THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

89-Deep Purple-Smoke on the Water.

1971-It didn’t chart in the UK until it was re-issued in 1977 when reaching Number 21.

Best Bit-At 0.01. It’s the most famous and iconic guitar riff in the world ever. Whenever a budding rock star decides that they want to learn how to play an electric guitar, this is the riff they always attempt to play first.

Deep Purple (see also best songs 550) have gone through many personnel changes since their initial forming in 1968, in London, England. They remained active through until going on hiatus in 1976, and then they reformed in 1984, and remain active at the time of writing, with Ian Paice being the bands one constant. In total there have been 16 different members come and go, with the five who are considered to be the classic line up being Ian Paice, (drums) Ritchie Blackmore, (guitar) (see also best songs 976) John Lord, (1941-2012) (keyboards) Ian Gillan, (vocals) and Roger Glover (bass) (see also best songs 558.) The group took their name from the 1933 song called ‘Deep Purple,’ written by Peter DeRose, (1896-1953) as it was Ritchie Blackmore’s grandmothers favourite song.

Alongside Led Zeppelin (see also best songs 135 and 66) and Black Sabbath, (see also best songs 814) Deep Purple have been referred to as the ‘unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid- seventies,’ and they are considered to be one of the most influential rock bands of all time, with record sales in excess of 100 million. The discography of Deep Purple includes 22 studio Albums that have been released between 1968-2021, and 58 singles issued over the same time period. In the UK five of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Black Night’ from 1970 charting the highest at Number 2, while in America on the Billboard Hot 100, three of their singles have made the top 40, with both ‘Hush’ from 1968, and ‘Smoke on the Water,’ (1972) both peaking at Number 4.

‘Smoke on the Water’ was the third single released from Deep Purple’s sixth studio Album ‘Machine Head’ from 1972, with all five band members at that time being given the songwriting, and the production credits. The lyrics to ‘Smoke on the Water’ tell a true story. The band had flown in to Montreux, Switzerland, and on December 4th, 1971, were to record an Album using ‘The Rolling Stones’ mobile recording studio (mentioned in this song) that was parked in the Montreux Casino entertainment complex. In the evening the Deep Purple band members went to see ‘Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention’ playing a concert in the casino’s theatre, where at some point in the evening somebody in the audience fired a flare gun towards the ceiling. Although there were no major injuries, the resulting fire destroyed the entire casino complex. The ‘Smoke on the Water’ that became the songs title is down to Roger Glover who has related how the title occurred to him, after he woke from a dream a few days later, ‘It was probably the biggest fire I’d ever seen up to that point and probably ever seen in my life. It was a huge building. I remember there was very little panic getting out, because it didn’t seem like much of a fire at first, but, when it caught, it went up like a fireworks display.’

The opening guitar riff to ‘Smoke on the Water’ is probably the most famous guitar riff of all time. Ritchie Blackmore who wrote the riff has said that on first hearing it friends of the band gave it the thumbs down saying it was too simplistic. Blackmore has claimed that the riff is an interpretation of inversion of ‘Symphony No.5,’ (written between 1804-1808) by Ludwig van Beethoven, (1770-1827) Blackmore has said,’And for that “I owe him a lot of money.’ Ian Paice has said,’The amazing thing with that song, and Ritchie’s riff in particular, is that somebody hadn’t done it before, because it’s so gloriously simple, and wonderfully satisfying.’

‘We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline,to make records with a mobile. We didn’t have much time, but Frank Zappa and the Mothers were at the best place around, but some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground.’