Those very popular hardrock & metal tracks -70s onwards

[PeterG]

There are certain hard rock and metal songs, that friends and neighbours always ask me to to play, knowing that I have a huuuuuuge collection of early hard rock, heavy rock and metal. These are the kind of uber-popular tracks that everyone knows, and in fact sometimes the only metal or hard rock tracks that any given person without any metal albums at home might know.

From the requests I've had as a DJ at parties etc. I'd say these would probably be the top 20. 1 to 5 are solid, the rest vary due to who is at the party, how old they are and how pissed they are.

1. Fear of the Dark - Maiden
2. Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
3. Run to the Hills - Maiden
4. The Trooper - Maiden
5. Enter Sandman - Metallica


Breakin' the Law - Priest
Paranoid - Sabbath
The Boys Are Back in Town - Lizzy
War Pigs - Sabbath
Ace of Spades- Motorhead

Smoke on the Water - DP
Jailbreak - Lizzy
Stairway - Zeppelin
Kashmir - Zeppelin
Don't Fear the Reaper - BOC

Man on the Silver Mountain - Rainbow
Holy Diver - Dio
Wheels of Steel - Saxon
Bad Bad Boy - Nazareth
Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions

[bob_32_116]

Funny, it's not terribly important but I never thought of Don't Fear the Reaper as "hard rock", and certainly not metal. In fact it's quite easy on my ears.

It's featured in a movie currently showing, called "Holding the Man". There is a rather "grim" significance to the timing of the song in the film.

[Zeuhlmate]

Van Halen - Jump

[PeterG]

Van Halen - Jump

Yea, absolutely. Also, those mid-80s monster hits Final Countdown from Europe and Livin' on a Prayer from Bon Jovi.

And along with those two, that raft of awful soft metal ballads, that plagued the airwaves from the mid-80s to the early 90s, simply because everyone remembers them being played to death and back again:

Scorpions - Winds of Change
Extreme - More Than Words
Guns N' Roses - November Rain
Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever
Billy Idol - Sweet Sixteen

[bob_32_116]

^^ I love "More Than Words". And I have never heard that Queen song.

[klothos]

Peter, if you lived in the US, a DiscJockey's arbitrary "hard rock and metal list" would start off like this

1) Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
2) You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
3) Back In Black - AC/DC
4) Sweet Child o Mine - GnR
5) Crazy Train - Ozzy
6) Enter Sandman - Metallica
7) Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard

While Iron Maiden is big in the US, a request for them at a typical wide-demographic DJ'd party would be rare

[Facelift]

Peter, if you lived in the US, a DiscJockey's arbitrary "hard rock and metal list" would start off like this

1) Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
2) You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
3) Back In Black - AC/DC
4) Sweet Child o Mine - GnR
5) Crazy Train - Ozzy
6) Enter Sandman - Metallica
7) Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard

While Iron Maiden is big in the US, a request for them at a typical wide-demographic DJ'd party would be rare

Yes - in the US, your are more well-known than most of the songs that topped his list.

Other US picks:

Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Dream On - Aerosmith
Walk this Way - Aerosmith
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
Runnin' With the Devil - Van Halen
Jamie's Cryin' - Van Halen
Feel Your Love Tonight - Van Halen
Panama - Van Halen
Black Dog - Zeppelin
Rock and Roll - Zeppelin

[PeterG]

Peter, if you lived in the US, a DiscJockey's arbitrary "hard rock and metal list" would start off like this

1) Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
2) You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
3) Back In Black - AC/DC
4) Sweet Child o Mine - GnR
5) Crazy Train - Ozzy
6) Enter Sandman - Metallica
7) Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard

While Iron Maiden is big in the US, a request for them at a typical wide-demographic DJ'd party would be rare

thanks for that, it's very interesting and fun to compare the epic heavy tracks known to the ears of the public at large on either side of the Pond.

[klothos]

thanks for that, it's very interesting and fun to compare the epic heavy tracks known to the ears of the public at large on either side of the Pond.

I dont think anybody in the US would call my list "epic" but these are the ones I have heard the most requests for at parties by both DJs and bands ( Facelift nailed a bunch of others too)

[PeterG]

Peter, if you lived in the US, a DiscJockey's arbitrary "hard rock and metal list" would start off like this

1) Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
2) You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
3) Back In Black - AC/DC
4) Sweet Child o Mine - GnR
5) Crazy Train - Ozzy
6) Enter Sandman - Metallica
7) Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard

While Iron Maiden is big in the US, a request for them at a typical wide-demographic DJ'd party would be rare

Epic in the sense of classic and or seminal.

[PeterG]

And I have never heard that Queen song.

Blimey, no one living in the UK in 86 or who seen the first Highlander film in 86 or was listening to UK radio in 86 and onwards, can have missed hearing that song.It was played all the time on UK radio. Please try to remember and respect that I write from a UK perspective, not US and not AUS.

[bob_32_116]

The only song I can think of that could make the list and is truly epic is "Epic" by Faith No More.

[Zeuhlmate]

No ZZ Top ?

[Digital_Man]

Funny, it's not terribly important but I never thought of Don't Fear the Reaper as "hard rock", and certainly not metal. In fact it's quite easy on my ears.

It's featured in a movie currently showing, called "Holding the Man". There is a rather "grim" significance to the timing of the song in the film.

You mean like when it was featured in the first "Halloween" movie? I remember seeing that and thinking "that's no accident." Lol.

[Digital_Man]

Peter, if you lived in the US, a DiscJockey's arbitrary "hard rock and metal list" would start off like this

1) Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
2) You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
3) Back In Black - AC/DC
4) Sweet Child o Mine - GnR
5) Crazy Train - Ozzy
6) Enter Sandman - Metallica
7) Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard

While Iron Maiden is big in the US, a request for them at a typical wide-demographic DJ'd party would be rare

Funny because that sort of looks like your average strippers play list from about ten to fifteen years ago too.

[bob_32_116]

Funny because that sort of looks like your average strippers play list from about ten to fifteen years ago too.

I believe I've mentioned before that male strippers seem to have a thing about Bon Jovi.
(I typed "thong" instead of "thing" and was tempted to leave it as a very appropriate typo.)