Led Zeppelin II 2 LP Record 1969 Original Press Vinyl Album SD 8236 Record

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Led Zeppelin II 2 LP Record 1969 Original Press Vinyl Album SD 8236 Record

Led Zeppelin II is the second studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in October 1969 on Atlantic Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at several locations in the United Kingdom and North America from January to August 1969. Production was entirely credited to lead guitarist and songwriter Jimmy Page, while it also served as Led Zeppelin's first album to utilise the recording techniques of engineer Eddie Kramer.

Led Zeppelin II furthered the lyrical themes established on their debut album, creating a work that became more widely acclaimed and influential than its predecessor. With elements of blues and folk music, it also exhibits the band's evolving musical style of blues-derived material and their guitar and riff-based sound. It is considered the band's heaviest album.[1]

Upon release, the album sold well and was Led Zeppelin's first album to reach number one in the UK and the US. In 1970, art director David Juniper was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for the album. On 15 November 1999, it was certified 12× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 12 million copies. Since its release, writers and music critics have regularly cited it in polls of the greatest and most influential rock albums.

The album was released on 22 October 1969 on Atlantic Records, with advance orders of 400,000 copies.[27] The advertising campaign was built around the slogans 'Led Zeppelin - The Only Way to Fly' and 'Led Zeppelin II Now Flying'.[5][28] Commercially, Led Zeppelin II was the band's first album to hit No. 1 in the US, knocking The Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) twice from the top spot, where it remained for seven weeks.[5] By April 1970 it had registered three million American sales, whilst in Britain it enjoyed a 138 week residence on the LP chart, climbing to the top spot in February 1970.[5]

The album also yielded Led Zeppelin's biggest hit with the track "Whole Lotta Love". This song reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970, after Atlantic went against the group's wishes by releasing a shorter version on 45. The single's B-side, "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)", also hit the Billboard chart, peaking at No. 65 in April 1970. The album helped establish Led Zeppelin as an international concert attraction, as for the next year, the group continued to tour relentlessly, initially performing in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums and eventually stadiums as their popularity grew.[29]

In 1970 art director David Juniper was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package for Led Zeppelin II.[5] On 10 November 1969, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and in 1990 it was certified 5x platinum reflecting shipping of five million copies. By 14 November 1999, Led Zeppelin II had shipped twelve million copies and was certified 12x platinum by the RIAA.[30]

Legacy

Led Zeppelin II has been cited by music writers as a blueprint for heavy metal bands that followed it.[9][31] Blues-derived songs like "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "The Lemon Song", "Moby Dick", and "Bring It On Home" have been seen as representing standards of the genre, where the guitar-based riff (rather than vocal chorus or verses) defines the song and provides the key hook.[5] Such arrangements and emphasis were at the time atypical in popular music.[9] Page's guitar solo in "Heartbreaker" featuring rapid-fire runs of notes tapped only by the left hand, was a major inspiration to the later work of metal soloists and shredders such as Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai.[32] As such, the album is generally considered to be very influential on the development of rock music, being an early forerunner of heavy metal, and inspiring a host of other rock bands including Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and Guns N' Roses.[9][33]

Since its initial critical reception, Led Zeppelin II has been acknowledged by many critics and music writers as one of the most influential albums of rock music, and has earned several accolades from music publications, frequently placed at or near the top of "best album" lists.[34] In 1989, Spin magazine ranked the album No. 5 on its list of The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time.[34] In 2000, Q magazine placed Led Zeppelin II at number 37 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.[35] In 2003, the album was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[14] In 2011, the album was ranked number 79 in an updated version of the same list.[36]

Accolades

(*) designates unordered lists.

Track listing

Original LP pressings of the album incorrectly listed the running time of "Thank You" at 3:50, as the song's coda features a false fade at that point.