News What is the highest-charting single by Led Zeppelin?
Formed in London in 1968, Led Zeppelin remain one of the most successful bands of all time. A pioneering group that eclipsed The Beatles as the hottest on earth with their album-orientated approach, Led Zeppelin had the desire to make rock darker and more expansive than ever before. Reflecting the gravity of their meteoric rise, they had written themselves into the history books even before releasing their 1971 masterpiece, Led Zeppelin IV.
Founded out of the ashes of The Yardbirds by guitarist and creative figurehead Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin would quickly metamorphose into a completely different beast than his old band. Alongside Page, each member – frontman Robert Plant, bassist and multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham – added something vital to their increasingly powerful sound. Arguably, they wouldn’t have been the leviathan they were with even one different member.
The quartet released their eponymous debut album in January 1969 via Atlantic Records, which charted at number six on the UK Albums Chart and ten on the Billboard 200 in the US. All of their seven subsequent albums would reach the top spot on the UK charts, including the much-maligned 1970 opus Led Zeppelin III – and regularly hit the top of the US charts.
Moving quickly, in October 1969, Led Zeppelin arrived with their hotly-anticipated second album, Led Zeppelin II. Recorded when the group were on tour, it reached number one in several countries, including the UK and US, due to the band refining their formula. Only mentioning classics such as ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘Ramble On’ indicates this, with the former hailed as one of Bonham’s finest moments. The album also made history as it produced the band’s highest-charting single ever, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ – by far the most culturally impactful moment found on it.
As Led Zeppelin pioneered the album-orientated approach, they refused to release popular tracks as singles. However, they did allow Atlantic Records to release ‘Whole Lotta Love’ in the US, where it became their biggest hit to date, landing at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, despite having a run time of five minutes and 33 seconds. Atlantic Records were acutely aware of its lengthy duration and pressed copies of a shortened version of the song to be released in the UK, but manager Peter Grant blocked them. “I played it once, hated it and never listened to the short version again,” Jimmy Page later explained to the Wall Street Journal.
Subsequently, the quartet issued a press release asserting: “Led Zeppelin have no intention of issuing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ as a single as they feel it was written as part of their concept of the album.” This meant that the American single was the same version found on Led Zeppelin II, and their art was intact.
This attitude was upheld by Led Zeppelin throughout the rest of their career, refusing to release some of their most impactful songs as singles through not wanting to ruin them or the entire body of work from which they came. Whilst it might have afforded them artistic integrity, it negated any realistic chance of securing scores of number one singles like their peers. This was Led Zeppelin, though. They were always different. Ironically, this outlook was the key to their success.
