40 Rock Songs Featuring Violin

When one thinks of the instrumentation of the average rock band, the usual suspects come to mind: guitar, bass, drums, vocals, perhaps a keyboardist or a few horns thrown in.

How about some violin? Sure, it’s most often considered an orchestral instrument, and doesn’t exactly emit the gritty, sexy type of sound rock bands are typically looking for. But the violin is capable of fitting in with more genres than you might think, including rock ‘n’ roll.

Below, we’ve compiled 40 of the best instances of violins being used in rock songs. Readers will notice that tracks featuring more involved string sections are not included here — this list is for numbers in which the fiddle alone is a standout and essential part.

1. “Acadian Driftwood,” The Band
From: Northern Lights — Southern Cross (1975)

Kansas-born Byron Berline started playing the violin at five years old and essentially never stopped. His resume of rock ‘n’ roll collaborations ranges from Bob Dylan to Elton John, Rod Stewart to Eagles and many others. More on that later, but to begin with, here he is on the Band’s “Acadian Driftwood.”

 

2. “Amy,” Elton John
From: Honky Chateau (1972)

“Amy” is actually one of two songs on Elton John’s Honky Chateau to feature fiddle. The other is “Mellow,” and both of them are thanks to the work of Jean-Luc Ponty, a French musician who attended the Paris Conservatory when he was just 16 years old. In the years that followed, he became one of the world’s most renown jazz violinists.

 

3. “Baba O’Reily,” The Who
From: Who’s Next (1971)

Violinist Dave Arbus is a founding member of the British prog rock band East of Eden, who had a Top 10 hit in 1970 with a song called “Jig-a-Jig.” The year after that, Arbus was a guest musician on the Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” playing a now-iconic violin part that brings the song to a dramatic finish. (Arbus also played fiddle on Roger Daltrey’s 1973 debut solo album, Daltrey.)

 

4. “Black Water,” The Doobie Brothers
From: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974)

Technically speaking, “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers features not a violin but a viola, a slightly larger and lower-sounding instrument. But we’re counting it for this list since it really wouldn’t be the same song without it. In this case, the viola is played by Novi Novog, who played on multiple Doobie Brothers albums, as well as releases by Carly Simon, Montrose, Prince and more.

 

5. “Come On Eileen,” Dexys Midnight Runners
From: Too-Rye-Ay (1982)

What would “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners be without that driving violin melody? There’s actually two people behind that part, both playing the violin: Helen O’Hara and Steve Brennan, known as the Emerald Express.

 

6. “Country Honk,” The Rolling Stones
From: Let It Bleed (1969)

Byron Berline was introduced to the Rolling Stones via Gram Parsons. The band personally flew Berline out to Los Angeles, where they convened in the studio to record “Country Honk.” “I was in the studio for a couple of passes through, and they said, ‘Hey, we want you to come in, we want to talk to you,’ and I thought, oh, they don’t like it, they’re going to dump it,” Berline recalled in an interview with BlueGrass West! “But I went in and they said, ‘We want you to stand outside in the street on the sidewalk and record it…we’ll get a nice ambiance, we think,’ and I kind of giggled and said, ‘Well, whatever you want to do.’ So that’s what we did. That’s where they got the car horn.”

 

7. “Cut Across Shorty,” Rod Stewart
From: Gasoline Alley (1970)

There are two people credited as the violinists on Rod Stewart’s Gasoline Alley album: Dennis O’Flynn and Dick Powell. The latter of those two played on several of Stewart’s albums. It’s not clear which of the two plays on “Cut Across Shorty,” but either way, it’s a great instrumental break.

 

8. “Directly From My Heart to You,” Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
From: Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)

There is very much such a thing as rock ‘n’ roll violin, and Don “Sugarcane” Harris was one of the pioneers of plugging the instrument in. Though he studied classical violin as a child, he eventually moved over to the electric violin. Here he is on Frank Zappa’s cover of “Directly from My Heart to You” by Little Richard.

