Despite being one of the biggest rock bands of all time, Guns N’ Roses don’t have many albums. Consequently, the list of Guns N’ Roses Album Opening Songs Ranked is small but mighty.
Axl Rose and Co. have always known how to make an entrance. On their star-making debut album Appetite for Destruction, they welcomed listeners into their debauched hellscape with the sinister “Welcome to the Jungle.” They took a similarly rough, raucous approach with later songs like “Reckless Life,” “Right Next Door to Hell” and the long-gestating “Chinese Democracy.”
On the other hand, Guns N’ Roses knew how to flip the script and serve up the complete opposite of what fans had come to expect from them. If “Right Next Door to Hell” opened Use Your Illusion I by going straight for the jugular, then “Civil War” kicked off the companion Use Your Illusion II by seeking to raise listeners’ consciousness. Their cover of “Since I Don’t Have You” off “The Spaghetti Incident?” did neither, but it found Guns N’ Roses doing what they do best: ignoring conventional wisdom and indulging their every whim.
See how all of these tracks stack up in our list of Guns N’ Roses Album Opening Songs Ranked.
6. “Since I Don’t Have You”
From: “The Spaghetti Incident?” (1993)
Kicking off their ostensibly punk rock covers album with this 1959 hit from doo-wop group the Skyliners was certainly … a choice. Then again, fans shouldn’t have expected anything less from Guns N’ Roses by this point. Their rendition of “Since I Don’t Have You” is disarmingly sincere, featuring Slash’s aching lead guitar and a Rose vocal that shifts from lovesick croon to piercing rasp. Its placement on “The Spaghetti Incident?” made little sense, but it’s still a potent cover that shows off a different side of the band.
5. “Chinese Democracy”
From: Chinese Democracy (2008)
The long, hard, incredibly expensive road to Chinese Democracy had many GN’R fans convinced (not unreasonably) that Rose had lost his mojo. But the album-opening title track assagued all doubts, at least temporarily. With its buzzsaw riffs, sandpapery screams and anthemic hooks, “Chinese Democracy” proved that Rose could still rock with abandon, regardless of whose names were next to his in the liner notes.
4. “Right Next Door to Hell”
From: Use Your Illusion I (1991)
The same-day releases of Use Your Illusion I and II showed two different sides of Guns N’ Roses. The harder-rocking Illusion I kicked off appropriately with “Right Next Door to Hell,” a high-speed blaster inspired, in part, by Rose’s then-neighbor Gabriela Kantor, who accused the singer of clubbing her in the head with an empty wine bottle and throwing her car keys over his 12th-floor balcony. New drummer Matt Sorum smashes and bashes through ironfisted fills, and Rose sounds more venomous than ever when he screams, “Fuuucccckkkkk yoooooouuuuuu, bitch!” Rock stars: They’re just as petty as us.
READ MORE: Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Use Your Illusion’: The Stories Behind Every Song
3. “Reckless Life”
From: GN’R Lies (1988)
Following the life-changing success of Appetite for Destruction, Guns N’ Roses had to look back in order to move forward. The stopgap GN’R Lies was cobbled together from 1986’s Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP and four newly recorded acoustic tracks. Album opener “Reckless Life” appealed to fans of Guns’ raunchy, metallic side with its punk-metal tempo, sleazy guitar work and hedonistic lyrics. (Not to mention Slash’s pitch-perfect intro of “Hey, fuckers! Suck on Guns N’ fuckin’ Roses!“) It was the last time Guns N’ Roses would ever sound so genuinely free-spirited and, well, reckless.
2. “Civil War”
From: Use Your Illusion II (1991)
This is where the scope of Guns N’ Roses’ newfound ambition came into full view. With its broad-strokes anti-war sentiment and quotes from Cool Hand Luke and a Peruvian Shining Path guerilla officer, the sprawling “Civil War” should have been a total disaster. But Guns N’ Roses pulled it off through a combination of haunting vocals, smoldering guitar work, lighter-waving choruses and sheer force of will. Bonus points for being the only Use Your Illusion song (and final GN’R tune overall) to feature drummer Steven Adler, whose drug-addled performance had to be spliced together form multiple takes.
1. “Welcome to the Jungle”
From: Appetite for Destruction (1987)
Did you really expect anything else? “Welcome to the Jungle” isn’t just Guns N’ Roses’ best album-opening song; it’s their definitive track and one of the best album openers in history. Beginning with Slash’s stuttering guitar riff and Rose’s fear-stricken “Oh my God,” “Welcome to the Jungle” gives a crash course on everything that made Guns N’ Roses a once-in-a-generation band. The serpentine guitar work, swinging grooves, evocative storytelling and alleycat screech all perfectly teed up an album that brought Guns N’ Roses not to their knees, but into the upper echelon of rock stardom.
Every Guns N’ Roses Song Ranked Worst to Best
Multiple narratives emerged when compiling the above list of Guns N’ Roses Songs Ranked Worst to Best. All entries by Eduardo Rivadavia except where noted.
Gallery Credit: Eduardo Rivadavia
