The 20 greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers songs – ranked
From The Uplift Mofo Party Plan to The Getaway, we rank the California-loving Red Hot Chili Peppers’ biggest tunes…
Words: Sam Law
So all-encompassing has been Red Hot Chili Peppers’ mainstream ubiquity and accessibility over the past 30 years that many ‘real’ rock fans seem to have forgotten the things that made the Los Angeles quartet great in the first place. Formed as a one-off “joke” all the way back in 1983 (yes, almost
four decades ago) by vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary, guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons, foundations rooted in the punk-funk of bands like Defunkt and Contortions were built on with elements of the emergent alt.rock genre, while personal experiences with addiction and the 1988 death of Hillel bled a darkness into their sound. At their best, the Chilis became capable of striking stylistic shifts quite unlike anyone else.