With the huge number of acoustic songs, it’s tricky to pick a few that could be considered the best acoustic guitar songs ever. Acoustic music has been popular for many years and remains very popular, so there’s plenty of contenders for our list. However, here are a few that we think should make anybody’s list of all-time classics.
The Beatles were certainly at home writing acoustic songs. For example, Blackbird, Here Comes the Sun and Dear Prudence are all classics of the acoustic genre.
Some great acoustic songs have come out of the folk movement, including Mrs Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel and River Man by Nick Drake. Richard Thompson’s gorgeous ballad Beeswing is also a great contribution to the acoustic cannon.
Many great acoustic songs have also been created by artists more traditionally thought of as heavier rock musicians. For example Led Zeppelin used the acoustic guitar to great effect in songs such as Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You. Extreme gained worldwide success by writing an acoustic ballad – More Than Words, which sounded quite unlike their usual funk-rock output. Tears in Heaven was a great acoustic song from Eric Clapton, who also rearranged his hit Layla to great effect as an acoustic song.
Artists such as David Gray (Babylon) and Jose Gonzales (Heartbeats) as well as many others ensure that acoustic guitar is still popular today, and many more great songs are being written and recorded on the instrument.