Songs With The Absolute Worst Guitar Solos

For decades, the guitar solo has been adding spice to popular music, taking center stage at the start of the rock 'n' roll era in the 1950s and showcasing the talents of many an iconic guitarist in the years that followed. Though some may argue that the solo has seen better days, a great one can still energize a live audience, immortalize its creator, and elevate a merely good song into greatness, regardless of genre.

But just as there have been so many legendary guitar solos in music history, there have been countless bad ones, including those that passed muster with producers and made it onto widely released albums and singles, and live solos that fans still can't help but poke fun at many years later. Several of these were actually crafted by skilled musicians, but even the best guitarists aren't immune to the occasional swing and a miss. Then you've got those that were performed by individuals who, for one reason or another, have no business playing lead guitar. The tunes below (and their associated lead guitar parts) include many examples of the former and some of the latter. With that out of the way, let's take a look at 10 songs with absolutely awful guitar solos.

A true '90s one-hit wonder, Deep Blue Something broke out into the mainstream with their earworm of a hit single, "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The song went all the way to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1996, almost half a year after it debuted. Although undeniably catchy, it's earned its place in a number of worst-songs lists, with critics taking aim at the unrealistically simple approach to conflict resolution in the lyrics — hey, we both like this Audrey Hepburn film, so why don't we give our relationship another shot?

What many of these critics may have missed out on is the overly banal guitar solo that serves as an interlude between the chorus and the verses. Regardless of what one may think of the lyrics, they tell the story of a man passionately trying to find some common ground with his girlfriend so they can stay together. And while flashy guitar licks don't exactly make a good fit in most adult alternative ballads, it would have certainly helped if the band came up with a solo that didn't sound like they were desperately rushing to move on to the next song in the session ... or head to the bar to wrap up a day of recording.

Vinnie Vincent (real name Vincent Cusano) had some huge shoes to fill when he joined KISS in 1982, replacing Ace Frehley as the band's new lead guitarist. It didn't take too long for him to wear out his welcome, as he became known for unnecessarily long solos that irked his bandmates. By 1984, Vincent was fired from KISS and free to start his own solo (no pun intended) project, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, which released its self-titled debut album two years later. That record featured the song "Boyz Are Gonna Rock," which highlights how the axeman was as chaotic as he was fast while playing his instrument.

Indeed, fans have not been shy about expressing their distaste for Vincent's solo on "Boyz Are Gonna Rock," with Redditor u/JKREDDIT75 writing, "His video 'Boys [sic] Are Gonna Rock' made me think, 'This Is Spinal Tap' was a parody, not a manual." Similarly, u/PutItOnThePizza quipped, "This and Nitro's 'Freight Train' are great examples of why hair metal had to die eventually," drawing parallels between Vincent and Nitro guitarist Michael Angelo Batio's perceived penchant for speed at the expense of technique.

Aside from allowing its namesake guitarist to fully showcase his fleet-fingered stylings (for better or for worse), Vinnie Vincent Invasion gave former Journey frontman Robert Fleischman a chance to showcase his vocals on a major-label release, though the singer exited the band shortly after recording its debut album. Meanwhile, Fleischman's replacement, Mark Slaughter, and bassist Dana Strum went on to form the far more commercially successful Slaughter after the Invasion disbanded.

As the closer to the 1967 album "Magical Mystery Tour," the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" wraps things up on a high note despite boasting a rather simplistic chorus. It is one of the band's 20 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and it's a definitive track from the Fab Four's psychedelic-tinged middle era. It also contains arguably George Harrison's worst guitar solo, one that starts with such great promise before flaming out just two lines in. It's almost the equivalent of an actor forgetting the next line in the middle of an emotional scene — except in this case, the "actor" doesn't shout "Line!" as they often do in such situations.

In a Reddit thread dedicated to Harrison's worst solos, a deleted user summed up their thoughts on the incomplete lead guitar part on "All You Need Is Love," writing, "Harrison got a lot better at guitar solos throughout his life, but all you need is love is really the only answer. It's an excellent solo until it isn't." However, the apparent gaffe might not be entirely Harrison's fault. Users on a separate thread cited factors such as the huge rush to release "All You Need Is Love" as a single as well as the song's unorthodox mix of time signatures. In any case, this was a rare misfire from the "Quiet Beatle," who had no shortage of great solos to make up for that awkward moment on one of the band's biggest hits.

