Song · Eric Johnson
“Cliffs Of Dover” by Eric Johnson
From the album Ah Via Musicom (1990)
“Cliffs Of Dover” by Eric Johnson appears on 12 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 1994 and 2024. It was first released in 1990 on the album Ah Via Musicom. Its best result is #371 on The Loop USO Rock 'N' Roll 500 (2010). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,880 classic rock song of all time.
"Cliffs of Dover" is the instrumental showpiece of Ah Via Musicom, Eric Johnson's 1990 album for Capitol, though he had been playing it as far back as 1984. Johnson produced it himself and named it after the White Cliffs of Dover on England's southern coast.
It opens with Johnson cutting loose in free time, an ad-libbed solo full of string skipping and hybrid picking, before the drums drop in and the piece settles into a 4/4 shuffle in G major with melodies anyone can hum along to; the coda drifts back to the freewheeling mood of the start. For the gearheads: a Gibson ES-335 alongside a Fender Stratocaster, fed through a B. K. Butler Tube Driver and an Echoplex into a 100-watt Marshall.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Classic Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 916 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1994) | 1000 |
| 1995 | 976 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1995) | 1000 |
| 1996 | 944 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1996) | 1000 |
| 1997 | 545 | 102.3 WBAB | WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997) | 1023 |
| 1998 | 855 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1998) | 1000 |
| 1999 | 789 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1999) | 998 |
| 2002 | 384 | KISW | KISW Top 999 of All Time (2002) | 999 |
| 2010 | 371 | 97.9 The Loop | The Loop USO Rock 'N' Roll 500 (2010) | 500 |
| 2010 | 837 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) | 885 |
| 2019 | 503 | 102.5 KZOK | KZOK Top 1025 of 2019 | 1025 |
| 2022 | 428 | 97.1 The River | River 500 (2022) | 500 |
| 2024 | 925 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2024) | 1043 |
Also listed as: Cliffs of Dover.
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