Throughout rock history, the acoustic guitar has found its way into the rock and roll vernacular. From the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie” to Three Days Grace’s “I Hate Everything About You,” the folk box has found a way to rock.
But perhaps its most prevalent role in rock and roll has been to provide contrast to room-shaking riffs, generally as the mellow introduction to a crushing track.
Here, we pay homage to some of the greatest acoustic guitar intros of all time.
“Jack and Diane”
John Mellencamp
Long before a more mature John Mellencamp was a celebrity spokesperson for farmers and down-home folk, he was a young Johnny Cougar from Seymour, Indiana, seeking fame and fortune-only it wasn’t his choosing. Sure, Mellencamp always wanted to be a rock star, but it was manager Tony DeFries, who’d previously managed David Bowie, who coined the “Cougar” stage name for him in 1976. Mellencamp was furious.
With the success of 1982’s American Fool, which contained the Number Two hit “Hurts So Good” and the chart-topper “Jack and Diane,” Mellencamp had finally achieved enough clout to add his given surname to the follow-up, Uh Huh, in 1983, going by John Cougar Mellencamp. And with the success of 1985’s critically acclaimed Scarecrow—as well as the social respect garnered from working with Willie Nelson and Neil Young to organize Farm Aid—the singer lost “Cougar” from his name forever.
“Love Song”
Tesla
The five-man blue-collar band from the Bay Area had made quite a rocking reputation with radio hits “Modern Day Cowboy” and “Little Suzi,” from their electrifying debut, Mechanical Resonance. But it was their follow up, The Great Radio Controversy, that put the band at the