writing the song to capitalize on the success of Savage recently released debut He also admitted to clumsily conflating paranoia with depression

[02:59] Still, Osbourne championed Paranoid as Savage's most important song for proving the commercial potential of the especially intense form of hard rock that would become heavy metal. He was eager to have it be a regular closer at shows, and the song he performed to Sabbath before his passing in 2025.

[03:26] Dave Grohl, Everlong Times were tough for Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl during his first divorce. voice. Drawing on this, a guitar riff, and his romance with Louise Post of Baruch Assault,

[03:42] he wrote Everlong in under an hour. He since regarded it as Foo Fighters' best song, as have many fans. The second single off of 1997's The Color and the Shape is an enthralling

[03:58] marriage between thrashing hooks and sincere sentimentality. This made it a defining staple of post-grunge, and a natural concert closer.

[04:10] It would thus be the last song drummer Taylor Hawkins performed before his death during a 2022 tour. Everlong has since been a significant anthem in many ways for Grohl, so he's not the only one to say that about his proudest piece. Kurt Cobain, Drain You

[04:29] Rock was never the same after Nirvana released Nevermind in 1991, with the lead single Smell Like Teen Spirit becoming a huge hit. But Kurt Cobain told Rolling Stone in 1993 that Drain You was at least on par.

[04:48] It's one of the album's most experimental tracks, telling a codependent love story about babies over aggressive riffs and a dissonant instrumental midsection.

[05:03] Dream You is a complete distortion of pop, designed to avoid being a hit even by Nirvana standards. All the same, fans and critics have long hyped it up as a hidden gem. Cobain follows suit, preferring to promote an idiosyncratic, sarcastically tender anthem from the gut as a true representation of his defiant art.

[05:30] Want to dive deeper into your favorite music and the story behind it? Tune in to the 24 WatchMojo Pop Culture Livestream David Gilmour Echoes Pink Floyd may owe immortality to transforming progressive rock mass appeal but guitarist David Gilmour prefers something less radio

[05:52] Echoes is an almost 24-minute long suite that takes up the entire second half of the 1971 album, Metal. With its ambient soundscapes, sprawling instrumentation, and abstract lyrics, It sits right at the pivot point in the band's journey from psychedelia to prog.

[06:15] Gilmore has mentioned finding this a bias and particularly entertaining to play live, at least with his interplay between him and keyboardist Richard Wright. Echoes was said to be a favorite of his as well. I am you and what I see through me.

[06:29] Gilmore understandably retired the song after Wright's passing in 2008, but it carries on as one of Pink Floyd's most singular achievements.

[06:42] Paul McCartney, Here, There, and Everywhere. They say that you can learn a lot about someone by asking them what their favorite song by the Beatles is. The band were themselves conflicted on the subject, but Paul McCartney has been firm in his praise of Here, There, and Everywhere.

[07:03] The two-and-a-minute-long fifth track on 1966's Revolver manages to stand out with its breezy tone and poetically romantic lyrics.

[07:18] McCartney has been open about being heavily inspired by the beach voice God Only Knows, one of his favorite songs of all time. But if Here, There, and Everywhere still sounds distinctly Beatles,

[07:32] future fans would argue with someone who calls it their masterpiece. That would mean arguing with Paul, after all. Freddie Mercury, Somebody to Love

[07:46] If you were to name a gospel-infused Queen anthem with a philosophical perspective of loneliness, Freddie Mercury wouldn't have wanted you to say Bohemian Rhapsody. In 1977, he told the Australian program Countdown that he prefers somebody to love for its more cohesive writing.

[08:06] The singer certainly pours his soul into the centerpiece of the 1976 album The Day of the Races. It was also his big tribute to the idolized Aretha Franklin.

[08:20] Some peers would later confirm that the late Mercury privately considered somebody to love to be Queen's crowning achievement. I need somebody to love I need somebody to love While their catalogue makes that a bold claim immense love from critics and audiences supports it to this day

[08:45] Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Cashmere. It's popularly believed that Stairway to Heaven will go down as Led Zeppelin's most elevated contribution to rock. In a 2018 interview with Dan Rather, singer Rob O'Price said that he'd rather be remembered for Cashmere.

[09:14] He's long touted the eight-minute-long centerpiece of 1975's Physical Graffiti as the band's Venus. Guitarist and co-writer Jimmy Page has echoed the sentiment, phrasing the intricate blend of cyclical riffs, sweeping orchestration,

[09:27] and eastern influences drawn from Plante's tour of the Sahara. Cashier was unlike anything anyone had heard in 75,

[09:40] and continues to spark debate over whether it's Zeppelin's true magnum opus. For Plante and Page, it's really not much of a debate. Before we continue, be sure to check out WatchMojo's 24-hour livestream.

[09:56] All of your favorite videos in one place, 24-7. Always on, always live. Why you not in your place? Mick Jagger, Gimme Shelter. An apocalyptic account of war,

[10:09] Gimme Shelter wasn't the Rolling Stones' most upbeat choice to open 1969's Let It Bleed. Frontman Mick Jagger told NPR in 2012 that it's nonetheless their best song.

[10:24] The composition actually began with Keith Richards' anger over his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg's affair with Jagger. Ooh, we were down in the rain Down in the rain

[10:36] This tension was given a political message with a chaotic tone to the dissonant jamming and Mary Clayton's explosive death vocals. Guinea Shelter's improbable fusion of permanent urgency and mainstream hook

[10:49] has been called one of the most important achievements in rock music. Jagger is just part of the consensus that it's the stone's peak,

[11:03] which may mean more to an artist than the mutual praise means to fans. What are your own picks from these artists' iconic catalogs? chime in in the comments below.