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FBG'S TOP 81 LED ZEPPELIN SONGS: #1 - When The Levee Breaks from Led Zeppelin IV (1971) (1 Viewer)

#4 - Whole Lotta Love from Led Zeppelin II (1969)

Appeared On: 51 ballots (out of 62 . . . 82.3%)
Total Points: 780 points (out of 1,550 possible points . . .  50.3%)

#1 Rankers: @UncleZen@PIK95@BroncoFreak_2K3@raidergil@Anarchy99
Top 5 Rankers: @Tom Servo@jamny@timschochet@Getzlaf15@cap'n grunge@wildwombat@Rustoleum@joker@fatguyinalittlecoat@[scooter]@jwb@Binky The Doormat
Highest Ranking: 1

Live Performances:
LZ: 312 (London - 1969-06-29, London - 1970-01-09, London - 1971-04-01, Osaka - 1971-09-28, Long Beach - 1972-06-25, New York - 1973-07-28, London - 1975-05-24, Los Angeles - 1977-06-21, Kenbworth - 1979-08-11, Berlin - 1980-07-07 <-- (Way different version), Philadelphia - 1985-07-13, New York - 1988-05-14, London - 2007-12-10)
Page & Plant: 141 (Albuquerque - 1995-09-29, Tokyo - 1996-02-13, Cologne - 1998-08-23)
Plant: 344 (Montreux - 1993-02-07, Chicago - 2005-09-16, Sao Paulo - 2015-03-28, London - 2017-10-06)
Page: 1 (Beijing - 2008-08-24)
JP & The Crowes: 19 (Wantagh - 2000-07-10)
Coverdale / Page: 1 (Nagoya - 1998-12-22)

Covers: Tina Turner, Prince, Slash & Beth Ford, Perry Farrell, Train, Ben Harper, Pat Travers, Goldbug, Tori Amos, Foreigner, Adam Lambert, Mary J. Blige, Santana & Chris Cornell, Sammy Hagar & The Circle, Hollywood Vampires, Krokus, 2CELLOS, Def Leppard, Hozier, Dread Zeppelin, John Waite, Vince Neil, Barenaked Ladies, Moby, Radiators, #####cat Dolls, Boston, KISS, Gov’t Mule, Lenny Kravitz, Aerosmith, Billy Gibbons, Randy Jackson, Siena Root, Phil Lesh, Great White, L.A. Guns, Phish, Robert Randolph, Bullet Boys & Slaughter, Steve Stevens, Nina Persson, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Billy Joel, Nicole Scherzinger, Bob Seger, Patty Smyth, Umphrey’s McGee, Sebastian Bach, David Cook, Silverchair, Rik Emmett, Zakk Wylde, Zac Brown Band, U2, Foo Fighters & Jewel, Leona Lewis, Screaming Trees, Juliette Lewis, Nelson & Frank Hannon, Arnel Pineda, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Skid Row, String Cheese Incident, Michael Winslow, Robin Zander, Velvet Revolver, 4 Non Blondes, The Church & Chester Bennington, Jack Johnson, Steve Vai & Zepparella, Chris Daughtry, Melissa Etheridge, Jamiroquai, R.E.M., Wall Of Voodoo, Wolfmother, Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Collective Consciousness Society, Jess Greenberg

Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 92 songs): 2
Vulture Ranking (out of 74 songs): 3
Rolling Stone Ranking (out of 40 songs): 1
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 3
Uproxx Ranking (out of 50 songs): 24
WMGK Ranking (out of 92 songs): 2
SPIN Ranking (out of 87 songs): 12
Ranker Ranking (out of 87 songs): 3
Anachronarchy Ranking (out of 80 songs): 3

Sorry for limping to the finish line, but I am short on time and low on energy these days. Our first song to merit five #1 selections. Our first entry to fetch 17 Top 5 votes. It ends up as the song that appeared on the second most ballots (51). It started off slow in the balloting (only one Top 5 vote in the first 20 ballots) and then took off (16 Top 5 votes in the final 42). We say goodbye to the second album, which based on total points awarded, finishes up as out second ranked album.

We also say goodbye to someone else. WLL is the final selection from @Long Ball Larry, and he wins the award as the first person to have his entire list revealed. He does not leave empty handed, however, as he will receive a copy of the home version of the Rank Your Favorite Led Zeppelin Song board game (always a hit at parties).

Since I selected it as the best Zeppelin song, anyone that didn’t vote that way is clearly wrong. Rolling Stone agrees with me. The medley version of the song performed in London 1971 is my all-time most played LZ song. Just fantastic. While that version appears on the BBC Sessions album, they cut out almost half of the medley. I would have picked the studio version of the song #1 as well, as to me it’s their most rocking song, best produced, and most creative, even if the lyrics are sophomoric and the song has been played to death. Sadly, the full version of that performance is not posted online.

