I love blisteringly fast guitar licks and solos, and hope this topic will dredge up some new ones for me. Is "Best" subjective? Of course it is! Gimme what ya got!
(I did a search for Guitar Solos, and did not find a specific topic. If there is one, somebody say so and I will join that one.)
Here are certainly some of the most recognizable riffs (and ones I enjoy the most):
Sunshine Of Your Love: Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton
Smoke On The Water: Ritchie Blackmore
Kashmir: Jimmy Page
Man On The Silver Mountain: Ritchie Blackmore
Whole Lotta Love: Jimmy Page's treatment
Ziggy Stardust: Mick Ronson
And here are the solos:
Stairway To Heaven (final solo): Jimmy Page
Highway Star: Ritchie Blackmore
Sultans Of Swing: Mark Knopfler
Time and Comfortably Numb: Dave Gilmour
Yes, there are many others that are awesome, which I like just fine, but I don't have time or space to mention them all.
Hendrix who I saw at the Isle of Wight in 1970 just 3 weeks before he died.
Peter Frampton Live- Do you feel like I do?
David Gilmore knows how to bend then strings!
Jethro Tull Aqua-lung is one of my all time favorite solo's, a most notable riff the opening to The Story in your eyes by The Moody Blues
Another song full of great riffs, Into the night Chad Kroger and CARLOS, lets not forget Cliffs of Dover either..
I was listening to The Pretenders a few days ago and and thinking that Middle of the Road has one of my favorite guitar solos ever.
Pretty much any Mark Knopfler solo amazes me. Since Sultans of Swing has been mentioned a few times (deservedly), I will take the one where he sits in with Steely Dan on Time Out of Mind.
One more: The Edge on the live version of Bullet the Blue Sky.
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive
Roy Buchanan - Sweet Dreams, check out the live version on YouTube, amazing though there have been many wonderful ones mentioned.