Led Zeppelin‘s album opening songs are as varied and interesting as the LPs that followed. Together, they provide a road map as the band quickly transcended their foundational influences to redraw the rules for what hard rock could be.
The first two albums from John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were hulking slabs of heavy-blues music so tied to the past that copyright lawsuits were filed. They followed 1969’s eight-times-platinum Led Zeppelin I and 12-times-platinum Led Zeppelin II, however, with 1970’s chart-topping Led Zeppelin III – an album that found Led Zeppelin quickly branching out musically. Soon, the band would come into its own.
The 24-times-platinum international Top 5 smash Led Zeppelin IV redefined their career in 1971 before 1973’s No. 1 smash Houses of the Holy found the group at their free-wheeling creative zenith. There was a bit of retrenchment as 1975’s Physical Graffiti strained to remain completely engaging over its expanded two-album depth. Led Zeppelin then returned to hard blues with 1976’s multi-platinum No. 1 hit Presence before concluding their original run with a final chart-topper, 1979’s In Through the Out Door.
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The aptly titled million-seller Coda officially wrapped things up in 1982 with odds and ends released after Bonham’s sudden death shattered the group. By then, they’d released nine albums with nine fascinating opening songs that tell the story of Led Zeppelin’s rise to fame as well as any biography ever could. Here’s a ranked look back:
No. 9. “We’re Gonna Groove”
From: Coda (1982)
The post-breakup album Coda begins with a doctored song that Led Zeppelin apparently considered for inclusion on their second LP. “We’re Gonna Groove,” a surprisingly muscular R&B-kissed blues offering from Ben E. King of “Stand By Me” fame, was certainly worthy of one of their sludgy early makeovers. Led Zeppelin made this pass on Jan. 9, 1970, at London’s Royal Albert Hall, then Jimmy Page added new guitars for release. Their update of Willie Dixon’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby” found later in Coda is from the same show.
No. 8. “Good Times Bad Times”
From: Led Zeppelin I (1969)
“Good Times Bad Times” was an encapsulation of Led Zeppelin’s original bluesy hard-rock aesthetic, though they rarely played it live. (A notable exception was 2007’s Celebration Day reunion show, where “Good Times Bad Times” was the opening song.) The Jimmy Page riff, which John Paul Jones actually came up with on an organ, was played on a Jeff Beck-gifted guitar. John Bonham elbows it all along with a series of triplets inspired by Carmine Appice’s work on a contemporary Vanilla Fudge cover of the Beatles‘ “Ticket to Ride.”
No. 7. “Custard Pie”
From: Physical Graffiti (1975)
“Custard Pie” emerged from sessions in early 1974 at Headley Grange that produced enough material for about three sides of music. Led Zeppelin decided to round things out for a double-disc release with some (occasionally not as interesting) leftovers from earlier albums, rather than make judicious cuts to release a single LP. As a result, they ended up losing the momentum achieved by this hard-charging start. Page ran that eruptive guitar solo through an ARP synthesizer, and it’s almost worth the price of admission.
No. 6. “Whole Lotta Love”
From: Led Zeppelin II (1969)
The bloat that would hamper Physical Graffiti was first hinted at with “Whole Lotta Love.” The song was already at a robust 5:30 with a stuck-in-time middle section of freakout vocals and overdubbed, wildly stereo-panned sounds. Then they started playing “Whole Lotta Love” in concert, stretching things out to 10 minutes and then to more than 20. Stick with the gold-selling, more tightly paced U.S. hit single version, a striking 3:45-long preview of all that the emerging genre of heavy metal would soon wrought.
No. 5. “The Song Remains the Same”
From: Houses of the Holy (1973)
By now, Led Zeppelin had played plenty of shows – and they had plenty of stories. That made it easy for Robert Plant to add road-themed lyrics to “The Song Remains the Same,” which began life as a Page instrumental simply called “The Overture” meant to precede “The Rain Song.” Its inventive arrangement found Led Zeppelin slowing down for this nifty half-tempo section before ramping up to a furious end. Call it a preview of the rangy inventiveness that would mark this often-underrated LP.
No. 4. “In the Evening”
From: In Through the Out Door (1979)
This international chart-topping album produced Led Zeppelin’s sweetest, softest, most deeply emotional moment with “All My Love.” (The Plant ballad was dedicated to his late son Karac, who died while Led Zeppelin was out playing a North American tour in 1977.) But In Through the Out Door certainly didn’t start out that way: Instead, “In the Evening” is this leering, thrillingly metallic plea for love, even with another swooning middle section. It’s also Page’s best turn on an LP with too few of them.
No. 3. “Black Dog”
From: Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
Sessions for this career-defining project began with “Black Dog,” a tricky statement of purpose that combined a towering collaborative Page-Jones riff, their classic stuttering rhythms and Plant’s lip-smacking lyric about a nakedly desirous suitor to hold it all together. The impetus was a stray retriever who would return each morning to the Headley Grange studio grounds, seemingly worn out from evening after evening of carousing. As with the old blues songs that Led Zeppelin so loved, however, “Black Dog” ends in a sudden betrayal.
No. 2. “Achilles Last Stand”
From: Presence (1976)
The rhythm section parts for this brilliant 10-minute multi-part opening song were laid down first, with Jones playing a distinctive eight-string bass. Plant completed the basic track with a narrative inspired by his recent travels into Africa with Page. Then came a marathon overdubbing session in which Page added not two guitars, not four guitars, but an eye-popping six guitars. The thunderous results sound like an on-coming army. Perhaps no surprise then that Page has called “Achilles Last Stand” his favorite Led Zeppelin track.
No. 1. “Immigrant Song”
From: Led Zeppelin III (1970)
Plant unleashes an unforgettable wail before this galloping song gets underway, giving little hint of the more acoustic turn that III soon takes. Page, Jones and Bonham honed the relentless basic track at Olympic Studios, with the rest completed at Headley Grange. Plant found inspiration for the “Immigrant Song” during a recent tour to Iceland in which he couldn’t sleep because of the summer months’ endless sun. His thoughts inevitably turned to “Vikings,” he said, and “big ships.” Countless future heavy metal acts followed him there.
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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