Shortlist for Official Charts Pop Gem #59: Rock On!

This week our Pop Gem celebrates songs with a rocky edge – did your favourite guitar riffs make the shortlist?

Every week, we ask our Twitter buddies and Facebook pals for their Pop Gems, those overlooked classics that used to be all over the radio and in your pop face, but have somehow slipped off the radar.

This week’s theme was songs with a rock element. It didn’t matter whether it was rock, pop, R&B or even Japanese pipe music – as long as there was a serious guitar riff in there, all would be considered.

Probably the most diverse suggestions we’ve ever seen came to the fore. It seems all of you love a go on your air guitar – if you’ll pardon the expression – and you’re not short of options for background music.

We all had an ‘axe’ to grind with this one. Could we let a song in just for its riff alone? Did it need to be a big stadium rock anthem? We subjected each track to a mosh test, and these are the 10 that got our heads banging the most. Sadly, Bon Jovi didn’t make it… too legendary for us.

If you need a refresher, we have very helpfully created a video playlist of all 10 big ones. Grab your weapon and get strumming! (Are you sure about this? – Guitar Ed)

Here's the final 10:

ARTIST	TRACK	PEAK POSITION	YEAR
MUSE	SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE	4	2006
PINK	WHO KNEW	5	2006
JAMELIA	BEWARE OF THE DOG	10	2006
ASHANTI	ONLY U	2	2005
KILLERS	ALL THESE THINGS THAT I'VE DONE	18	2004
HOLE	CELEBRITY SKIN	19	1998
MANSUN	WIDE OPEN SPACE	15	1996
EN VOGUE	FREE YOUR MIND	16	1992
BANGLES	HAZY SHADE OF WINTER	11	1988
HEART	ALONE	3	1987