This week in 1971 breakthrough album Led Zeppelin II entered its 100th chart week in the UK.
The album knocked The Beatles’ Abbey Road from a top spot in the US, twice. It remained No. 1 in the US for seven weeks. Pre-release orders were at 400,000.
The album released on October 22, 1969. It was certified Gold in the US by November 10th.
The immense success of the million-selling US single ‘Whole Lotta Love’ propelled the album to No. 1 in America. It climbed to Number One in the UK in February 1970.
The expectation in the 60s music era was over one album release a year. Bands received income mainly from live shows than record sales, yet it motivated bands like Led Zeppelin to compose new material.
Despite a heavy touring schedule in late 1969 and Led Zeppelin went from opening for Vanilla Fudge in late 1968 in the US to solid headliners, providing fans legendary performances. They went from playing at local UK pubs to performing at London’s Royal Albert Hall that June.
Despite a heavy touring schedule in late 1969, the band booked studio sessions during touring. Tour, lay down a track, and back on the tour was their lifestyle.
The inspiration came from onstage improvisation. The freestyle section riffs mid into ‘Dazed and Confused’ emerging on stage recorded in the studio as soon as they could. Led Zeppelin II had nine tracks recorded in six studios.
Album sessions were at Olympic and Morgan Studios, London, England, Mirror Sound, and Mystic Studios, Los Angeles, California, and Juggy Sound in NYC. They held some sessions in Vancouver, Canada.
Producer Jimmy Page and Eddie Kramer mixed the tracks in only a few days at A & R Studios in New York. The pair had connected over Jimi Hendrix’s recent recordings.
The hit ‘Whole Lotta Love’ was a band collaboration, with the later acknowledgment of Willie Dixon because of similarities to his ‘You Need Love’ performed by Muddy Waters. Both songs have a verse section staying on one chord. This at the top line, and the words “way down inside”/” you need love” at 5:33 are similar.
That is where the similarities end. The blasting iconic guitar riff doubled on bass and the song arrangement is original, as is the long percussion and strong vocals midsection. ‘Whole Lotta Love’ closed with a double riff, guitar histrionics, and a return to the key event.
At 1:18 to around 3:02 we hear John Bonham’s hi-hat keeping the beat while Jimmy Page and Eddie Kramer psychedelic guitar sweeps and Plant’s vocals, ending with crashing drums. We know this section of the track as the ‘orgasm section’.
‘Whole Lotta Love’ had serious radio play in the US, yet unfortunately, stations edited out the middle section to create a short version of the track. Atlantic Records subsequently shortened the single from the full length 5 minutes, 33 seconds to 3 minutes, 10 seconds. Led Zeppelin’s first hit selling over one million copies peaked at No. 4 in the US in the summer of 1969. It reached No. 1 in Germany and Belgium.
Zeppelin manager Peter Grant blocked the UK single release of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and is still to gain familiarity with the British public as a Led Zeppelin original.
The BBC’s Top Of The Pops show features a version by blues singer Alexis Korner’s CCS. Coincidently, just after The Band Of Joy and pre-Zeppelin, Robert Plant had briefly been in a version of an Alexis Korner group that included British pianist Steve Miller (not the US Space Cowboy).
©2020 The Buzz Roll Media
Image Credit – David Juniper
