Now more than ever, perhaps, there are few certainties in life. But here’s a short list of things I know:

Coke is better than Pepsi. Of course Lindsey Graham was gay. And no song has ever not been made better by the inclusion of a sax solo.

I’ll even allow myself that gnarled double negative usage to drive the point home.

Now, with so many occasions throughout music history, trying to select the best ones ever would be pretty nuts; I mean, saxophones make up the solo instrument used on roughly 8.9% of all popular music recordings recognized as containing a distinct solo break.¹ Tell me, who would be crazy enough to try to accumulate and assign a qualified list for this, or anything even remotely similar, like, say, The Greatest Opening Guitar Riffs Ever, The Best Drum Intro Songs Ever, or The Greatest Songs With Whistling? Okay sure, we’ve previously covered all of those (and plenty of other ridiculously subjective lists, too), but this seems extreme, even for the renowned, crack research department here at So Much Great Music.

So what we’re going to do instead is document a list of favorites. A Top 10 list of songs that really have that special, shall we say, sax appeal. Given a fully comprehensive review, many of these might, indeed, also rightfully be considered best, but for now I’m not prepared to assert that as (allegedly) definitive.

And, given the presumed scope, we’ll actually limit this Top 10 list to 10 actual selections – unlike numerous other SMGM Top 10 lists that frequently run into scores or even triple digits.

Just a few ground rules, then, before getting started (as you may know, SMGM list formats always require at least a little further ado).

• Number one, and I can’t stress this enough, these are sax solos, not sax riffs. I beg you, do not come at me with repeated saxophone lines within a song’s main structure, such as, famously, in Bob Seger’s ‘Turn The Page,’ ‘Careless Whisper’ by Wham, or the greatest example of them all, ‘Baker Street’ by Gerry Rafferty (which has been analyzed here previously for its unequaled merit in that related but separate category).
• One choice per band or artist. Certain cases – which will become obvious, and that, in fact, you probably already know – could otherwise make up most of the whole list. We’re going to spread things around.
• Our list includes any/all type of saxophones. However, it may be interesting to note that in an analysis of 1,081 Top 40 songs from 1955 to 2020 that featured a saxophone solo, the tenor saxophone dominated the distribution, accounting for 63.2% of the appearances, while alto saxophone (34.1%), baritone saxophone (8.7%) and soprano saxophone (4.4%) made up the balance. And yes, I’m aware that this total somehow equals 110.4%, but that’s what the research revealed!²
• On the attached video links to follow, songs have been forwarded and set to be picked up a few seconds before the significant solo in question. I guess this is more of an FYI than a ground rule, but there, now you know. (they won’t end when the solo does, though, so that part’s up to you).

Alright then, here we go. Prepare yourselves for the sax attacks.

The Top 10 Favorite…

(y’know what, screw it, they probably are the best)

The Top 10 Best Saxophone Solos Ever:

10. ‘Year of the Cat’ – Al Stewart

Sax soloist: Phil Kenzie³

It comes at the end of an 83-second sequence of four consecutive solos during an instrumental section that may be unlike anything ever done in a hit pop song. First cello, then acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and finally the blast of saxophone, all enveloped by an ambitiously sweeping string arrangement. And then that same sax is also reprised in the long outro, over more strings and tinkling keyboards. Masterful.

9. ‘Money’ – Pink Floyd

Sax soloist: Dick Parry

Between the rhythmic clinking and clanking of the cash registers and some vintage David Gilmour guitar work comes the honking tenor sax solo by longtime band contributor Parry that changes the entire (don’t say tenor, don’t use the word tenor) feel of this classic rock staple.

Other list-worthy Floyd/Parry songs: ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond,’ ‘Us and Them’

8. ‘On the Dark Side’ – John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band

Sax soloist: Michael Antunes

This group and this song were real things – a raucous New England bar band based in Narragansett, RI and a tune that reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 – but most of us will remember this one as being performed by the fictional band Eddie & The Cruisers, in the 1983 film of the same name, with incredible faux vocals by Michael Paré and the roaring saxophone of Wendell Newton, who was played in the movie by…the Beaver Brown Band saxophonist, Michael Antunes himself.

