Deep Purple's is best guitar riff ever

More than 300 musicians have voted the guitar riff of Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water as the best riff of all time.

The poll, conducted by the Australian Musician magazine, saw AC/DC's Back In Black being named the best rock 'n' roll album ever, and its creators being the best Australian band.

The winning riff came as a shock to the magazine's editor Greg Phillips, with competition from Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, Guns 'N' Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine and Metallica's Enter Sandman.

Phillips: "It's one of the most recognised riffs in rock music and people generally laugh it off.

"But it does come to mind automatically and it has all the classic traits of a great riff: it's simple, just a few chords put together to introduce the song and prepare you for what follows."

Notably, most of the other categories were dominated by '70s artists such as Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Phillips remarked: "It seems everyone has been listening to their parents' albums," he said. "But then you take into account bands like The Darkness and Jet making the Top 10, they are influenced by Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Quality music by quality musicians stands the test of time."