Tonight’s featured artists had a song that although it failed to chart in the US or UK when it was released wound up being ranked number 30 on the 2008 Rolling Stone list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". Can you guess the song or the band??

So let’s begin with our slow starter that would be ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ by Brian May of Queen. It was the opening track of Queen’s first album back in 1973 and was also the A side of their first single. According to Wikipedia the song failed to chart on either side of the pond, as they say, and was largely ignored.   Written on and for acoustic guitar the final recording actually did not use acoustic guitar at all; the printed transcription on EMI Music Publishing's Off the Record' sheet music lists at least seven electric guitar parts, one of which uses a prominent phasing effect. Now considered a classic Rolling Stone rated the song thirty-first on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" in 2008.

Let’s give it a listen.

 

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