 

9. “Don’t Pass Me By,” The Beatles
From: The White Album (1968)

Violinist Jack Fallon played and studied with the London Symphony Orchestra as a young man, but eventually expanded his repertoire to jazz and early rock ‘n’ roll music. He also worked as a booker and promoter in the ’60s, which led him to connecting with the Beatles, who asked him to play fiddle on 1968’s “Don’t Pass Me By.”

 

10. “Dust in the Wind,” Kansas
From: Point of Know Return (1977)

Not many rock bands have a full time violin player, but Kansas was one of them. Robby Steinhardt’s violin and viola work undoubtedly helped define the band’s sound — just take a listen to their biggest hit, “Dust in the Wind,” for proof.

 

11. “Flight of the Phoenix,” Grand Funk Railroad
From: Phoenix (1972)

By the time fiddle player Doug Kershaw, heard here on Grand Funk Railroad’s “Flight of the Phoenix,” had started to become known in the folk and rock music world, he’d already enjoyed a successful career as a duo with his brother Rusty. In 1969 he appeared on The Johnny Cash Show, followed by a run of performances as the opening act for Derek and the Dominos in New York City. and then he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. In 1970, he contributed fiddle to Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.”

 

12. “Guilty,” Bonham
From: The Disregard of Timekeeping (1989)

Here’s something from the spawn of a rock ‘n’ roll legend. Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, formed the Jason Bonham Band in 1988. A year later they released their debut album The Disregard of Timekeeping. The fiddle here on “Guilty” is by John Smithson, who also worked with the likes of Paul Rodgers, Rod Stewart and Steve Lukather.

 

13. “Hurricane,” Bob Dylan
From: Desire (1976)

There’s a lot of great fiddle work across the entirety of Bob Dylan’s 1976 album Desire, but arguably the piece de resistance is “Hurricane.” That’s Scarlet Rivera on violin, who had also been a part of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour. “I did replace Eric Clapton on Desire,” Rivera said in a 2020 interview. (Clapton did play guitar on one Desire song, “Romance in Durango.”) “The reason that I flew to New York to break into music was not to be the string-section sweet sound that violins have been known for. This was the way I heard violin: I could replace a lead guitar. My lines were like lead guitar because I made them that way. I heard them that way.”

 

14. “Image of Me,” The Flying Burrito Brothers
From: Burrito Deluxe (1970)

Here’s another Byron Berline track, this time with the Flying Burrito Brothers. For Berline, transitioning from playing more traditional bluegrass to working with rock ‘n’ rollers was a challenge, but a worthy one. “The music is closely related, but you had to really study it in a way,” he said in the aforementioned interview. “Be able to improvise enough to get by with it.”

 

15. “Jungleland,” Bruce Springsteen
From: Born to Run (1975)

Sure, there’s an incredibly soulful saxophone solo by Clarence Clemons in Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland,” but don’t dismiss the beguiling violin intro by Suki Lahav. An Israeli native, Lahav moved to the U.S. in 1971 with her husband, a recording engineer. Within just a couple years the couple was working with the Boss on his music.

 

16. “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning,” Hot Tuna
From: First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (1971)

“Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” is a traditional gospel blues song, which Hot Tuna often played live at their concerts. They also committed it to record on their 1971 album First Pull Up, Then Pull Down, featuring Papa John Creach on violin. Creach also worked with Louis Armstrong, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and more.

 

17. “Livin’ Thing,” Electric Light Orchestra
From: A New World Record (1976)

As their name suggests, Electric Light Orchestra was well-versed in string sections, which doesn’t count for this list. However, a slight amendment should be made for “Livin’ Thing,” which features both a lush string section and a hypnotic violin solo, played by Mik Kaminski.

 

18. “Lose This Skin,” The Clash
From: Sandinista! (1980)

When you think of the Clash, you probably don’t think of violins or of someone else singing the lead vocal apart from Joe Strummer. But “Lose This Skin” has both those things. It appeared on 1980’s Sandinista! and featured Tymon Dogg on lead vocals and violin. In fact, Dogg contributed violin to a total of six tracks on the album.

