Led Zeppelin is the debut studio album by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released on January 12, 1969 in the United States and on March 31 in the United Kingdom by Atlantic Records. The album was recorded between 25 September to 10 October 1968 at Olympic Studios in London, shortly after the band’s formation. It contains a mix of original material worked out in the first rehearsals, and remakes and rearrangements of contemporary blues and folk songs.
The sessions took place before the group had secured a recording contract and totalled 36 hours; they were paid for directly by Jimmy Page, the group’s founder, leader and guitarist, and Led Zeppelin‘s manager Peter Grant and cost £1,782 (equivalent to £31,203 in 2021) to complete.
They were produced by Page, who as a musician was joined by band members Robert Plant (lead vocals, harmonica), John Paul Jones (bass, keyboards), and John Bonham (drums). Percussionist Viram Jasani appears as a guest on one track. The tracks were mixed by Page’s childhood friend Glyn Johns, and the iconic album cover showing the Hindenburg disaster was designed by George Hardie.
Led Zeppelin showed the group’s fusion of blues and rock, and their take on the emerging hard rock sound was immediately commercially successful in both the UK and US, reaching the top 10 on album charts in both countries, as well as several others, while it reached number one in Spain’s albums chart.
Many of the songs were longer and not well suited to be released as singles for radio airplay; Page was reluctant to release singles, so only Good Times Bad Times, backed with Communication Breakdown, was released outside of the UK. However, due to exposure on album-oriented rock radio stations, and growth in popularity of the band, many of the album’s songs have become classic rock radio staples.
Side one
- Good Times Bad Times
- Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
- You Shook Me
- Dazed and Confused
Side two
- Your Time Is Gonna Come
- Black Mountain Side
- Communication Breakdown
- I Can’t Quit You Baby
Led Zeppelin
Robert Plant: lead vocal, harmonica
Jimmy Page: electric, acoustic and pedal steel guitars, backing vocal, production
John Paul Jones: bass, organ, backing vocal
John Bonham: drums, timpani, backing vocal
Additional musician
Viram Jasani: tabla on “Black Mountain Side”
Production
Chris Dreja: back cover photography
Peter Grant: executive production
George Hardie: cover design
Glyn Johns: engineering, mixing
George Marino: CD remastering
John Davis: 2014 reissue remastering
John Henry Bonham ( May 31, 1948 – September 25,1980).
