Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...
, guitarist
Jimmy Page
James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...
, bassist/keyboardist
John Paul Jones, and drummer
John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are cited as one of the progenitors of
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
and
heavy metal, although their style drew from a variety of influences, including
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
and
folk music. Led Zeppelin have been credited as significantly impacting the nature of the music industry, particularly in the development of
album-oriented rock (AOR) and
stadium rock.
Originally named the
New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin signed a deal with
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
that gave them considerable artistic freedom. Initially unpopular with critics, they achieved significant commercial success with eight studio albums over ten years. Their 1969 debut, ''
Led Zeppelin'', was a top-ten album in several countries and featured such tracks as "
Good Times Bad Times", "
Dazed and Confused" and "
Communication Breakdown". ''
Led Zeppelin II'' (1969) was their first number-one album, and yielded "
Ramble On
"Ramble On" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin from their 1969 album ''Led Zeppelin II''. It was co-written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and was recorded in 1969 at Juggy Sound Studio, New York City, during the band's second concert ...
" and "
Whole Lotta Love". In 1970, they released ''
Led Zeppelin III'' which featured "
Immigrant Song". Their untitled fourth album, commonly known as ''
Led Zeppelin IV
The untitled fourth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, commonly known as ''Led Zeppelin IV'', was released on 8 November 1971 by Atlantic Records. It was produced by guitarist Jimmy Page and recorded between December 1970 and Fe ...
'' (1971), is one of the
best-selling albums
This is a list of the world's best-selling albums of recorded music. To appear on the list, the figure must have been published by a reliable source and the album must have sold at least 20 million copies. This list can contain any types of al ...
in history with 37 million copies sold. The album includes "
Black Dog
Black dog or blackdog may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional entities
* Black Dog, a bio-robot in the 1982 Bulgarian animated science fiction film ''The Treasure Planet''
* The Black Dog, an inn in 2015–2016 British drama TV series '' T ...
", "
Rock and Roll" and "
Stairway to Heaven
"Stairway to Heaven" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by the band's guitarist Jimmy Page and lead singer Robert Plant for their untitled fourth studio album (often titled ''Led Zeppelin IV'') ...
", with the latter being among the most popular and influential works in rock history. ''
Houses of the Holy'' (1973) yielded "
The Ocean", "
Over the Hills and Far Away" and "
The Rain Song". ''
Physical Graffiti
''Physical Graffiti'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released as a double album on 24 February 1975 by the group's new record label, Swan Song Records.
The band wrote and recorded eight new songs for the a ...
'' (1975), a double album, featured "
Trampled Under Foot" and "
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
".
Page wrote most of Led Zeppelin's music, particularly early in their career, while Plant wrote most of the lyrics. Jones's keyboard-based compositions later became central to their music, which featured increasing experimentation. The latter half of their career saw a series of
record-breaking tours that earned the group a reputation for excess and debauchery. Although they remained commercially and critically successful, their touring and output, which included ''
Presence
Presence may refer to:
Technology
* Presence (sound recording), also known as room tone
* Presence (amplification), used in four band equalisation
* Presence (telepresence), the scientific and technological field
* Immersion (virtual reality ...
'' (1976) and ''
In Through the Out Door
''In Through the Out Door'' is the eighth and final studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded in three weeks in November and December 1978 at ABBA's Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and released by Swan Song Recor ...
'' (1979), grew limited, and the group disbanded following Bonham's death in 1980. Since then, the surviving former members have sporadically collaborated and participated in one-off reunions. The most successful of these was the 2007
Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in London, with Bonham's son
Jason Bonham on drums.
Led Zeppelin are one of the
best-selling music artists of all time; their total record sales are estimated to be between 200 to 300 million units worldwide. They achieved eight consecutive UK number-one albums and six number-one albums on the US
''Billboard'' 200, with five of their albums
certified Diamond
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
in the US. ''
Rolling Stone'' magazine described them as "the heaviest band of all time", "the biggest band of the Seventies", and "unquestionably one of the most enduring bands in rock history". They were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
in 1995; the museum's biography of the band states that they were "as influential" during the 1970s as
the Beatles were during the 1960s.
History
Formation: 1966–1968
In 1966, London-based session guitarist
Jimmy Page
James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...
joined the blues-influenced rock band
the Yardbirds to replace bassist
Paul Samwell-Smith
Paul Granville Samwell-Smith (born Paul Smith, 8 May 1943, in Richmond, Surrey, England) is an English musician and record producer. He was a founding member and the bassist of the 1960s English rock band the Yardbirds, which launched leading g ...
. Page soon switched from bass to lead guitar, creating a dual lead guitar line-up with
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...
. Following Beck's departure in October 1966, the Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, began to wind down. Page wanted to form a
supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to:
* Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields
* Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry
* Supergroup ...
with Beck and him on guitars, and
the Who's
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon (23 August 19467 September 1978) was an English drummer for the rock band the Who. He was noted for his unique style of playing and his eccentric, often self-destructive behaviour and addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Moon grew ...
and
John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician who was the bassist for the rock band The Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only member ...
on drums and bass, respectively. Vocalists
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a keyboard player and vocalist prominent for his disti ...
and
Steve Marriott were also considered for the project. The group never formed, although Page, Beck, and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "
Beck's Bolero
"Beck's Bolero" is a rock instrumental recorded by English guitarist Jeff Beck in 1966. It is Beck's first solo recording and has been described as "one of the great rock instrumentals, epic in scope, harmonically and rhythmically ambitious y ...
", in a session that also included bassist-keyboardist
John Paul Jones.
The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968 at
Luton College of Technology
The University of Bedfordshire is a public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The University has roots from 1882, however, it gained university status in 1993 as the University of Luton. The Universi ...
in Bedfordshire. They were still committed to several concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer
Jim McCarty and vocalist
Keith Relf authorised Page and bassist
Chris Dreja to use the Yardbirds' name to fulfill the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page's first choice for the lead singer was
Terry Reid, but Reid declined the offer and suggested
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...
, a singer for the
Band of Joy and Hobbstweedle. Plant eventually accepted the position, recommending former Band of Joy drummer
John Bonham. John Paul Jones enquired about the vacant position of bass guitarist, at the suggestion of his wife, after Dreja dropped out of the project to become a photographer. Page had known Jones since they were both session musicians, and agreed to let him join as the final member.