You would be wrong if you guessed the man on the left in the above photo was the one responsible for this clunker of a solo. No, this wasn't a case of Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland hitting some bum notes. Rather, it's Fred Durst — yes, the guy who did it all for the nookie — fooling around with a guitar during a live show, confirming to fans that he should stick to rapping and singing, even if said rapping and singing has arguably helped Limp Bizkit cement its status as one of music's most hated bands.

The moment in question (via YouTube) comes at the end of a live performance of "Nevermind," and it sees the frontman sing the song's title before trying — and failing — several times to play a rudimentary guitar solo. Durst then gives up, asking the audience to "check my friends tonight" and getting a rousing cheer in response. Fans, however, were doing anything but cheering in the comments section, with ArtDrumz joking that they'd "love to see [Durst] in a guitar battle vs Lil Wayne." Over on Reddit, a user wrote that the video of Durst's "Nevermind" solo "might be the funniest thing [they've] seen on the internet ... maybe ever."

All told, "Nevermind" isn't just the title of a Limp Bizkit song. It's also what Durst should have said after the very first unsuccessful attempt at that infamous guitar solo.

It's not always a bad idea — or a lazy one — to mimic the vocal melodies on your song's main guitar solo. It worked, after all, for Nirvana on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and on many other songs. But the 1980s were a totally different era for rock music. Although there were definitely some hard rock and metal guitar-slingers who overdid it with their solos by playing too fast or cramming in too many notes, Twisted Sister's Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda did the exact opposite on the band's otherwise iconic anthem "We're Not Gonna Take It."

Instead of getting creative on his lead guitar part, Ojeda took an almost nursery rhyme route, lazily parroting Dee Snider's vocal and chorus melodies on the song's verses and adding some whammy bar because, well, it was the '80s. Thankfully, things picked up steam once again after the ad-lib, but looking back on the tune many years later, listeners can't help but call out Ojeda's comparatively passionless, beginner-level solo. "It would be a terrible solo in any genre, but the fact that this is a rock metal anthem, it's extra bad," opined Redditor u/FilthyTerrible. "If you're going to wear spandex and makeup, you best bring the goods."

Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show was an interesting band, alternating goofy novelty tunes with serious fare and charting with both types of songs. Penned by author and cartoonist Shel Silverstein, 1973's "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" falls in the former category. It's a parodic look at the life of a successful, decadent band that wants just one more thing on top of all the money, cars, groupies, and other trappings of rock stardom: a chance to appear on the cover of the famed music magazine. And since few things say "decadent rock star" better than a lead guitarist who's too wasted to play a competent solo, "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" features a particularly bad one, coming in right after lead singer Ray Sawyer screams the words "rock 'n' roll!" to signal the start of the ad-lib.

Yes, it's a deliberately sloppy, off-key, and off-kilter solo, and it's bad enough to get any aspiring axeman sent home by an angry producer, assuming they played it straight in a recording session. But it only adds to the charm of the song, accentuating its satirical nature. And as a nice little bonus for Dr. Hook, they did actually appear on the cover of the March 29, 1973, edition of Rolling Stone, with the fitting caption, "What's-Their-Names Make the Cover," next to their caricatures.

Yes, it's deservedly recognized as one of the greatest rock albums of all time, but it's still an uncomfortable truth for certain fans: Nirvana's sophomore release, 1991's "Nevermind," was a shiny, slick version of the gritty grunge sound emerging from the Pacific Northwest. As such, their 1993 follow-up, "In Utero," was almost a full 180, boasting rawer production values that allowed singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain to "reclaim his punk ethics or cred," as "Nevermind" producer Butch Vig told Billboard.

