In most cases all it takes are some strong personal associations or even just some meaningful video sequences to make a piece of music, or a solo, great. Seem great. One of the reasons I became turned off by high-end audio equipment as a hobby, was the simple truth that the right song at the right moment means everything, even if its coming out of a cheap car radio tuned to an AM station.
From a guitarists point of view its interesting to imagine what you'd rather be: a simple but effective soloist in a group where the song is everything, or a super technical baby-beethoven who hires a group as an excuse to allow him solo against. Theres a million examples of songs that represent a place and time really well because of what was going on in the culture, and the solo might be just a few notes, but perfect. Beatles songs. The solo on Jefferson Airplanes song White Rabbit. Hendrix. All the way into modern times and styles.
Because lets be honest: half the players coming out of GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology) could play any guitar solo from the 60's, 70's, or 80's with their teeth, probably. Anyway this is just a long winded way of saying that solos mean nothing without the song and without the circumstances... otherwise all the teenagers of today who practice sweep-picking arpeggios all day long in their bedrooms would eventually be heroes of rock. The Sex Pistols hit the music scene like a panzer division, and with no guitar solos required.
But one of my favorite baby-beethoven guitar player solos is Yngwie Malmsteens solo on Little Savage.