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.
Popular music · Rock
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.
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.