| This was Led Zeppelin's first US single, and
their only US Top-10 hit. Some of their most popular songs, like "Stairway
To Heaven," were not released as singles. |
| Atlantic Records pressed copies of the single
to release in England, but Peter Grant, their manager, wouldn't let
them. He felt releasing singles in England would hurt album sales.
In the US, it was acceptable because more people bought singles. |
| Blues great Willie Dixon sued the band,
claiming they stole this from his song "You Need Love." The band
reached an agreement with Dixon, who used the settlement money to
set up a program providing instruments for schools. |
| The free-form section was the result of Page
and engineer Eddie Kramer "twiddling every knob known to man." |
| This might be the first use of "backward echo."
Page put the echo of Plant's lines before he says them, creating an
interesting sound. |
| Robert Plant did the vocal in one take. |
| Led Zeppelin used this as the basis for a
medley they performed in their later shows. They had lots of songs
by then, so they used the medley to play snippets of their popular
songs they did not want to play all the way through. |
| This was used as the theme song to the BBC's
Top of the Pops. The band never appeared on the program
because manager Peter Grant discouraged TV appearances. |
| Some parts of the song as well as some lyrics
were borrowed form a song called "You Need Loving" by the Small
Faces. The Small Faces was a '60 band that Zeppelin modeled
themselves after. (thanks, Andrew J Antonczak - Cleveland, OH) |
| The remaining members of Led Zeppelin played
this at their Live Aid reunion in 1985. Along with Tony Thompson,
Phil Collins sat in on drums. Collins was the biggest presence at
Live Aid. He played a set in London, flew to Philadelphia, played
another set, then stayed on when Zeppelin took the stage. Jimmy Page
was not happy - he thought Collins butchered this. |
| On some live versions, Jimmy Page played the
Theremin, a bizarre electronic instrument he liked to experiment
with consisting of a black box and an antennae. The sound is altered
by moving one's hand closer to or farther from the antennae and was
used to create the fuzz that alternates back and forth through the
speakers. It can be heard to great effect on their Royal Albert Hall
footage. The Theremin was used by The Beach Boys on "Good
Vibrations." (thanks, Collin - Midland, TX) |
| Page, Plant, and John Paul Jones played this
at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988 with Jason
Bonham sitting in on drums for his late father. |
| In 1997, this became the only single Led
Zeppelin released in the UK, although there were several pressings
made of "Trampled Underfoot" that were all shelved before being
released, and are, today, viewed as highly collectable. (thanks, Jon
- Wayne, PA) |
