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Portrait of Led Zeppelin

Popular music · Rock

Led Zeppelin

1968–1980 · British

Hard rock and blues rock; a founding influence on heavy metal

Assembled by guitarist Jimmy Page in 1968 out of the wreckage of the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin paired the heaviest rhythm section in rock — John Bonham and John Paul Jones — with Robert Plant's high, wailing vocal. They refused to release singles in Britain, sold albums instead, and built the template for the stadium rock tour. John Bonham's death in September 1980 ended the band within three months.

How to spot them

  • ▸Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (vocals), John Paul Jones (bass and keyboards), John Bonham (drums)
  • ▸Originally the New Yardbirds; the name comes from a quip about a lead balloon, spelt without the 'a' so Americans would not say 'leed'
  • ▸Manager Peter Grant, famously ferocious; their own label Swan Song from 1974, distributed by Atlantic
  • ▸Untitled albums and symbols instead of titles; violin bows drawn across the guitar; Page's interest in Aleister Crowley
  • ▸Repeated accusations of uncredited borrowing from blues originals — Willie Dixon and others won or settled claims

Songs & albums

A 1969 debut sleeve showing a burning airship at its mooring mast (1969)

Led Zeppelin, with the Hindenburg disaster on the cover — the image that fixed the band's name.

An eight-minute 1971 song that begins with a recorder-flavoured acoustic figure and ends in a hard-rock gallop, never issued as a single (1971)

'Stairway to Heaven', from the untitled fourth album; a 2016 US court finally rejected a plagiarism claim over its opening.

A 1971 album with no title and no band name on the sleeve, identified only by four hand-chosen symbols (1971)

Usually called Led Zeppelin IV; the front shows an old man carrying a bundle of sticks on a papered wall.

A 1973 sleeve of naked children climbing the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway (1973)

Houses of the Holy, designed by Hipgnosis; the title track was held back and appeared on the next album instead.

A 1975 double album whose die-cut New York tenement windows change picture as the inner sleeves are moved (1975)

Physical Graffiti, home of the Eastern-flavoured 'Kashmir'.

A 1969 song whose riff earned Willie Dixon a settlement and a belated songwriting credit (1969)

'Whole Lotta Love', built on Dixon's 'You Need Love'; its theremin-and-feedback middle section was used for years by Top of the Pops.

A 1970 acoustic-leaning third album largely written at a remote Welsh cottage with no electricity (1970)

Led Zeppelin III, written at Bron-Yr-Aur in Gwynedd; the sleeve has a rotating volvelle wheel.

A 1976 concert film interleaving Madison Square Garden footage with fantasy sequences for each member (1976)

The Song Remains the Same.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith
  • •John Bonham died on 25 September 1980 after a day of heavy drinking at Jimmy Page's house; the band announced in December that they could not continue
  • •They refused to release singles in the UK, so 'Stairway to Heaven' was never a British chart single despite being among the most-played rock songs ever
  • •Jimmy Page had been a prolific London session guitarist before joining the Yardbirds in 1966
  • •Peter Grant is credited with changing the economics of touring by demanding 90 per cent of gate receipts for the band
  • •Their aircraft on the 1973 tour was a Boeing 720B named the Starship
  • •The four symbols on the fourth album include Page's 'ZoSo' and Bonham's three interlocking rings, taken from a Ballantine beer logo
  • •The one-off reunion at London's O2 Arena on 10 December 2007, with Jason Bonham on drums, was released as Celebration Day; some 20 million people applied for tickets
  • •Robert Plant has repeatedly declined a full reunion; he was touring the United States again in 2026
  • •Swan Song Records also released records by Bad Company, the Pretty Things and Maggie Bell

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Sources