00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at iconic rock songs that the artists themselves claimed was their personal favorite
00:10work.
00:15Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run.
00:17The boss has told so many powerful stories that he may as well favor the road most traveled.
00:21In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream.
00:28Bruce Springsteen regularly claims that his best work is the title track on his 1975 breakout, Born to Run, widely
00:34considered his signature song.
00:36He describes it as the moment he invented himself, after months of obsessive writing under the threat of Columbia terminating
00:42the niche artist's contract.
00:43Oh, baby, this town rips the bones from your back, it's a death trap.
00:49The final product was a mainstream anthem that revived rock'n'roll archetypes in a way that resonated with the
00:55contemporary American counterculture.
01:02Born to Run has since become a timeless phenomenon, and Springsteen, one of the biggest names in music, he gladly
01:07agrees with the consensus that this rush started with one triumph.
01:19When BBC's The Culture Show asked Radiohead's frontman about his best work, he didn't say The Benz or OK Computer.
01:25He went with the 2000 masterpiece Kid A, specifically the deep-cut fourth track.
01:36How to Disappear Completely was quietly released as a promotional single, but remains a fan-favorite for its atmospheric expression
01:42of distress.
01:49This was what Tom York felt in The Chaos of Fame, which he reportedly processed with advice from Michael Stipe
01:54of REM.
01:55The affirmation of, I'm not here, this isn't happening, speaks to anyone who's experienced the pain of a mental health
02:01crisis.
02:10For all of Radiohead's computerized virtuosity, York feels that the deeply personal How to Disappear Completely is their most beautiful
02:17gem.
02:24In a 2019 interview with BBC Radio, Ozzy Osbourne had an obvious pick for Black Sabbath's best song,
02:31but the title track on the 1970 album, Paranoid, held a special place as the singer's personal anthem.
02:41Bass excuser Butler has been less glowing in his account of hastily writing the song,
02:46to capitalize on the success of Sabbath's recently released debut.
02:49He's also admitted to clumsily conflating paranoia with depression.
02:59Still, Osbourne championed Paranoid as Sabbath's most important song
03:03for proving the commercial potential of the especially intense form of hard rock
03:06that would become heavy metal.
03:13He was eager to have it be a regular closer at shows,
03:16and the song he performed with Sabbath before his passing in 2025.
03:26Dave Grohl, Everlong.
03:28Times were tough for Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl during his first divorce.
03:37Drawing on this, a guitar riff, and his romance with Louise Post of Veruca Salt,
03:42he wrote Everlong in under an hour.
03:44He since regarded it as Foo Fighters' best song, as have many fans.
03:53The second single off of 1997's The Color and the Shape is an enthralling marriage between
03:58thrashing hooks and sincere sentimentality.
04:05This made it a defining staple of post-grunge, and a natural concert closer.
04:10It would thus be the last song drummer Taylor Hawkins performed before his death during a
04:142022 tour.
04:15Everlong has since been a significant anthem in many ways for Grohl,
04:18though he's not the only one to say that about his proudest piece.
04:27Kurt Cobain.
04:28Drain You.
04:29Rock was never the same after Nirvana released Nevermind in 1991,
04:33with the lead single Smells Like Teen Spirit becoming a huge hit.
04:36But Kurt Cobain told Rolling Stone in 1993 that Drain You was at least on par.
04:47It's one of the album's most experimental tracks, telling a codependent love story about
04:52babies over aggressive riffs and a dissonant instrumental midsection.
05:02Drain You is a complete distortion of pop, designed to avoid being a hit even by Nirvana standards.
05:08All the same, fans and critics have long hyped it up as a hidden gem.
05:11I don't care what you think the lesson is about me.
05:18Cobain followed suit, preferring to promote an idiosyncratic, sarcastically tender anthem
05:22from the gut as a true representation of his defiant art.
05:30Want to dive deeper into your favorite music and the stories behind it?
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05:36David Gilmour, Echoes.
05:38Pink Floyd may owe immortality to transforming progressive rock's mass appeal,
05:42but guitarist David Gilmour prefers something less radio-friendly.
05:52Echoes is an almost 24-minute long suite that takes up the entire second half of the 1971 album, Metal.
