The 111 Best Hair Metal Songs of all time

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Knowing this genre wasn’t the most difficult part of making this list.  I know this music better than I know the names of the members of my family.  The difficult journey in making this list was figuring out what bands belonged.  There are some giants of the metal field that have been obviously excluded.  Metallica is too metal.  AC/DC was too hard rock.  Iron Maiden and Judas Priest didn’t belong.  Queensryche is really a prog band with more in common with Pink Floyd than Pretty Boy Floyd. Van Halen and Kiss were a tough call.  Both bands laid the foundation for the glam/hair metal to come…and even flirted with very cheesy makeovers…but neither fully committed, which really left the two of them squarely rooted in 70s rock.  On the flip side, the Scorpions and Whitesnake both started in 70s rock but completely embraced the hair metal movement, committed to a full make over.

The 90s wrecked havoc on the hair metal scene…but there’s been a small comeback.  Sure you could argue to include the Darkness but then maybe Queen should be considered, too. But the comeback is really all because of the heroics of Steel Panther…with their full-on tongue-in-cheek Spinal Tap homage they are single-handedly trying to resurrect the genre.  They’ve been a badass cover band for years…and are finally making their own music that is as good if not better than the music they’re used to mimicking.


Here are the 111 Best Hair Metal Songs of All Time:

