The Rolling Stone's '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' Named the Best Opening Guitar Riff Ever

The greatest opening guitar riff in rock history didn't come from a rehearsal room, a studio session or years of refinement. It came from a dream.

According to Somuchgreatmusic.com, the "greatest opening guitar riff ever" belongs to the Rolling Stones' 1965 classic "Satisfaction", and as the site puts it, "like there's really a more perfect and engraved-in-memory opening in rock and roll history?" On the question of its supremacy, they invoke Seinfeld: "On this issue there can be no debate."

The story of how it came to exist is almost as remarkable as the riff itself.

The Song That Came to Keith Richards in a Dream

In May of 1965, Keith Richards went to bed with a guitar at the foot of his bed and a small Phillips cassette player nearby. He put a fresh blank tape in before falling asleep. When he woke the next morning, the tape had run all the way to the end. His guitar was in bed beside him.

"I put a fresh blank tape in, a new one, y'know, just in case," Richards recalled. "When I woke up the next morning, I just glanced at the tape and it's run all the way to the end. And then all of a sudden I realized that my guitar was now in the bed lying next to me. And so out of curiosity I ran the tape back to the beginning, and there it is - 'dun, dun, da na nun, da nanna nanna.' But I had no recollection of actually doing it."

What Makes This the Greatest Opening Guitar Riff Ever

What makes the opening of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" so iconic is its inevitability. The moment those four notes hit, the listener knows exactly where they are and exactly what is coming. It is one of the most instantly recognizable sounds in the history of popular music, a riff so perfectly constructed that it has never dated, never felt overplayed, and never lost its power to stop a room.

It also arrived at precisely the right moment. In 1965, rock and roll was still finding its identity - still figuring out what it could be and how far it could push. "Satisfaction" answered that question in four notes before Mick Jagger had sung a single word.

Released in June 1965, "Satisfaction" reached No. 1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom and remains one of the most celebrated recordings in the history of popular music. Rolling Stone has ranked it among the greatest songs ever made. Keith Richards, characteristically, has always seemed slightly bemused by the whole thing.

"Thank goodness for Keith somnambulantly hitting the record button on that Phillips cassette player," as Somuchgreatmusic.com put it. "Somehow. A world without that riff would've offered a lot less satisfaction."

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 9:20 PM.