Smoke on the Water

Deep Purple’s song “Smoke on the Water” has become one of the quintessential hard rock tracks. One could argue that this title might instead belong to Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” or Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” but the truth is that every guy who ever held a guitar has surely tried to play the main riff from “Smoke on the Water.” The song was inspired by a fire that destroyed a casino in Montreux while the band was recording material for a new album in that very city. In May 1973, it was released as a single and reached number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.