That said, "In Utero" is not lacking for hooks, though it has its share of unconventional tracks, including "Milk It," which features bizarre, screamed lyrics such as "doll steak/test meat" and a guitar solo from Cobain where he randomly picks at his instrument before returning to the main riff ... and more anguished yells. This solo — if it can even be called one — lasts nearly half a minute, and while Cobain's faint laugh during this section suggests it was all part of the plan, it may be too much for casual Nirvana fans, to say little of the song's disturbing chorus.

It's no surprise that the solo is one key reason why "Milk It" is one of Nirvana's more polarizing songs. Ultimate Guitar readers ranked the solo seventh worst of all time, with the site acknowledging Cobain's "anti-rock" motivations but warning that "this solo sounds really bad for an unprepared listener." 

It's no secret that the Beastie Boys hated their first hit single, "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)," and you can't blame them for feeling that way — too many fans took the song's lyrics way too literally despite the fact it was intended as a satirical put-down of decadent 1980s youth culture. But while the joke was lost on the decade's hard-partying teens, few will argue that Slayer axeman Kerry King's supposed guest fretwork on the 1986 hit is one of the better guitar solos in rock music history.

Although King's contributions to "Fight for Your Right" have yet to be definitively confirmed decades after the fact, he did play solidly in the outro of "No Sleep Till Brooklyn," another track off the Beasties' debut album, "Licensed to Ill." Still, whoever played the lead guitar part on "Fight for Your Right" needed to do a better job following through on what was a rather decent start. Not long after its opening licks, the solo devolves into uninspired noodling, falling completely flat as Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA pick up where they left off before the instrumental break and sarcastically encourage their listeners to rebel against their uptight parents and do as the song's title suggests.

Much like Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, Lil Wayne is another rapper who should not, in any way, shape, or form, quit his day job. But while Durst's misadventures with the guitar are thankfully occasional, Weezy recorded an entire album of rap-rock-flavored tracks (2010's poorly received "Rebirth") and seemingly launched thousands of memes each time he picked up the instrument.

Wayne's perceived ineptitude with the six-string needs no introduction. But for the sake of discussion, there is one lead guitar part of his that deserves placement in any list of the worst solos ever. In 2006's "Leather So Soft," which is credited to Birdman & Lil Wayne, the latter rapper ends the song with an all-time clunker of a solo. Just close your eyes and forget that a grown man (and world-famous rapper) is playing that solo — it's so easy to imagine a child tinkering with an older sibling's guitar for the first time and trying to figure out how the darn thing works.

Naturally, Reddit is littered with users trashing Wayne's incompetence on the guitar — not necessarily on "Leather So Soft," but much more in a general sense. As for the song's official YouTube video? Expect a ton of biting sarcasm in the comments section, including this gem from @escapedlumpensvolochspecimen, who wrote, "Lil Wayne will be remembered as the defining guitarist of the 21st century, with a virtuous, technical and emotive style of play that easily puts the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Slash and Stevie Ray Vaughan to shame."

Technically speaking, there's nothing wrong with C.C. DeVille's guitar solo in Poison's first major hit single, 1987's "Talk Dirty to Me." His version of that very same solo at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, however, is a different story altogether.

The entire performance, in fact, was a complete train wreck. Accounts vary as to whether DeVille was thrown off by frontman Bret Michaels asking the audience if they wanted to "talk dirty" to him, or if he simply refused to continue playing their then-most-recent hit, "Unskinny Bop." Either way, something was amiss when the guitarist played the opening riffs of "Talk Dirty to Me" with his instrument terribly out of tune. And it just kept getting worse, as DeVille's solo was off-key at its best moments and hopelessly messy at its worst. Not even Michaels and bassist Bobby Dall's on-stage antics were enough to distract from DeVille's sloppy performance, which also saw him momentarily unplug his guitar after the solo part.

Michaels' post-song declaration that "it ain't perfect, but it's rock 'n' roll" barely disguised his anger with DeVille, and the two bandmates allegedly slugged it out backstage after the performance. The guitarist was replaced soon after by Richie Kotzen, whose firing from Poison just a few years later stemmed from another kind of band drama, albeit one that isn't off-brand for one of the 1980s hair metal scene's more dysfunctional acts.