Good guitar songs for beginners

I recently had a couple people ask me about some good guitar songs to learn for beginners, and it got me to thinking about what I'd recommend. I did some websearching.

I got to thinking the first guitar song should have only a handful of chords, and the chords utilized should be common and form a foundation for future songs. Probably a I-IV-V chord combination that's found in hundreds of songs would be included

Some of the most common chords guitarists will play include G, C, D (this is a I-IV-V) chord combination in key of G. The Em is the natural "minor" chord when playing in this key.

Here are the chords and the most common voicings

-G---C---D---Em-------D7

-3---0---2---0--------2------------
-0---1---3---0--------1-------------
-0---0---2---0--------2-------------
-0---2---0---2--------0-------------
-2---3---x---2--------0-------------
-3---0---x---0--------x-------------

... and here's a couple different ways that I like to play those chords. The don't have the same names, but usually they can substitute in many songs and still work fine, and sometimes are easier to play, and I find often sound smoother/firmer.

-G---Cadd9---D---Em

-3---3-------2---3--------------------
-3---3-------3---0---------------------
-0---0-------2---0---------------------
-0---2-------0---2---------------------
-2---3-------0---2---------------------
-3---0-------2---0---------------------


After looking around, here's some starter guitar songs that I'd recommend.

Try out:
Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl

Yes, the entire set of the chords in the song is G, C, D, Em, and D7

Another using most of the same chords
Poison - Every Rose Has it's Thorn

The next song I'd recommend introduces the "F" chord.... one of the more difficult chords to learn when starting.

Steve Mille - Take the Money and Run

Here's a couple different ways to appraoch the F chord. It also has an E chord. (the F5 and E5 versions shown are version of the E and F chords that just use 3 strings and a reduced voicing of notes in the chord - the person doing the transcriptins recommends them for some of the quicker chord changes in the song)

-F----E-------F5--E5----F(barre chord version)

-1----0-------x---x-----1--
-1----0-------x---x-----1---
-2----1-------x---x-----2---
-3----2-------3---2-----3----
-x----2-------3---2-----3----
-x----0-------1---0-----1----

If you want to try the barre chorde version of F, which I recommend cause it'll sound better, stretch your entire index finger across the first fret and use the remainder of your fingers to finish out the chord. It'll be hard until you get it, so you might try the other versions of the F or F5 shown until you get it.

This song additionally introduces some fast chord changes.


Another tune that won't be too hard is
The Animals House of the Rising Sun

This song introduces the Am chord, but otherwise utilizes much of what you've built on above. Additionally this song introduces a little bit of pick control. You can strum the chords and the song will sound fine, but the way it's recorded the individual notes of the song are picked separately. The pick control is something good to introduce here.

... Anyhow, that's my 2 cents on the matter.

EDIT: JUNE 9, 2009 Go here for a song to learn 6 basic chords to play along to with a song recorded over the weekend.