There’s still a war going on, and the plague is ongoing, and it’s 70 degrees out which means it’s gonna be like 115 during the summer. That means I don’t want to talk about current events. I think we all need a break from that for a few minutes.

What I do want to talk about is “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits.

Guitarist Mark Knopfler’s riff in “Money For Nothing” is the stuff of legends. When I hear it come up on shuffle it immediately puts me in a better mood every time, and these days that’s not nothing. It’s everything you want a great rock riff to be: catchy, infectious, distinct and fun.

While listening to the Dire Straits song, it occurred to me that, despite this column being called RIFF Rewind, and despite being on a site called RIFF Magazine, I’ve never done a column on my favorite guitar riffs. That seems like something that needs to be corrected and like something to give us that mental breather we all need.

So let’s listen to some guitars, shall we?

Dire Straits — “Money For Nothing”

Oh, you thought I was gonna do five songs I hadn’t mentioned in the intro? You poor sweet summer child.

Since I already talked about this, let’s all get on the same page. To borrow a cliched line, Dictionary.com defines “riff” as “a melodic phrase, often constantly repeated, forming an accompaniment or part of an accompaniment for a soloist.” So that’s what we’re looking at here; a repeated series of notes on a guitar forming the core of a song.

This one, for example, is so distinct and so good that when Weird Al parodied “Money For Nothing,” none other than Knopfler himself recorded it. Seriously.

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The Beatles — “Day Tripper”

I was going to try to avoid the classic top-tier riffs from every “best ever” list on the internet. No “Smoke on the Water” for example, no “Layla,” no “Satisfaction,” that sort of thing. I don’t want to get too lazy.

That said, I had to put this one on here because it’s my favorite.

It’s something like 11 or 12 notes long and somehow it’s got depth and complexity! It’s relaxed and casual, but it’s also somehow purposeful, and it’s got a groove to it. It’s perfect! George Harrison gets more out of that handful of notes than most musicians get out of an entire career.

And because they were The Beatles, it didn’t even appear on Rubber Soul. It was released as a standalone single.

White Stripes — “Seven Nation Army”

Yes, this is a bass riff, but come on. The riff is practically the entire song and the song is so good it pretty much made Jack White a thing to this very day.

This is one of those rare cases where the riff has eclipsed the song itself. College marching bands play those seven notes at football games and everyone recognizes it. It gets everyone hyped up, even though there are college kids who weren’t even born when the song came out.

No, seriously. It was released in 2003 and there are adult humans born in 2004. We’re all incredibly old and there’s nothing we can do about it.

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Ritchie Valens — “La Bamba”

OK, so 2003 was apparently a long time ago. But let’s go back a bit further to 1958.

I’d argue that Richard “Ritchie Valens” Valenzuela and Chuck Berry invented the modern guitar riff in 1958 with “La Bamba” and “Johnny B. Goode,” respectively. Berry is obviously the better guitarist, one of the best ever. But Valens was 17 years old, it was his first album, and his riff sounds way more modern. It’s the first I can think of that strikes that balance between brevity and memorability that defines the modern form.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know where Valens would have gone from there since he died eight months into his career in a very famous plane crash. Berry, to paraphrase Harvey Dent, lived long enough to become the villain.

AC/DC — “Back in Black”

It’s not whether AC/DC appears on a list of the best riffs, because if they aren’t included then the list no longer counts. It’s just a matter of which song makes the list.

Many people would make an argument for “You Shook Me All Night Long” and I can see that. “Highway to Hell” is my second-favorite and, depending on the day, would have been in this spot. I’ve even heard compelling arguments for “Thunderstruck” due to the difficulty.

But for my money? Give me the raw, direct simplicity of “Back in Black.” The riff isn’t trying to impress anyone. It’s not trying to revolutionize the art. It knows its job and it does it well. It sets the tone right from the start of the song and it keeps that vibe going until the end. And, crucially, it only takes two or three notes to know exactly which song is about to start.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to pry myself away from the keyboard before this becomes a 15-song list. You should probably expect a sequel the next time we need a collective break.

Follow editor Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.