05:59With its ambient soundscapes, sprawling instrumentation, and abstract lyrics,
06:03it sits right at the pivot point in the band's journey from psychedelia to Prague.
06:14Gilmour has mentioned finding this Leviathan particularly entertaining to play live,
06:19at least with his interplays between him and keyboardist Richard Wright.
06:22Echoes was said to be a favorite of his as well.
06:29Gilmour understandably retired the song after Wright's passing in 2008,
06:33but it carries on as one of Pink Floyd's most singular achievements.
06:41Paul McCartney.
06:42Here, there, and everywhere.
06:44They say that you can learn a lot about someone by asking them what their favorite song by the Beatles
06:48is.
06:49The band were themselves conflicted on the subject,
06:51but Paul McCartney has been firm in his praise of here, there, and everywhere.
07:02The two-in-a-minute-long fifth track on 1966's Revolver manages to stand out with its breezy tone
07:08and poetically romantic lyrics.
07:18McCartney has been open about being heavily inspired by the Beach Boys' God Only Knows,
07:22one of his favorite songs of all time.
07:29But as here, there, and everywhere still sounds distinctly Beatles,
07:32future fans would argue with someone who calls it their masterpiece.
07:35That would mean arguing with Paul, after all.
07:37I will be here, there, and everywhere.
07:43Freddie Mercury.
07:44Somebody to love.
07:45If you had to name a gospel-infused Queen anthem with a philosophical perspective of loneliness,
07:50Freddie Mercury wouldn't have wanted you to say Bohemian Rhapsody.
07:53In 1977, he told the Australian program Countdown
07:57that he prefers somebody to love for its more cohesive writing.
08:00Each morning I get out of my dial,
08:03I can barely stand on my feet.
08:05The singer certainly pours his soul into the centerpiece of the 1976 album A Day at the Races.
08:16It was also his big tribute to the idolized Aretha Franklin.
08:20Some peers would later confirm that the late Mercury privately considered somebody to love
08:24to be Queen's crowning achievement.
08:26Find me somebody to love.
08:29Find me somebody to love.
08:32While their catalog makes that a bold claim,
08:34immense love from critics and audiences supports it to this day.
08:38To love.
08:42Find me, find me, find me, find me.
08:45Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
08:47Cashmere.
08:48It's popularly believed that Stairway to Heaven will go down as Led Zeppelin's most elevated contribution to rock.
09:02In a 2018 interview with Dan Rather,
09:06singer Robert Plant said that he'd rather be remembered for Cashmere.
09:14He's long touted the eight-minute-long centerpiece of 1975's physical graffiti as the band's zenith.
09:20Guitarist and co-writer Jimmy Page has echoed this sentiment,
09:23praising the intricate blend of cyclical riffs,
09:26sweeping orchestration,
09:27and eastern influences drawn from Plant's tour of the Sahara.
09:30As I'm scared,
09:34this way's in my head.
09:37Cashmere was unlike anything anyone had heard in 75,
09:40and continues to spark debate over whether it's Zeppelin's true magnum opus.
09:44For Plant and Page,
09:45it's really not much of a debate.
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10:01Are you not entertained?
10:04Mick Jagger.
10:05Gimme Shelter.
10:06An apocalyptic account of war,
10:08Gimme Shelter wasn't the Rolling Stones' most upbeat choice to open 1969's Let It Bleed.
10:13Ooh, the storm is friendly.
10:17My very life to me.
10:20Frontman Mick Jagger told NPR in 2012
10:22that it's nonetheless their best song.
10:24The composition actually began with Keith Richards' anger
10:27over his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg's affair with Jagger.
10:30Ooh, still fire is sweeping.
10:34Now there's green.
10:37This tension was given a political message,
10:39with a chaotic tone to the dissonant jamming
10:42and Mary Clayton's explosive guest vocals.
10:44Gimme Shelter's improbable fusion of permanent urgency
10:47and mainstream hook
10:49has been called one of the most important achievements in rock music.
10:52Gimme, gimme a shelter.
11:00Jagger is just part of the consensus
11:01that it's the stone's peak,
11:03which may mean more to an artist than the mutual praise means to fans.
11:11What are your own picks from these artists' iconic catalogs?
11:14Chime in in the comments below.
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