Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven (Live at Earls Court 1975)

“Stairway to Heaven” – Song by Led Zeppelin from the album Led Zeppelin IV
Released: November 8, 1971
Recorded: December 1970, January 1971, February 1971
Label: Atlantic
Songwriters: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Producer: Jimmy Page

The song has three sections, each one progressively increasing in tempo and volume. The song begins in a slow tempo with acoustic instruments (guitar and recorders) before introducing electric instruments. The final section is an uptempo hard rock arrangement, highlighted by Page’s guitar solo and Plant’s vocals, which ends with the plaintive a cappella line: “And she’s buying a stairway to heaven”.

The most famous rock song of all time, “Stairway To Heaven” wasn’t a chart hit because it was never released as a single to the general public. Radio stations received promotional singles which quickly became collector’s items.

On Tuesday November 13, 2007, Led Zeppelin’s entire back catalogue was made available as legal digital downloads, making all of their tracks eligible for the UK singles chart. As a result, at the end of that week the original version of “Stairway To Heaven” arrived in the UK singles charts for the first time. Previously, three covers had charted: the multinational studio band Far Corporation reached #8 with their version in 1985, then reggae tribute act Dread Zeppelin crawled to #62 in 1991 and finally Rolf Harris’ reworking outdid the other two, peaking at #7 in 1993.

Robert Plant spent much of the ’70s answering questions about the lyrics he wrote for “Stairway.” When asked why the song was so popular, he said it could be its “abstraction,” adding, “Depending on what day it is, I still interpret the song a different way – and I wrote the lyrics.”

Stairway to Heaven (Live at Earls Court, London, England, 5/24/1975)

Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 and went on to become one of the most influential, innovative, and successful groups in modern music, having sold more than 300 million albums worldwide. The band rose from the ashes of The Yardbirds, when Jimmy Page brought in John Bonham, John Paul Jones, and Robert Plant to tour as The New Yardbirds. In 1969, Led Zeppelin released its self-titled debut which was produced by Page, as were all the subsequent albums. It marked the beginning of a 12-year reign, during which the group was widely considered to be the biggest and most innovative rock band in the world.