7. ‘Young Americans’ – David Bowie

Sax soloist: David Sanborn

It’s possible that David Sanborn has played sax on more material than anyone in history – he’s been described as “the most influential saxophonist on pop, R&B and crossover players” of all time – but I can think of no tune more identifiable with his unmistakable shrieking alto sax than ‘Young Americans.’ The edgy, piercing sound is present right from the start and freelancing all throughout the tune, but reaches its apex in a brief 12-second mid-song burst. Sanborn had previously toured with Bowie, and Bowie reputedly wanted his expressive, jazz-trained playing to fill the role of a lead guitar (some years later, Bowie would pluck a then-unknown lead guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughan to fill the role of lead guitar. Bowie could pick ‘em.)

6. ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ – Billy Joel

Sax soloist: Richie Cannata

Much of this album (The Stranger), which I played to death in the late ‘70’s, doesn’t hold up to me. But it’s hard to stay entirely mad at this 7:37 five-part suite about Brenda and Eddie, and especially at the undeniable rush of excitement arriving with Joel’s exclamation of “rock and roll!” (for no apparent reason) that ushers in this audacious sax interlude. Bottle of red, bottle of white? Yeah, whatever. A driving, blues-infused escapade on a wailing tenor sax? Yes, please.

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Halftime intermission: Let’s take a quick step aside for one non-numbered submission. Think of it as a mid-list solo amidst all of these other solos (and an excuse for me to sneak one more prime choice in).

‘Deacon Blues’ – Steely Dan

Sax soloist: Pete Christlieb

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker loved the sound of the tenor sax in Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show Band when the show would go in and out of commercials, so they found the guy playing it and hired him to solo on this song. Resourceful.

“They told me to play what I felt,” said Christlieb. “Hey, I’m a jazz musician, that’s what I do. So I recorded my first solo, we listened back and they said it was great. I recorded a second take and that’s the one they used. I was gone in a half hour. The next thing I know I’m hearing myself in every airport bathroom in the world.”

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5. ‘The Logical Song’ – Supertramp

Sax soloist: John Helliwell

Roger Hodson’s pop masterpiece about adolescent disillusionment and discovery would still have been memorable if comprised only of the swirling Wurlitzer electric piano that forms its bedrock and the wry lyrical flourishes (“Watch what you say, they’ll be calling you a radical / A liberal”) that led to its being honored by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters as the best song, both musically and lyrically, the year after its 1979 release. 22 momentous seconds in the middle, however, puts it over the top: John Helliwell’s desperately plaintive interjection on alto sax. Then, Helliwell returns for more similarly impressive squealing over the outro. My count of his most impressive licks? “One, two, three, five!”

4. ‘Glad’ – Traffic

Sax soloist: Chris Wood

We’ve already heard plenty of Chris Wood’s horn, alongside Steve Winwood’s piano and organ, in what has to be the happiest sounding instrumental known – my god, what an insanely good album opener for the gravely overlooked John Barleycorn Must Die – when the sax finally seizes center stage. Wood takes his time, winding two minutes of wacky but spellbinding soloing into an amorphous form that could be as much at home in bebop jazz as rock and roll. I always felt the tune could’ve done without its second section, an exceedingly slow and drawn-out coda. It only leaves me wanting peppy piano and zany sax even more.

3. ‘Brown Sugar’ – Rolling Stones

Sax soloist: Bobby Keys

Bobby Keys (his real name) was never officially in the Rolling Stones, but he prominently played on many of their most classic albums and was a member of the touring band for the better part of 45 years. He also jointly tossed a television set off the 10^th floor of the Hyatt House in West Hollywood with Keith Richards (with whom he shared an exact birthday), and was best man at Mick Jagger’s wedding to Bianca. He was integral. So many Stones recordings were absolutely lit up by Keys’s often unhinged sax onslaught, but here I’ll go with the most obvious. In ‘Brown Sugar’ he comes in typically hot, then still manages to bring it up to another aberrant level: I believe he actually makes the saxophone growl.

