Boston's 1976 Hit, Ranked One of the ‘Top Classic Rock Songs’ of All Time, Became a Timeless Anthem

Victoria MillerSun, March 29, 2026 at 11:18 AM UTC

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(Photo by Richard E. Aaron on Getty Images)

It’s been 50 years since Boston released their debut single, “More Than a Feeling.” The song was the first track from the legendary band’s self-titled 1976 debut album and has been a classic rock radio anthem ever since.

Released in September 1976, "More Than a Feeling” stood out for its signature guitar riff and layered vocals. The song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Dec. 25, 1976, remaining on the chart for 19 weeks. In 2025, Ultimate Classic Rock ranked the Boston hit as one of the top 100 classic rock songs of all time, noting that the band “burst into the airways” with their lead track “in the fall of America's bicentennial celebration of 1976.”

“With a sound that was unique and yet somehow familiar, Boston were tailor-made for mid '70s FM radio,” the outlet noted, describing the band's debut song as “a rush of sunshine-laced guitars and vocals.”

“More Than a Feeling” firmly established Boston as one of the biggest rock bands of the 1970s.

The song took five years to write

Writing “More Than a Feeling” was no easy feat. According to Rolling Stone, Boston founding songwriter-guitarist Tom Scholz worked on the song for five years in his basement studio. In an essay for Entertainment Weekly, Scholz revealed that the song was not about a specific event but instead something that almost everybody could identify with: “Losing somebody that was important to them, and music taking them back there.”

He also revealed he and bandmate Brad Delp were rejected by record labels many times before he made a last-ditch effort with “More Than a Feeling.”

“I spent six years submitting dozens of recordings to dozens of record companies and I got nothing but rejections,” he shared. “By this point, I was 29 and I decided it was time to get responsible. I was married. We weren't rolling in cash. This was going to be my last demo—and ‘More Than a Feeling’ was the last one that I completed. Epic Records got that song and a couple of weeks later, Brad Delp and I had an offer to become recording artists.”

Scholz once noted that Epic Records executives had previously passed on his music.

“Epic flat-out rejected it and sent me an insulting letter!” Scholz told Maximum Guitar of his early demos, per Music Radar. "Then later, someone went through the proper political channels with Epic and all of a sudden, they were interested. Still, we didn’t get signed until they heard ‘More Than A Feeling.'"

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Scholz said he was thankful that fans still love the song decades later.

Delp also talked about the song's longevity. In a 1999 interview posted by Melodic.net, he said, “I’ve had many people come up and say that ‘More Than A Feeling’ was their song when they were in high school or college. It's nice to feel that you’ve touched so many people in some small way."

The song seemingly inspired a future iconic rock riff

Boston went on to inspire future rock bands. Fifteen years after “More Than a Feeling" was released, Nirvana ushered in the mainstream grunge scene with their song “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Some fans thought the guitar riff in the Nirvana song sounded like the famous riff in “More Than a Feeling” in a different key.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain later noted the similarity, telling Rolling Stone, “It was such a cliched riff. It was so close to a Boston riff or ‘Louie Louie.’ When I came up with the guitar part, Krist [Novoselic] looked at me and said, ‘That is so ridiculous.'”

Nirvana further embraced the Boston connection by playing “More Than a Feeling” to a crowd at the Reading Festival in the UK in 1992.

Scholz didn’t consider Nirvana’s riff to be a ripoff. He told the outlet he took the similarity as “a major compliment even if it was completely accidental.”

“It made me feel good that Nirvana listened to Boston at all and ever wanted to mention it,” Scholz told Classic Rock in 2006.

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This story was originally published by Parade on Mar 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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