What makes for a great 12-string guitar song as opposed to a great song that just happens to have a 12-string somewhere on it? Let's face it, if "Stairway to Heaven" had a ukulele on it, it would immediately be in the running for Greatest Ukulele Song of All Time.
When considering the choices for this list, we realized it wasn't as easy a task as we initially thought.
What makes for a great 12-string guitar song as opposed to a great song that just happens to have a 12-string guitar somewhere on it? Let's face it, if Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" had a ukulele on it, it would immediately be in the running for Greatest Ukulele Song of All Time.
That being said, we looked at not only the legacy of the song but how prevalent 12-string guitar is in the song and how influential the song would be in inspiring others to pick up their 12-strings.
Without the 1964 Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, the Byrds might not have existed as you now know them (assuming you know them—and you should know them), and without "Stairway to Heaven," the doubleneck guitar might be sitting in a museum as a one-time oddity produced by Gibson. So what song will we crown as the Greatest 12-String Guitar Song of All Time?
Read on ... (And yes, we threw in an extra song; our math isn't too good. Enjoy our top 31!).
Also, before we get started, we're presenting an "honorable mention" award for Tom Petty's "Somewhere Under Heaven," his standalone 2015 single, which proves artists are still writing and recording great 12-string guitar songs in the modern era. The song, which was written by Petty and Mike Campbell, was featured in the Entourage soundtrack in