Van Halen, "Eruption": "Eruption," with its blistering licks and innovative techniques, launched a million shredders, but the technique-redefining tapping section includes – by Eddie Van Halen's own admission – a little mistake. Van Halen told Guitar Player, "I took one pass at it and they put it on the record. I didn't even play it right. There's a mistake at the top end of it. To this day whenever I hear it I always think, 'Man, I could've played it better.'" But where is it? It sounds like a mistake can be heard at about 1:01 – listen for a tiny stutter which breaks up the flow of the tapping pattern. However, there are those of us who believe EVH's playing to be utterly infallible and will not accept that he can make mistakes, even by his own admission.

Black Sabbath, "Sweet Leaf": Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" is a heavy, lumbering ode to a particular extracurricular activity the band often engaged in at the time of recording 1971's Master of Reality. The track opens with a tape loop of somebody coughing. Ozzy Osbourne told Rolling Stone in 2004 that the source of the cough was guitarist Tony Iommi. Iommi confirmed, "I was outside recording an acoustic thing, and Ozzy brought me a [not suitable for publication]. I had a puff and nearly choked myself, and they were taping it!"