Guns N' Roses' 'Sweet Child O' Mine' features one of the most recognizable guitar intros in history, yet guitarist Slash originally considered the riff a 'joke.' He was playing a 'circus melody' during a warm-up session when rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin and singer Axl Rose began building a song around it. Slash initially hated the riff, but it became the foundation for the band's only number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The lyrics were taken from a poem Axl Rose wrote for his then-girlfriend Erin Everly. The song's success was a turning point for the band, helping the album 'Appetite for Destruction' become the best-selling debut album of all time in the US. Despite the band's initial reluctance to release it as a single due to its length and 'softer' sound compared to their other tracks, it became an anthem of the 1980s and a staple of guitar pedagogy.