20 Greatest Guitar Solos of ALL TIME

Darcey over at the Broom picked up on this and provides other links to the topic.
It started out as Guitar Player Magazines pick list but it's morphing.....

I've got my favorites and a few rules that I believe make it true.
Rule # 1 - A guitar SOLO is an instrumental break in an arrangement that features the guitar.
Rule # 2 - A great Guitar SOLO must make the piece better and preferably Make The Piece!
Rule # 3 - A great Guitar SOLO must showcase the originality and Musicality of the Player!
Rule # 4 - A great guitar SOLO must be played with Heart and Soul !

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Here's My Top 20 Picks For Best Guitar SOLO of All Time:

1 - From an album that was recorded as part of a road show Called Night of The Guitar: Leslie West doing a completely improvisational turn on Felix Papalardi's Theme From An Imaginary Western.

Why? Because he plays it with complete spiritual feeling for his friend Felix! And it takes you away with it's beauty and power! And his own musicianship shines through the whole piece!

2 - From one of the Live recordings of Stevie Ray Vaughn his emotional interpretation of Hendrix's Little Wing - He plays this with his eyes closed and his head turned to the heavens and you can hear his own emotion burning through every note as he channels his own talent with that of Hendrix .... it's spooky!
3 - From The Eagles Live album with Joe Walsh - Hotel California - Where Walsh and ernie Felder play off each other like other musicians can only dream of playing. They improvise and intertwine the theme of the song like magic. Another carry you away experience!
4 - From the Who Live at Leads - Townsend's intro to the Tommy Theme - I can't remember what its proper title is but it's such a signature piece that anyone who hears it has the power chords burnt into their cortex forever. It's primal and raw and nobody had ever made that sound ever before.
5 - From the Woodstock Soundtrack - Alvin Lee's blistering attack on Goin' Home truly a part of the soundtrack for that generation ( Yep I'm That old ) as a testament to the power of that number.... the next year at a Rock Festival near Orangeville ON we had our Campsite set up with a generator and a kickass sound system. With Alvin's Goin Home filling the night one of my group was playing air guitar using the back of a pickup truck camper as his stage....by the time the tune ended he had over 200 people clapping to the beat and cheering. Now that's powerful music!
6 - From Edgar Winter's White Trash Live album - Rick Derringer carries the whole overpowering Band with his smoking hot attack guitar on Back In The USA! When a guitar
player has the energy to trump a pounding rhythm section AND a full stack of Horns....well !

7 - From Hendrix's Are You Experienced - The solo from Hey Joe a signature piece that highlighted his brilliance and soulful musicality that stands the test of time. I defy you to listen to this and not feel the heat of Jimmy's musical passion.
8 - From Hendrix's Electric Ladyland - All along the Watchtower - When Hendrix took this weak Dylan tune and elevated it to an iconic piece of rock history he put his stamp on the world of music forever.
9 - From Electric Ladyland - Hendrix's abandoned improvisation on the Voodoo Chile' Slight Return track. Jimmy set the standard for playing without boundaries on this one piece of genius.
10 - From Bridge of Sighs - Robin Trower's balsy and bluesy take away to the fade on Too Rollin ' Stoned!
11 - From the Album "Detroit" - Steve Hunter's Ripping riff solo on "Rock and Roll" nobody has ever put such a simple exclamation point on a simple rock number with that much effect since.

12 - From Cream - Eric Clapton's Cross Roads solo - if I have to explain that you are wasting your time here!
13 - From Led Zeppelin II - But really from any of his live performances Jimmy Page's solo on "Bring it On Home" because that one solo was the first time you heard him pull out all the goodies in his bag of musical punctuation marks.
14 - From The Band Cactus - In it's original Incarnation of Rusty Day, Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert and Jim McCarty - McCarty's string stretching rip of a solo on "Evil" - you have to hear this number and this band - they were panned by the fops at Rolling Stone and never got nearly the attention they deserved - But McCarty is a legend with Guitar players to this day.
15 - From The Jeff Beck Group - Beck's solo on his very original piece Beck's Bolero

16 - From another Group that never made the Top of the charts Spirit - Randy California (who by the way made a big impression on Hendrix at the age of 15) creates absolutely perfect sonic shapes to the intelligent tunes of the band I'm putting the three best numbers under the single spot because so few people seem to know about this group. The Songs are Dark Eyed Woman, When I Touch You and Street Worm.

17 - Again from the under the radar zone - The Band is Captain Beyond and the Guitar Player is ( Ex Iron Butterfly) Rhino who strings together a sonic pastiche on the second side of the album with a series of tasteful and inventive guitar solos some truly beautiful and melodic some cutting and intense.
18 - The Guess Who - Randy Bachman's "American Woman" - hands down one of the most recognizable solos ever and nobody's done it any better than Randy did that day In Kitchener when he 'goofed' it together to kill time while Cummings was out of commission!
19 - The Allman Brothers - "Whipping Post" featuring Dicky Betts and Duane Allman twining around each other's riffs and pulling up the energy of the band into perfect focus ... real guitar killers playin with real soul and talent.
20 - From the father of the modern electric guitar and the inventor of many recording studio techniques Les Paul with his 1950 ( or so) version of "Lover Mine" - the challenge is to find it the genius in the recording and the playing is self evident!

Cheers
OMMAG