Other list-worthy Stones/Keys songs: ‘Rip This Joint,’ ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,’ ‘Live With Me’

2. ‘Jungleland’ – Bruce Springsteen

Sax soloist: Clarence Clemons

The first time my friend Rosey and I ever saw Bruce Springsteen live he played ‘Jungleland’ to close the first set. As amazing as the second half of the show was, it almost didn’t matter; nothing would top what we’d already witnessed. At the weighty moment immediately following the fourth verse, Clarence Clemons, resplendent in a crisp white suit, strode to the front of the stage, while Springsteen, in his battered biker boots, climbed atop Roy Bittan’s grand piano. For the next three-odd minutes, while The Big Man was mournfully pouring out what is quite simply the most epic saxophone solo in recorded rock history, Bruce slowly turned counter-clockwise, head bowed, while emphatically pumping his clenched fist high overhead to the beat.

It was beyond emotional, it was cinematic.

Sure, this may not be a timeless Jimi-sets-his-guitar-on-fire-at-Monterey rock scene known in music archives. But it’s probably the single most enduring mental image from a concert I’ve ever had – and I bet that’s true for anyone else who was there that night. I’ve been to many Springsteen shows since (for his part, Rosey has been to mannny more), and they’ve all been great. Yet nothing will ever equal the visceral feeling of experiencing Clarence playing this peerless sax solo. That-night in Jun-gle-land.

Other list-worthy Springsteen/Clemons songs: ‘Born to Run,’ ‘Badlands,’ ‘The Promised Land,’ ‘Cadillac Ranch,’ ‘Bobby Jean,’ and a Big Man’s-worth of others.

1. ‘Urgent’ – Foreigner

Sax soloist: We’ll get to that in a moment

I don’t know anyone whose favorite band is Foreigner, but during their heyday from the late ‘70’s to early ‘80’s they had a lot of really good songs.

This isn’t necessarily one of them.

I’ve long treated this song as a maybe-change-the-station tune when it comes on, but am always thrilled when I do stick around for the utterly insane sax break. Moreso, I’ve always been intrigued by who did it, and why – it seemed so atypical to Foreigner’s music – but never got around to Googling this tidbit until preparing this piece. Okay then, ready? It turns out that octave-scaling and norm-shattering segment was played by none other than Motown superstar, and one of history’s greatest sax men, Junior Walker. Because, of course it was.

And there’s also a very cool story behind how it happened. Foreigner, helmed on the recording of this album by famed producer Mutt Lange, decided they wanted a “Junior Walker-type” sax solo for this tune. Then, when taking a break from recording sessions, which were occurring at NYC’s Electric Lady Studios, one of the band members read in New York newspaper The Village Voice that Walker was to be performing mere blocks away that night. Call it a sax in the city coincidence. A connection was made, Walker agreed to contribute, and the iconic solo track was completed in a single take. Again, of course it was. Junior Walker is a Motown legend, and now we know, a rock and roll one, as well.

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¹The internet has no actual result for this statistic, so I totally made this up. Suck it, AI.

²Incredibly, this is actually real, from the published work “Where Have All the Saxophones Gone? Tracing 65 Years of Saxophone Solos in Top 40 Music.”

³Live versions would’ve been a whole other – not nother – story, but this one, also performed by Phil Kenzie of ‘Year of the Cat’ note above, seems worth an exception.

And lastly, why don’t we say goodbye with the jaunty sax in ‘Goodbye, Goodbye,’ by ‘80’s new wavers Oingo Boingo, which played over the “Where Are They Now? Epilogue and closing credits of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Aloha, Mr. Hand.