This article looks back at the tracklist of the original 2005 "Guitar Hero" video game, which introduced a generation of PlayStation 2-era players to hard rock and heavy metal through its rhythm-based gameplay using a plastic Gibson SG-style controller. Because the game lacked the budget or industry clout to license original recordings at the time, its developer Harmonix commissioned WaveGroup Sound to record cover versions rather than authentic masters, meaning many of the tracks players clacked away to were "as made famous by" renditions rather than the real thing.

The core soundtrack consisted of 30 songs split across five difficulty tiers, ranging from Jimi Hendrix to acts as varied as the Ramones, Pantera, Incubus and Franz Ferdinand, alongside 17 bonus tracks from lesser-known bands, some reportedly fronts for Harmonix staff. It wasn't until "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" in 2007 that the series began featuring genuine original masters, from artists including the Sex Pistols and Pearl Jam, paving the way for dedicated Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen editions before the franchise's popularity eventually waned in the early 2010s.