# The Best Guitar Solos of 1978 > The best guitar solos of 1978, ranked. #1 is Eruption by Van Halen, then Sultans of Swing and Beyond the Realms of Death. Every video starts at the solo. Canonical URL: The 20 greatest guitar solos released in 1978, ranked: solos our consensus of published lists rates highest come first, then our genre and artist rankings, with no more than three per artist. Led by Eruption by Van Halen, Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits and Beyond the Realms of Death by Judas Priest. 1. [Eruption](https://greatestsolos.com/song/van-halen-eruption/) — Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1978 2. [Sultans of Swing](https://greatestsolos.com/song/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing/) — Dire Straits · solo by Mark Knopfler · 1978 3. [Beyond the Realms of Death](https://greatestsolos.com/song/judas-priest-beyond-the-realms-of-death/) — Judas Priest · solo by Glenn Tipton & K.K. Downing · 1978 4. [La Villa Strangiato](https://greatestsolos.com/song/rush-la-villa-strangiato/) — Rush · solo by Alex Lifeson · 1978 5. [Parisienne Walkways](https://greatestsolos.com/song/gary-moore-parisienne-walkways/) — Gary Moore · solo by Gary Moore · 1978 6. [Another Girl Another Planet](https://greatestsolos.com/song/the-only-ones-another-girl-another-planet/) — The Only Ones · solo by John Perry · 1978 7. [Ice Cream Man](https://greatestsolos.com/song/van-halen-ice-cream-man/) — Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1978 8. [Brother to Brother](https://greatestsolos.com/song/gino-vannelli-brother-to-brother/) — Gino Vannelli · solo by Carlos Rios · 1978 9. [Shadow Play](https://greatestsolos.com/song/rory-gallagher-shadow-play/) — Rory Gallagher · solo by Rory Gallagher · 1978 10. [Gates of Babylon](https://greatestsolos.com/song/rainbow-gates-of-babylon/) — Rainbow · solo by Ritchie Blackmore · 1978 11. [Just What I Needed](https://greatestsolos.com/song/the-cars-just-what-i-needed/) — The Cars · solo by Elliot Easton · 1978 12. [Hold the Line](https://greatestsolos.com/song/toto-hold-the-line/) — Toto · solo by Steve Lukather · 1978 13. [Need Your Love](https://greatestsolos.com/song/cheap-trick-need-your-love/) — Cheap Trick · solo by Rick Nielsen · 1978 14. [Kill the King](https://greatestsolos.com/song/rainbow-kill-the-king/) — Rainbow · solo by Ritchie Blackmore · 1978 15. [So Lonely](https://greatestsolos.com/song/the-police-so-lonely/) — The Police · solo by Andy Summers · 1978 16. [Renegade](https://greatestsolos.com/song/styx-renegade/) — Styx · solo by Tommy Shaw & James Young · 1978 17. [Surrender](https://greatestsolos.com/song/cheap-trick-surrender/) — Cheap Trick · solo by Rick Nielsen · 1978 18. [Room 335](https://greatestsolos.com/song/larry-carlton-room-335/) — Larry Carlton · solo by Larry Carlton · 1978 19. [Fire on the Mountain](https://greatestsolos.com/song/grateful-dead-fire-on-the-mountain/) — Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1978 20. [Teenage Kicks](https://greatestsolos.com/song/the-undertones-teenage-kicks/) — The Undertones · solo by John O'Neill, Damian O'Neill · 1978 --- GreatestSolos ranks the greatest guitar solos by consensus across published lists. Agent guide: [llms.txt](https://greatestsolos.com/llms.txt) · [Sitemap](https://greatestsolos.com/sitemap.xml) · [Dataset (CSV)](https://greatestsolos.com/data/greatest-guitar-solos.csv) · [How we rank](https://greatestsolos.com/method/)