Classic Rock Canada

Like looking for a hallmark on a fine antique, it pays to seek out the mark of the maple leaf when perusing classic rock, and you'll find it on every one of these timeless tracks. The Guess Who gets things moving with "American Woman," followed by Bryan Adams — with the vocal of a lifetime on "Summer of '69" — and the quintessence of Rush, "Tom Sawyer." There's more superlative homegrown rock in Next Steps.

Few homegrown rock tracks deserve the "classic" tag as fully as Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," which came to symbolise the free-wheelin' ideals of the '60s counterculture, thanks largely to its inclusion on the Easy Rider soundtrack. That movie (though unfortunately not the soundtrack) also featured the Band's "The Weight" (see the Basics) — here we've added another of the Band's finest cuts: "Up on Cripple Creek." Our feast of Canadian rock classics gets even more hearty, in Deep Cuts.

Glam metal sparkled in the mid-'80s, thanks in no small measure to Southern Ontario act Brighton Rock, who bizarrely named itself after the Graham Greene novel and kicked up a mighty riff-cloud with the bombastic "We Came to Rock." Sass Jordan had no idea she'd become a Canadian Idol judge when she laid down "Tell Somebody" in '88; the track deserves huge respect.

Every decade in rock — from the '60s through to the 21st century — boasts homegrown tracks that act like anchors, embedded firmly in the seabed of rock excellence, immovable and unbreakable. We're talking about Canadian rock classics, the best of which we've hauled in and piled up right here. From Alannah Myles to Zappacoasta, from Rush to Klaatu, from Neil Young to Kim Mitchell, from Glass Tiger to Frozen Ghost, here are the artists who sent Canadian rock worldwide. Add these tracks to your collection of national treasures.