 

19. “Losing It,” Rush
From: Signals (1982)

Ben Mink is best known for being a longtime collaborator of the Canadian singer k.d. lang. So it makes sense then that he’d team up with another famous Canadian act: Rush. Mink played electric violin on “Losing It,” from 1982’s Signals. Years later, Mink contributed to another Rush song, “Faithless” from 2007’s Snakes & Arrows.

 

20. “Milk Train,” Jefferson Airplane
From: Long John Silver (1972)

Here’s some more electric violin action from Papa John Creach, who first became a member of the band in 1970, staying until 1972. “When I joined, the volume level was a big switch,” Creach told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “I wasn’t used to it. So the first thing I did was get earplugs.”

 

21. “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo,” The Grateful Dead
From: Wake of the Flood (1973)

Fiddler Vassar Clements’ first foray into the rock ‘n’ roll side of the music industry was with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Following that, he contributed to the Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood (1973) and Jimmy Buffett’s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (1973).

 

22. “Once Upon a Long Ago,” Paul McCartney
From: 1987 Single

Violinist Nigel Kennedy’s background is in classical music, but he occasionally has dabbled in rock. For example, he contributed to Paul McCartney’s 40th single, “Once Upon a Long Ago.” He also appeared on a Robert Plant solo song called “Calling to You,” and played the “Baba O’Riley” violin solo heard on the Who’s 2003 release Live at the Royal Albert Hall, to name just a few projects.

 

23. “Out of the Blue,” Roxy Music
From: Country Life (1974)

Roxy Music was just one band that Eddie Jobson, whose violin playing is featured on the 1974 song “Out of the Blue,” was part of. At various other points in his career he was a member of Frank Zappa’s band and Jethro Tull. And it wasn’t even his first instrument — that title belonged to the piano. “I never enjoyed learning violin very much, to tell you the truth,” Jobson admitted in a 1995 interview. “But I was very good at it. So it didn’t make any sense to quit because I was naturally good at it. I was lucky that way.”

 

24. “Paper in Fire,” John Mellencamp
From: The Lonesome Jubilee (1987)

Like Dylan’s Desire, John Mellencamp’s The Lonesome Jubilee is stuffed with great violin work. That’s the doing of Lisa Germano, who appeared on multiple Mellencamp albums. For this album, we suggest the big hits: “Paper in Fire,” “Check It Out” and “Cherry Bomb.” Germano has also contributed to albums by David Bowie, Bob Seger, Iggy Pop and more.

 

25. “Rag Mama Rag,” The Band
From: The Band (1969)

When you think of Rick Danko, you probably picture him with his bass strapped on, but he was also quite a talented fiddle player, as evidenced by songs like “Rag Mama Rag.” (An honorable mention must be given to John Simon, who contributed the tuba parts to this song.)

 

26. “Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets),” Neil Young
From: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)

Neil Young’s “Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)” features Bobby Notkoff on violin. Notkoff also played on albums by Electric Flag (1968’s Long Time Comin’), Karen Dalton (1971’s In My Own Time), Joni Mitchell (1972’s For the Roses) and more.

 

27. “Sea of Joy,” Blind Faith
From: Blind Faith (1969)

Blind Faith released exactly one album in their brief time together, but it certainly did well on the charts, grabbing the No. 1 spot in both the U.S. and U.K. On that self-titled 1969 LP was the song “Sea of Joy,” a Steve Winwood contribution, with violin provided by Ric Grech.

 

28. “Stop Right There,” The Hollies
From: Evolution (1967)

Well, we attempted to find out who plays the violin solo on the Hollies’ “Stop Right There” and came up empty-handed. Nevertheless, it’s an enticing middle section of the song.

 

29. “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” U2
From: War (1983)

Violinist Steve Wickham was a longtime member of the Waterboys, a band we’ll get to shortly, but he also played on songs by the likes of Elvis Costello, Sinead O’ Connor and U2. That’s him on “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” a gig he got after running into the Edge at a bus stop one day. “[I] said, ‘Hey, if you need a fiddle on your next record, I’m your man,'” Wickham told Hot Press in 2017. “He said ‘sure’ and took my number, and then he got on the bus to Malahide while I went home to Bayside.” Not long after that he joined U2 in the studio.

