Need Your Love
Cheap Trick, 1978, from Cheap Trick at Budokan. Solo by Rick Nielsen.
A slow-building, heavy track where Nielsen's lead playing stretches out beyond the band's usual tight pop format.
Need Your Love shows a heavier, more patient side of Cheap Trick. The track builds slowly over a grinding groove, and Rick Nielsen uses the extra room to stretch out, playing longer, more exploratory lead lines than the band's tight pop singles allow. His tone is thick and crunchy, and his phrases grow more intense as the song develops, adding weight and drama. It highlights the band's hard rock roots beneath their power pop polish. Listen for how Nielsen gradually raises the energy, moving from sparse phrases to more aggressive bursts, and for the way the guitar and rhythm section lock into a hypnotic, repetitive pattern that gives the song its brooding power.
Need Your Love by Cheap Trick is ranked #329 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Rick Nielsen and the song was released in 1978. It appears on 1 lists, placing as high as #87 (uDiscover Music).
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Who played the guitar solo on Need Your Love?
Rick Nielsen played the solo on Cheap Trick's Need Your Love (1978).
Where does Need Your Love rank among the greatest guitar solos?
#329 in the GreatestSolos consensus of 79 published lists; it appears on 1 of them.