A spry then-68-year-old Eric Clapton performs at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013 at Madison Square Garden.
Few guitar fans, no matter how heavy their tastes, would argue that Eric Clapton doesn't belong on the short list of the best guitarists of all time.
Try to get a consensus about exactly where he belongs in the pantheon of legendary strummers, however, and you'll get shredded.
So to riff off Clapton's 70th birthday, The News plucked together a list of the greatest of the great. There were some tough omissions — Jack White, Robert Johnson, Frank Zappa and Kirk Hamett, to name a few — and we were sure readers will give us some loud feedback.
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But at least, in the best "Spinal Tap" tradition, our list goes to 11:
Guitarist Randy Rhoads recording Ozzy Osbourne's "Blizzard of Ozz" album in 1980.
11: Randy Rhoads (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne)
In a hard rock genre derided by some critics for flash over substance, nobody brought more technical precision to his riffs and solos than the classically trained Randy Rhoads. Exhibit A is the dazzling fret-work in "Crazy Train." Unfortunately, he died in a horrific plane crash at the age of 25, leaving his vast potential unfulfilled.
"Crazy Train," "Flying High Again”
Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones gets an Oslo stadium crowd rocking at a May 26, 2014 concert.
10. Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
He may not be a textbook shredder, but nobody in the history of rock 'n' roll strung together better (or more) riffs than The Rolling Stones guitarist. Fifty-one years after the opening of Richards' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" first played on radios on both sides of the Atlantic, it still delivers goose bumps.
Worth the download: "Jumping Jack Flash,"
"Start Me Up" and "Brown Sugar"
Jeff Beck is still working with his hands during a 2014 performance.
9. Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group)
The ultimate journeyman axe-slinger, the British-born Beck hasn't enjoyed the high-profile success of many of his contemporaries on this list. But perhaps no one melded jazz, blues and heavy metal into more of a cohesive twang and perhaps no one has a better pair of hands.
Worth the download: "Freeway Jam," "Heart Full of Soul," "She's a Woman"
Rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry performs his ‘duck walk’ during a December 1964 concert in Santa Monica, Calif.
8. Chuck Berry (solo)
Dubbed the Father of Rock 'n' Roll, Chuck Berry is the bridge that helped mold traditional blues sensibilities into something new for '50s and '60s' audiences with songs like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over, Beethoven!"
Worth the download: "Johnny B. Goode" and "Maybelline".
Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers cradles his Gibson Les Paul guitar during a break in recording in 1969.
7. Duane Allman (Allman Brothers) Another legend who died far too young — in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24 — the Allman Brothers co-founder still resonates four decades after he played his last lick. No less an authority than Clapton himself recruited the shaggy-haired session veteran to record on the album, "Lalya and Other Assorted Love Songs." And nobody before or since could play the slide with as much smooth flair. Worth the download: "Statesboro Blues" and "Whipping Post" Stevie Ray Vaughan performs on the night before his death in a helicopter accident In August 1990. 6. Stevie Ray Vaughan (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble) Clapton pal Stevie Ray Vaughan had more time to build his legacy than Allman or Rhoads, but is another talent who exited the stage too soon. Before his death at 35 in a helicopter crash, Vaughan made a name for himself eschewing showy effects for a bluesy, clean sound on tracks like "Pride And Joy."
Worth the download: "Crossfire" and "The House Is Rockin'"
Stevie Ray Vaughan performs on the night before his death in a helicopter accident In August 1990.
6. Stevie Ray Vaughan (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble)
Clapton pal Stevie Ray Vaughan had more time to build his legacy than Allman or Rhoads, but is another talent who exited the stage too soon. Before his death at 35 in a helicopter crash, Vaughan made a name for himself eschewing showy effects for a bluesy, clean sound on tracks like "Pride And Joy."
Worth the download:
"Crossfire" and "The House Is Rockin'
Guitarist Eric Clapton performs during his 1974 world tour.
4. Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds, Cream, Derek and the Dominos and solo) The birthday boy has basically been jamming for most of his 70 years on the planet, and that's probably been the key to his success. Few embellishments, clean solos and toe-tapping hooks: a surprisingly simple formula considering how varied his catalogue is between the time he first picked up a guitar as teen and his later solo career. Along the way, he earned 18 Grammy Awards and the only triple inductee of the Rock and Roll of Fame — for The Yardbirds, Cream and as a solo artist.
"Layla," "White Room" and "Cocaine" B.B. King rocks out onstage during the 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival at Madison Square Garden in April 2013.
3. B.B. King (solo) In a genre as guitar heavy as the blues, not just anyone could earn the moniker "The King of the Blues." But King is worthy of the crown: the 15-time Grammy winner and his guitar, "Lucille," have reached superstardom on a signature solo style that savors every note. Quite simply, he's the guy who inspired Clapton and Vaughan to play. Worth the download: "The Thrill Has Gone," "Sweet Little Angel" and "Paying the Cost to Be the Boss"
Eddie Van Halen shows off his patented two-hand, finger-tapping technique during an early ‘80s show.
2. Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) For a guy who taught himself how to play and the son of a big band saxophone player, Eddie Van Halen can sure shred. In the late '70s, when his band really took off from playing L.A.-area clubs to arenas around the world, his two-hand finger-tapping technique seemed unorthodox. Now almost every heavy metal guitarist that teased their hair since has borrowed his tricks of the trade. Worth the download:
"Erupton," "Panama" and "Unchained"
Jimi Hendrix performs live in the late ‘60s.
1. Jimi Hendrix (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Rolling Stone magazine hailed the "Little Wing" guitarist as the greatest wielder of the instrument of all time — and we're not going to argue. In the psychedelic '60s, playing a guitar that was often upside down or swung over his head, all Jimi Hendrix did was revolutionize music with his patented distortion and coming out party at Woodstock.
Like so many on this list, Hendrix died in this prime, as a rock cliché by choking on his own vomit after an apparent barbiturate binge. Hendrix lives on, though, in the guitarists who followed in his fretwork — musicians like Van Halen, Prince and Vaughan.