 

30. “This Ol’ Cowboy,” Marshall Tucker Band
From: Where We All Belong (1974)

It wouldn’t be right to have a list like this one that doesn’t include Charlie Daniels somewhere. Daniels played fiddle on two songs from the Marshall Tucker Band’s 1974 album Where We All Belong: “This Ol’ Cowboy” and “24 Hours at a Time.”

 

31. “Travelin’ Prayer,” Billy Joel
From: Piano Man (1973)

There is a reason Billy Armstrong was once voted “Fiddle Player of the Year” 13 years in a row by the Academy of Country Music. He lent that talent to “Travelin’ Prayer,” a song from Billy Joel’s Piano Man album. (Dolly Parton would record her own version of the song in 1999.)

 

32. “Venus in Furs,” The Velvet Underground
From: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

John Cale of the Velvet Underground was a gifted string player from pretty much the very beginning —  he joined the National Youth Orchestra of Wales at age 13 and later received a scholarship to study music at the University of London. He brought this talent to the table when he started working with Lou Reed in late 1964, adding electric viola to songs like “Venus in Furs.”

 

33. “Violence,” Mott the Hoople
From: Mott (1973)

Violinist Graham Preskett played on not one but two Mott the Hoople albums, Mott in 1973 and The Hoople in 1974. He then went on to play on albums by Edwin Starr, Gerry Rafferty, Whitesnake, Yes and more, as well as compose film scores.

 

34. “Violin,” Kate Bush
From: Never for Ever (1980)

It kind of doesn’t get more self-explanatory than “Violin” by Kate Bush — “four strings has across the bridge,” she sings. The violin on this 1980 song was played by the Irish musician Kevin Burke.

 

35. “We Will Not Be Lovers,” The Waterboys
From: Fisherman’s Blues (1988)

We’re back to the Waterboys. Steve Wickham’s violin playing propels “We Will Not Be Lovers” from 1988’s Fisherman Blues. “I’ve always seen myself as a violinist, not a songwriter,” Wickham explained to the Irish Daily Mirror in 2021. “My role in the Waterboys has been to serve that song – and to try and inhabit the feeling or the thought in the lyric or the song.”

 

36. “And the Healing Has Begun,” Van Morrison
From: Into the Mystic (1979)

Violinist Toni Marcus was something of a child prodigy, exhibiting great skill on the instrument from an early age. In the ’70s, she crossed paths with Van Morrison. “I don’t know how he met her – it was like a leaflet on a telephone pole or something,” bassist David Hayes recalled to Uncut in 2015, speaking to Marcus’ role on Morrison’s 1979 album Into the Mystic, “and Van just kind of turned her loose! She was a real character.”

 

37. “Wild Turkey,” Jefferson Airplane
From: Bark (1971)

Here’s one more Papa John Creach song for you, who somehow is capable of making his violin sound more like a rock guitar than a classical instrument.

 

38. “Wish You Were Here,” Pink Floyd
From: Wish You Were Here (1975)

You might be thinking to yourself: There’s no violin in Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” That’s true, but there is a “lost” version of the song. At one point, jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli was brought into the studio to contribute a part, but in the end, this was removed. “You can just hear him if you listen very, very, very hard right at the end of ‘Wish You Were Here,’ you can just hear a violin come in after all the wind stuff starts—just!” Roger Waters recalled in a 1993 interview. “We decided not to give him credit, because we thought it might be a bit of an insult. He got his £300, though.”

 

39. “You Wear It Well,” Rod Stewart
From: Never a Dull Moment (1972)

Once again, Dick Powell is present on a Rod Stewart song. He even joined Stewart and the Faces when they performed the song on BBC’s Top of the Pops, as seen below.

 

40. “99 Year Blues,” Hot Tuna
From: Burgers (1972)

Just kidding, here’s one more Papa John Creach song to close out this list. “I’ve always been listening to more than one thing,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “And I’ve got great big ears. So any direction you want to go in, just give me the beat and I’ll go with you.”