Like many of the early LZ songs, this one was basically a rip-off of a 1962 recording by Muddy Waters of a song written by Willie Dixon called You Need Love. Once again, the band initially gave no writing credit to Dixon, who filed a lawsuit and reached a financial settlement and subsequent writing credit in 1985. The Small Faces recorded a version in 1966 very similar to the one LZ would release in 1969. Singer Steve Marriott was not pleased, “Plant sang it the same, phrased it the same, even the stops at the end were the same.” Plant responded in 1990, “Page's riff was Page's riff. It was there before anything else. I just thought, 'well, what am I going to sing?' That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for. At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence that ... well, you only get caught when you're successful. That's the game.”

Page described, “I came up with the guitar riff in the Summer of ’68 on my houseboat. I suppose my early love for big intros by rockabilly guitarists was an inspiration, but as soon as I developed the riff, I knew it was strong enough to drive the entire song, not just open it. When I played the riff for the band in my living room several weeks later during rehearsals for our first album, the excitement was immediate and collective. We felt the riff was addictive, like a forbidden thing.”

The label wanted to release WLL as a single. The four band members and Peter Grant all refused, citing creative control. Atlantic Records on their own distributed some promotional copies of a pared down, edited version to radio stations, shaving 2:15 from the song. Page quashed that idea when he heard the 3:10 truncated edit ("I played it once, hated it, and never listened to the short version again." The band issued a press release stating: "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." Ultimately, WLL as it appeared on the second album was released as a single in the U.S., backed with Living Loving Maid. Within 5 weeks it had sold over a million copies and peaked at #4 on the Billboard singles chart, making it the best-selling single from the band.

WLL was a tour de force for Jimmy Page the producer. The center section of the song features all sorts of effects and overdubs recorded in the studio. One of the more interesting sections of the song comes at the 4-minute mark, where the distant voice of Robert Plant sings each line ("Way down inside... woman... you need... love") before his full-throated vocal comes in. This is known as backward echo, and one of the first uses of the technique, but it happened by accident. A different take of Plant's vocal bled over to his master vocal track, so when Page and engineer Eddie Kramer mixed the song, they couldn't get rid of it. They did what most creative professionals do with a mistake: they accentuated it to make it sound intentional, adding reverb to it so Plant sounded like he was foreshadowing his lines from afar. They used a bunch of innovative recording techniques in the studio as well, far too many to list here.

Rough Mix With Vocal, Isolated Tracks, No Overdubs, Alternate Version, 2007 Rehearsal

The song's guitar riff was voted the greatest of all time by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in a 2014 poll. Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses came in second with Back In Black by AC/DC third. In 2021, Total Guitar and Guitar World magazines also chose Jimmy Page's riff from this song as their #1 riff of all time. Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train came in second place and AC/DC's Back In Black again in third.

With 312 performances, WLL was the second most performed song by Led Zeppelin. Many of those were played as medleys with many other songs, frequently lasting 25-30 minutes long. Plant topped that with 344 performances. Page & Plant added another 141. Jimmy & The Crowes added 19 times and Coverdale / Page one time.

Ultimate Classic Rock (2 of 92 songs): Everything about Led Zeppelin can pretty much be summed up in the five-and-a-half-minute opening song from their second album: the awesome riff, the borrowed lyrics, the mid-track freak out, the sheer power and energy of every musical instrument, including Plant's searing vocal. Their only Top 10 single too.

Vulture (3 of 74 songs): A titanic recording; pace George Martin and Jimi Hendrix, this represented the farthest reaches of unquestionably pop-based studio sound and bravura guitar-slinging of the era. Page’s riff — implacable, huge, and priapic, more thunderous (and menacing) than Satisfaction” more ominous than Smoke on the Water, more primal than Louie Louie, and delivered with a machine-like intensity — defines rock at its hardest. Plant’s singing is a definitive set of authoritative declamations and howls of desire that pretenders like Roger Daltry, Ian Gilliam, and Ozzy could only dream of, and Page takes it to another dimension in the studio, everything from the backward echo you can hear if you turn the damn thing up to the fact that he keeps the drums off the tack for the first 30 seconds, making the hardest rock you’d ever heard suddenly even harder. Then there’s the daringly long percussion break, culminating with paroxysms of noise, some heavy breathing from Plant, and then, almost matter-of-factly, the return of that guitar riff. Docked a notch for ripping off lyrics from Willie Dixon’s You Need Love (which contains the lines, “Way down inside / Woman, you need love”) and forcing the aging bluesman to sue them for credit.

