Classic Rock Music Quiz: Guess the Song From the Riff

This is a quiz for people who can name a song from its first guitar chord. The playlist runs from Elvis and the Stones through punk, grunge and Britpop to Linkin Park, so a mixed group of dads, teenagers and that one friend who owns a vinyl collection all get their moment.

How to play this quiz

1. Hit the button above on your big screen (a smart TV browser, a laptop hooked up to the TV, or just a laptop) and start the game. The room opens with the playlist already loaded.
2. Everyone scans the QR code with their phone and types a name. Nothing to install. Whoever joins first is the host and picks the mode and target score.
3. Our pick: "Song and year" mode (the timeline mode). The playlist covers nearly seventy years, so placing each song on your personal timeline is where the real game happens. "Jailhouse Rock" and "Song 2" are not hard to separate; "Under the Bridge" and "Creep", both 1992 singles, are a different story.
4. Set the time to buzz to 15 or 20 seconds (how long each song plays if nobody buzzes). Rock intros give themselves away fast, and 30 seconds just slows the round down.
5. First to buzz gets 20 seconds to type the answer. A wrong guess costs a point and a 3-second wait, and the music keeps playing for everyone else.

Songs that might come up

Deezer maintains the playlist and it can change, but these are among the tracks in it. Years are for the original single, or the album where the song was never a single.

The riffs every guitar shop is sick of

• "House of the Rising Sun" – The Animals (1964): a slow minor-key arpeggio.
• "Paint It, Black" – The Rolling Stones (1966): the sitar, not a guitar, is what you hear first.
• "Stairway to Heaven" – Led Zeppelin (1971): acoustic guitar and recorders. It was never a commercial single in the US; it lives on Led Zeppelin IV.
• "Smoke on the Water" – Deep Purple: four notes. The album Machine Head came out in 1972, the single in 1973.
• "Hotel California" – Eagles (1977): twelve-string intro. The album is 1976, the single 1977, a classic timeline trap.
• "Highway to Hell" – AC/DC (1979)
• "Back in Black" – AC/DC (1980): the dry riff with gaps between the hits.

Eighties

• "Should I Stay or Should I Go" – The Clash (1982): straight into the riff, no warm-up.
• "Every Breath You Take" – The Police (1983): the guitar figure that never stops.
• "Livin' on a Prayer" – Bon Jovi (1986): that bass line, then the talk box.

Nineties onward

• "Thunderstruck" – AC/DC (1990): the hammered-on guitar notes before the "Thunder!" chant.
• "Wind of Change" – Scorpions (1991): the whistling. The album Crazy World is 1990; the single came out in January 1991.
• "Smells Like Teen Spirit" – Nirvana (1991): four chords on a lone guitar, then the whole band crashes in.
• "Enter Sandman" – Metallica (1991): a clean, creeping arpeggio that builds and builds.
• "Under the Bridge" – Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992): delicate clean guitar. Album 1991, single 1992.
• "Creep" – Radiohead (1992): released as a single in 1992 and largely ignored, so most people guess 1993, when it took off with the album.
• "Basket Case" – Green Day (1994): voice and guitar alone at the start.
• "Song 2" – Blur (1997): drums and "Woo-hoo!". You'll know it before you can blink.
• "Now and Then" – The Beatles (2023): the band's final song, built from a Lennon demo recorded around 1977.

Difficulty and tips to win

Medium to hard. The big hits go fast, but there's a solid layer of alternative and punk (Pixies, The Breeders, Joy Division, New York Dolls, The Stooges) that only the real music nerds will get. In "Song and year" mode, the dates are harder than the titles.

• AC/DC turns up more than once. Raw, dry riff? Think AC/DC first, then work out which one.
• Watch for covers. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is in the playlist as the Guns N' Roses version, not Bob Dylan's original. If you're searching by artist, go with who you hear.
• Know the year traps. Album and single in different years ("Hotel California", "Wind of Change", "Under the Bridge", "Creep"), and above all "Now and Then", which sounds like 1970s Beatles but is from 2023.
• Use the production. Shiny, reverb-heavy guitars usually mean the eighties; muddy distortion and a bored vocal mean the early nineties. More clues in our guide on how to guess what year a song is from.

Running a rock night across generations

Classic rock is one of the few genres that parents and their teenage kids genuinely share. To keep it fair:

• Start with a 5-point round in "Song only" mode so everyone scores early.
• Then switch to "Song and year" mode, first to 10 points. Older players own the sixties and seventies; younger ones tend to nail "In the End" or "Basket Case". Read our music timeline game strategy if you've never played that mode.
• For experts only: set the search to title only. Without the artist in the suggestions, "Cryin'" or "Angie" get much harder.

Want more? Try the 80s songs quiz for a synth-heavy night, or 90s hip hop for a change of scene.

FAQ

Do we need to download an app?

No. Track Attack runs in the browser: the big screen plays the music and phones work as buzzers via a QR code. No Spotify or Deezer account needed either.

How many people can play?

A group of friends or a family, no problem. Each player just needs a phone.

Can we play without a TV?

Yes, a laptop is fine. A TV just makes it easier for everyone to see, and a decent speaker does those riffs justice.

Can we do it with no app at all?

Sure: shuffle a classic rock playlist, stop it when someone shouts, and keep score on paper. It works, though expect arguments about who shouted first.