The survey was carried out by BBC Radio 2 last month, resulting in Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love being listed in the top position. The Guns N' Roses track, taken from their 1987 debut, was their biggest US hit when launched as a single the following year, and helped propel them to the big time.

Slash has previously described the run as a "circus" melody and a "guitar exercise." Now he tells Triple M: "I definitely don't sit there and go, 'Yeah, it's the greatest riff.' It's very surreal when somebody says something like that.

"It's not tangible - there's been some sort of a poll, but you're not part of the effort of finding out that information and researching it. All of a sudden it just appears."