Started: October, 1968
City and Country of Origin: England
Music Training:
Awards:
Top Recordings: "Black Dog," "The Battle of Evermore," "Stairway to Heaven"
Led Zeppelin Biography: Led Zeppelin emerged out of the ashes of the Yardbirds. They were a heavy metal band with an outrageously loud interpretation of the blues. They were destested by the music media and hence no press. They didn't believe in cutting singles and therefore cut only albums without releasing any singles, as is the custom, from the albums. The name of the group comes from an oxymoron used by Who drummer Keith Moon. When asked by Page to join the new group he said the new group would go over like a lead balloon. The play on words comes from the heavy metal lead combined with the lighter than air flying machine, but they were afraid people would call them "Lead Zeppelin" as in the verb to lead. Hence Lead was changed to Led. When in the summer of 1968, the Yardbirds' Keith Relf and James McCarty left the group, Jimmy Page who had only recently joined the group was left holding both title to the name and the obligations to fulfill an upcoming fall tour. He needed a drummer and a lead vocalist. Afer a few futile attempts to lure members of other established bands someone recommended that he contact Robert Plant who was singing with a group going by the name of the Hobbstweedle. After bassist Chris Dreja dropped out of the new project, John Paul Jones joined the group as its bassist and Plant recommended that Page enlist the services of John Bonham the drummer from Plant's old group. With the new band now complete, Page was able to fulfill his tour obligations, working through September of'68, under the name the Yardbirds. In October they switched the name to Led Zeppelin and secured a contract with American Atlantic Records. Their first album Led Zeppelin was a huge success as was their follow up Led Zeppelin II. Even their masterpiece "Stairway to Heaven" was never released as a single even though it became the most heavily played song on radio. After the untimely death of Robert Plant's son and the death of drummer John Bonham the group disbanded in 1980.

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