What's the first song you ever learned to play on guitar?

[Robert****]

For me, I think it was a KISS song, because my best friend at the time started playing guitar before me and he was a big fan of KISS. He taught me a few chords and some KISS songs. I can't remember which one it was though. Geez, I was only 13 at the time, can't expect the old brain to remember all the details I guess. I do remember learning "House Of The Rising Sun" around that age though.

[just strum]

As I scoot up to the table to eat some crow - Hendrix version (sort of) of the Star Spangled Banner.

[tunghaichuan***]

"B*tch School" by Spinal Tap.

tung

[Algonquin]

I have no clue whatsoever ... Heck, I can barely remember what the last tune I learned was
It was likely some rawkin tune like "Au Clair de la Lune" (Seriously )

[marnold***]

"Country Roads" by John Denver

[Lev]

Eleanor Rigby - My sister had a Beatles book with chord diagrams and it looked the easiest to get my 12 year old fingers around.

[Teleblaster]

"Shady Lane" by Pavement

[Childbride]

shiner had just convinced me to play, and had just started his night job teaching law at a local community college. i lost the nails on my left hand.

he taught me a couple of chords.

there was a movie we owned with a haunting, haunting song. it moved me. the lyrics gave me shivers.

donnie darko.

gary jules' mad world.

i would play those chords on his D10s for the three hours he was teaching, over and over.

and then it began.

[R_of_G]

Albuquerque by Neil Young

[hubberjub***]

Peter Gun.

[jasongins]

White Room - Cream (sans the solo)

[duhvoodooman***]

Louie Louie, like most of us mid-60's teenagers. Followed closely thereafter by House of the Rising Sun.

[sunvalleylaw]

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" by John Denver

[Algonquin]

Thinking back, it may may been the intro to Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4. Not the whole tune, just the intro.

[rkwrenn]

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"

By Robbie Robertson. I learned the version recorded by The Band.

Cheers,

Bob

[street music]

I think that I learned the chords to Down On the Corner and Smoke on the Water about the same time. House of The Rising Sun came next.

[wingsdad]

My older cousin taught me my first stuff. He'd given me his $15 Sears acoustic with about 3" high action and I got nowhere. Then I got a $60 Chicago Harmony 3/4 size 2 pickup solid body. But had no amp.

I was 11, he was 14, a lefty playing a Sears Sivertone Danelectro upside down (strung righty), thru a little Silvertone tube amp, 12" speaker.

We both plugged into that Sears amp and I'm not really sure what came first, cuz he would just fire licks off and my jaw would flap open and watch, trying to figure out WTF was going on upside down. But I'm pretty sure the first licks I learned were Duane Eddy things, all really simple single-string stuff basically confined to the low 3 strings...'Rebel Rouser' sticks out...I know the other stuff he laid on me were Del Shannon 'Runaway', and a boatload of Surf instrumentals...Ventures 'Walk Don't Run'....'Pipeline'...'Wipe Out'...'Apache'...'Wild Weekend' .... and Chet Atkins' version of 'Under The Double Eagle'. Lonnie Mack's version of 'Memphis'. Stuff like that.

EDIT: geez...almost forgot...hubberjub's 'Peter Gunn' movie theme was in that mix, too...

Then he got me into Chuck Berry. So when the Beatles hit, I already knew how to play George's take on 'Roll Over Beethoven'.

[Andy]

House of the rising sun - The Animals.

[thearabianmage]

I started out with the opening to Stairway to Heaven, but the first full song I learned was For Whom The Bell Tolls (Metallica) followed closely by the entirety of Crazy Train (Ozzy & Randy). It was an entire 9 months after first picking up the guitar before I could play that solo up to speed.