Song of the Day: Stairway To Heaven

Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin. Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the release of arguably the greatest song of all time, Stairway To Heaven, and the untitled album that it was released on, which is also one of the greatest albums of all time. Of course most people refer to the album as Led Zeppelin lV or even ZOSO, which was the one of the four symbols featured on the album that could be read. Releasing an album with no name and no written information at all on the sleeve was hated by the record label. They told the band that it would be career suicide, but Zeppelin refused to hand over the master tapes to the album till the label agreed to the idea. The band had not been pleased with how Zeppelin lll was received by the critics and press, so they had the idea to release this album with no name, no title, no advertising, and just wanted the music to speak for itself. And boy did it. Not only does it contain, what some say is the most played song in the history of FM radio, Zeppelin lV would go on to be the band’s best selling album with over 37 million copies sold worldwide. It sold 24 million copies alone in the US. Zeppelin lV is the Led Zeppelin at their peak. They clearly had plenty of great music and albums before and after Zeppelin lV but this is truly the band at its pinnacle.

Thanny