  1. Sweet Child O’ Mine – Guns N Roses (Appetite For Destruction)
  2. Livin On a Prayer – Bon Jovi (Slippery When Wet)
  3. Paradise City – Guns N Roses (Appetite For Destruction)
  4. Here I Go Again – Whitesnake (Whitesnake)
  5. On With The Show – Motley Crue (Too Fast For Love)
  6. Photograph – Def Leppard (Pyromania)
  7. Rocket Queen – Guns N Roses (Appetite For Destruction)
  8. No One Like You – Scorpions (Blackout)
  9. Kiss Me Deadly – Lita Ford (Lita)
  10. Is This Love? – Whitesnake (Whitesnake)
  11. Mr. Brownstone – Guns N Roses (Appetite For Destruction)
  12. Rock Me – Great White (Once Bitten)
  13. Too Young To Fall In Love – Motley Crue (Shout At The Devil)
  14. Armageddon It – Def Leppard (Hysteria)
  15. Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N Roses (Appetite For Destruction)
  16. Still Loving You – Scorpions (Love At First Sting)
  17. Runaway – Bon Jovi (Bon Jovi)
  18. Patience – Guns N Roses (Lies)
  19. Live Wire – Motley Crue (Too Fast For Love)
  20. Pour Some Sugar On Me – Def Leppard (Hysteria)
  21. Rock You Like A Hurricane – Scorpions (Love At First Sting)
  22. Cum On Feel The Noize – Quiet Riot (Metal Health)
  23. Love Bites – Def Leppard (Hysteria)
  24. Estranged – Guns N Roses (Use Your Illusion II)
  25. Civil War – Guns N Roses (Use Your Illusion II)
  26. Born To Be My Baby – Bon Jovi (New Jersey)
  27. Gypsy Road – Cinderella (Long Cold Winter)
  28. I Remember You – Skid Row (Skid Row)
  29. Love Song – Tesla (The Great Radio Controversy)
  30. Talk Dirty To Me – Poison (Look What The Cat Dragged In)
  31. Round and Round – Ratt (Out of the Cellar)
  32. Nobody’s Fool – Cinderella (Night Songs)
  33. In My Dreams – Dokken (Under Lock And Key)
  34. You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi (Slippery When Wet)
  35. You Could Be Mine – Guns N Roses (Use Your Illusion II)
  36. Scared – Dangerous Toys (Dangerous Toys)
  37. Fallen Angel – Poison (Open Up and Say…Ahh!)
  38. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Warrant (Cherry Pie)
  39. House of Pain – Faster Pussycat (Wake Me When It’s Over)
  40. Someone Like You – Bang Tango (Psycho Cafe)
  41. Give Me All Your Love – Whitesnake (Whitesnake)
  42. Somebody Save Me – Cinderella (Night Songs)
  43. Edge of A Broken Heart – Vixen (Vixen)
  44. Alone Again – Dokken (Tooth and Nail)
  45. Blaze of Glory – Jon Bon Jovi (Young Guns Soundtrack)
  46. Wait – White Lion (Pride)
  47. Kickstart My Heart – Motley Crue (Dr. Feelgood)
  48. Lay your Hands On Me – Bon Jovi (New Jersey)
  49. Shake Me – Cinderella (Night Songs)
  50. Mirror Mirror – Don Dokken (Up From The Ashes)
  51. Heaven – Warrant (Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich)
  52. Never Enough – LA Guns (Cocked and Loaded)
  53. Little Fighter – White Lion (Big Game)
  54. Only Lonely – Bon Jovi (7800 Fahrenheit)
  55. Don’t Know What You Got – Cinderella (Long Cold Winter)
  56. Nightrain – Guns N Roses (Appetite For Destruction)
  57. Animal – Def Leppard (Hysteria)
  58. Makin Magic – Tesla (The Great Radio Controversy)
  59. Ride the Wind – Poison (Flesh & Blood)
  60. Slave To The Grind – Skid Row (Slave to the Grind)
  61. Breaking the Chains – Dokken (Breaking The Chains)
  62. Shame Shame Shame – Ratt (Detonator)
  63. Wicked Sensation – Lynch Mob (Wicked Sensation)
  64. 18 and Life – Skid Row (Skid Row)
  65. Love Ain’t No Stranger – Whitesnake (Slide It In)
  66. The Ballad of Jayne – LA Guns (Cocked And Loaded)
  67. Babylon – Faster Pussycat (Faster Pussycat)
  68. Crying in the Rain – Whitesnake (Whitesnake)
  69. Too Fast For Love – Motley Crue (Too Fast For Love)
  70. Lust of Love – Scorpions (Crazy World)
  71. Mr. Rainmaker – Warrant (Cherry Pie)
  72. Don’t Cry – Guns N Roses (Use Your Illusion I)
  73. Bringing On the Heartbreak – Def Leppard (High N Dry)
  74. Youth Gone Wild – Skid Row (Skid Row)
  75. Better – Guns N Roses (Chinese Democracy)
  76. It Don’t Matter – Def Leppard (On Through the Night)
  77. Paradise – Tesla (The Great Radio Controversy)
  78. Come Back – Bon Jovi (Bon Jovi)
  79. Dream Warriors – Dokken (Back For The Attack)
  80. Modern Day Cowboy – Tesla (Mechanical Resonance)
  81. I’d Die For You – Bon Jovi (Slippery When Wet)
  82. Signs – Tesla (Five Man Acoustical Jam)
  83. A Little Too Much – Ratt (Infestation)
  84. High Enough – Damn Yankees (Damn Yankees)
  85. Tell Me – White Lion (Pride)
  86. Dr. Feelgood – Motley Crue (Dr. Feelgood)
  87. Blackout in the Red Room – Love/Hate (Blackout in the Red Room)
  88. Coming Home – Cinderella (Long Cold Winter)
  89. Satellite – Def Leppard (On Through the Night)
  90. Magdalaine – LA Guns (Cocked and Loaded)
  91. River of Love – Lynch Mob (Wicked Sensation)
  92. Bathroom Wall – Faster Pussycat (Faster Pussycat)
  93. The Deeper the Love – Whitesnake (Slip of the Tongue)
  94. Looks that Kill – Motley Crue (Shout At The Devil)
  95. The Zoo – Scorpions (Animal Magnetism)
  96. Standing on the Outside – Dokken (Lightning Strikes Again)
  97. Miles Away – Winger (In the Heart of the Young)
  98. Spend My Life – Slaughter (Stick It To Ya)
  99. Rock Queen – Love/Hate (Blackout in the Red Room)
  100. Smoking in the Boys Room – Motley Crue (Theatre of Pain)
  101. Holiday – Scorpions (Lovedrive)
  102. The Final Countdown – Europe (The Final Countdown)
  103. We’re Not Gonna Take It – Twisted Sister (Stay Hungry)
  104. Under the Gun – Danger Danger (Danger Danger)
  105. When the Walls Come Tumbling Down – Def Leppard (On Through the Night)
  106. Home Sweet Home – Motley Crue (Theatre of Pain)
  107. November Rain – Guns N Roses (Use Your Illusion I)
  108. Yesterdaze Gone – Tesla (The Great Radio Controversy)
  109. Wanted Dead Or Alive – Bon Jovi (Slippery When Wet)
  110. Still of the Night – Whitesnake (Whitesnake)
  111. Turn Up the Radio – Autograph (Sign In Please)
Buy Steel Panther’s new album, Balls Out…now!!