10 Best Rock Songs About Bells

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Bells have a unique place in rock music because they can sound haunting, celebratory, spiritual, ominous, or just plain fun. Most of the songs on this list are not holiday records, although a couple of Christmas classics were impossible to leave out because they have crossed so completely into rock and pop culture. From Paul McCartney and Jethro Tull to Metallica and AC/DC, these songs use bells in very different ways. Sometimes the bell is part of the arrangement, sometimes it is only an image in the lyric, but in every case it becomes part of what makes the song memorable.

# 10 – Let ‘Em In – Paul McCartney & Wings

Paul McCartney & Wings open “Let ‘Em In” with the sound of a doorbell, which makes it a perfect way to start a list about bells. The song appeared on the 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound, which McCartney produced and recorded with the settled Wings lineup of Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch, and Joe English. The lyric is basically an invitation to open the door and let a long list of people come inside, including friends, family, and familiar names. Released as a single in 1976, “Let ‘Em In” became another major hit for Wings. It is one of those McCartney songs that sounds almost effortless even though every little part of the arrangement is doing exactly what it needs to do.

# 9 – Ring Out, Solstice Bells – Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out, Solstice Bells” first appeared in late 1976 and later became part of the band’s 1977 album Songs from the Wood. Written and produced by Ian Anderson, the song celebrates the winter solstice with acoustic instruments, flute, keyboards, percussion, and the kind of old-world atmosphere that fit this period of Jethro Tull perfectly. Martin Barre, John Glascock, John Evan, Dee Palmer, and Barriemore Barlow help turn the track into something that feels festive without sounding like a conventional Christmas record. The bells in the title are part of a celebration of seasons, ritual, and renewal rather than simple holiday decoration. Few rock bands could have pulled off a song like this without making it sound corny, but Jethro Tull made it completely their own.

# 8 – Tubular Bells (Part One) – Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells was one of the strangest and most ambitious debut albums ever released. Recorded at The Manor in Oxfordshire and issued in 1973 as the first album on Virgin Records, the work was built largely by Oldfield himself, layering instrument after instrument into a long-form composition that never behaves like a normal rock song. “Part One” slowly introduces different sounds before reaching the famous sequence in which the instruments are announced one by one and the tubular bells finally enter. The eerie opening passage later became inseparable from The Exorcist, giving the music an entirely different cultural life. Even without the movie connection, Tubular Bells remains one of those recordings that sounds like nobody else could have made it.

# 7 – Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Some people may wonder what a Christmas piece is doing this high on a rock list, but anybody who has heard Trans-Siberian Orchestra tear through “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” already knows the answer. The instrumental appeared on the group’s 1996 debut album Christmas Eve and Other Stories and combines “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” with the melody most listeners know as “Carol of the Bells.” Paul O’Neill and the musicians around him turned those familiar themes into a dramatic rock arrangement built on electric guitars, strings, keyboards, and pounding drums. The result became one of TSO’s signature recordings and helped define the band’s entire sound. Holiday music does not get much more rock and roll than this.

# 6 – Ring Them Bells – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells” is one of the most beautiful songs on his 1989 album Oh Mercy. Produced by Daniel Lanois and recorded during the New Orleans sessions for the album, the track centers on Dylan’s piano and voice rather than a crowded arrangement. The lyric uses bells as a call for awakening, faith, justice, and compassion, moving through religious imagery without ever reducing itself to one simple interpretation. Dylan sounds worn, reflective, and completely committed to every line. “Ring Them Bells” is not loud or flashy, but it carries the kind of weight that only a great Dylan performance can carry.

# 5 – Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms

Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” has been part of the holiday season since 1957, and it remains one of the first records people think of when Christmas and rock and roll meet. Written by Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, the recording mixes country, pop, and early rock in a way that made the title feel completely natural at the dawn of the rock era. Hank Garland’s guitar gives the track much of its bounce, while Helms delivers the melody without overplaying the novelty. The song has returned to the charts again and again across generations, long after most seasonal records from the 1950s disappeared. At this point, “Jingle Bell Rock” is less a holiday oldie than a permanent piece of American pop culture.

# 4 – The Bells of Rhymney – The Byrds

The Byrds recorded “The Bells of Rhymney” for their 1965 debut album Mr. Tambourine Man, transforming Pete Seeger’s adaptation of Idris Davies’ poem into shimmering folk rock. Roger McGuinn’s twelve-string Rickenbacker gives the song that unmistakable Byrds sound, while the group’s harmonies bring a strange beauty to lyrics rooted in the struggles of Welsh coal-mining communities. Terry Melcher produced the recording during the sessions that established the band’s signature blend of folk writing and electric rock instrumentation. The bells here are not celebratory at all; they speak for towns, workers, suffering, and social injustice. That seriousness gives the song a completely different emotional weight from almost everything else on this list.

# 3 – Wedding Bell Blues – Laura Nyro

Seasons of Lights...Laura Nyro in Concert

Laura Nyro wrote and recorded “Wedding Bell Blues” in 1966, when she was still only eighteen years old. Produced by Milt Okun and arranged by Herb Bernstein, Nyro’s original recording turns the desire for commitment into something soulful, theatrical, funny, and a little desperate all at once. Her version only reached Billboard’s Bubbling Under chart, but the song later became a number-one hit for The 5th Dimension in 1969. That later success sometimes overshadows the fact that the song began with Nyro, whose writing was already remarkably mature at such a young age. “Wedding Bell Blues” is one of the clearest early examples of why so many major artists would eventually turn to Laura Nyro’s songs.

# 2 – For Whom The Bell Tolls – Metallica

“For Whom the Bell Tolls” from Metallica’s 1984 album Ride the Lightning turns the sound of a tolling bell into one of the most ominous openings in heavy metal. Written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Cliff Burton, the song was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, with Metallica producing and Flemming Rasmussen assisting and engineering the sessions. Burton’s distorted bass introduction sounds so enormous that people still mistake it for a guitar, while the bells and marching rhythm make the song feel like a funeral procession moving toward battle. The lyric focuses on war, death, and the meaningless destruction of human life. This is Metallica at their heaviest without needing speed to prove it.

Read More: Top 10 Metallica Songs

# 1 – Hells Bells – AC/DC

AC/DC could not have opened Back in Black with anything more dramatic than the slow tolling bell that begins “Hells Bells.” Released in 1980, the album was the band’s first studio record after Bon Scott’s death and introduced Brian Johnson as AC/DC’s new lead singer. Robert John “Mutt” Lange produced the album at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, with Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, and Phil Rudd surrounding Johnson with the same brutal precision that had always defined the band. The bell gives way to one of Angus Young’s most menacing riffs, and from that moment the song never lets go. “Hells Bells” is dark, heavy, unforgettable, and the obvious number-one choice for a list about bells in rock music.

Read More: 10 Best 1970s AC/DC Songs