Rolling Stone (1 of 40 songs): Led Zeppelin's defining song – obscene, brutish and utterly awesome. "Way down inside," squeals Robert Plant, "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love" – adding, "I wanna be your backdoor man!" just for extra romance. His post-verbal singing is even dirtier, especially around the 4:30 mark, where he starts saying "love," and then shoots his wad into a black hole of echo. (The ghost vocals were a happy accident, the result of a bleed-through from an unused vocal track that Jimmy Page decided to leave in.) Years later, Plant freely admitted his heavy lyrical debt to You Need Love" by uncredited blues-master Willie Dixon (who sued and won); "I just thought, 'Well, what am I going to sing?' That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for." But Whole Lotta Love" recorded at London's Olympic Studios and mixed in New York, was far more than a remake. The midsection is a black-light head trip, a tornado of orgasmic moans, cymbal teases and shivering theremin foreplay, all magnified by wild stereo-panning. Page's pumping riff – made with a metal slide and augmented with some backward echo – is one of the most straightforwardly bruising to ever come out of a Les Paul, and John Paul Jones and John Bonham back it up thrust for thrust. Said Page, "Usually my riffs are pretty damn original. What can I say?"

Louder (3 of 50 songs): When Zeppelin faced the task of creating a follow-up to their mega successful debut, they blasted fans and critics alike with Led Zeppelin II, released in October 1969. This confident album topped the charts in the US and the UK, and sold three million copies within months. The opening salvo, Whole Lotta Love, rapidly became their new anthem. When played live, it caused a sensation and fans roared whenever Page set up that earth-shattering, blues-drenched riff.

The guitar, bass and drums heralded Robert Plant’s ear-shattering whoop and personal assessment that: 'Woman you need love!' This piece of rampant sexual chemistry was concocted at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, and mixed later in New York; with the band constantly on the move, sessions had to be scheduled whenever tour dates permitted.

Plant opens his vocal section to Whole Lotta Love with a just-audible laugh and a yell of 'Baby, I’m not foolin’… I’m gonna give you my love!' Each of Robert’s love calls is greeted by a glissando from the guitar. Jimmy produced this particular effect by using a metal slide on the strings, as well as adding a backwards tape echo.

During the percussion interlude on this song, John Bonham stomps on his hi-hat and plays patterns on the bells of his ride cymbals, before unleashing an unwavering, battering assault on his snare drum. This innovative freak-out was largely cooked up by Page and Bonham alongside the band’s engineer, Eddie Kramer.

The track was edited down for US single release and got to number four in December 1969. Whole Lotta Love was a hit for Alexis Korner and his CCS big band, and became the long-running theme tune for the BBC’s Top Of The Pops programme.

Uproxx (24 of 50 songs): This song is a lot. Along with Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, it is the most notorious example of a faked orgasm in modern popular music. Only Zeppelin did it before Deep Throat mainstreamed pornography; this is proto-John Holmes rock. (It also brings to mind one of my all-time favorite quotes about Led Zeppelin, courtesy of journeyman hard-rock singer Michael Des Barres: “Robert was Marilyn Monroe, and Jimmy was Hedy Lamarr with a Les Paul.”) Hearing this as a kid felt incredibly unseemly, though now when I hear Whole Lotta Love I focus on the filth of Page’s guitar. Jack White once called the little solo during the break “some of the greatest guitar notes ever played,” and I don’t think that’s hyperbole.

WMGK (2 of 92 songs): From Jimmy Page’s iconic riff and solo to the dizzying overdubs to Robert Plant’s wailing roar, Whole Lotta Love is perhaps the perfect example of Zeppelin’s overall bravado. Dripping with hard rock lust, Whole Lotta Love is the sound of a band that is confident and quite aware of the sheer force they are and aren’t afraid to share that with the world.

SPIN (12 of 87 songs): The band’s biggest U.S. chart hit, hitting #4 in late ’69, and a regular on pretty much any greatest-rock-song-ever list, for a reason. The riff has justly become part of the DNA of popular music, the theremin breakdown section (“A combination of Jimmy and myself just flying around on a small console twiddling every knob known to man,” engineer Eddie Kramer said of it) was decades ahead of its time, and Plant’s “WAYYYYYY DOWWWWN INSIIIIDE….” a capella testifying is among the most spellbinding vocalizing ever heard on a rock record. It might not sound quite as fresh the 10,000th time as it did its first, but its greatness is inarguable.

 
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I guess I was trying to be contrarian with this song, but I only ranked it 9th.  I shouldn't have done that.  Only my 6 and 10 left.

 
Zeppelin said:
Holy #### how did I forget this song...a clear top 5 favorite of mine and I didn't have it ranked at all.  :bag:
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MAYBE if your board name was The Carpenters. Or Kenny Rogers. Or The Bangles. Then MAYBE I could overlook this and let it slide. 

But come on, bro. You call yourself ZEPPELIN!!! Points to the door. 

You’re just lucky I don’t work here anymore. I banned people for less. Talk about atrocities and criminal acts of the highest order. 

 
Anarchy99 said:
MAYBE if your board name was The Carpenters. Or Kenny Rogers. Or The Bangles. Then MAYBE I could overlook this and let it slide. 

But come on, bro. You call yourself ZEPPELIN!!! Points to the door. 

You’re just lucky I don’t work here anymore. I banned people for less. Talk about atrocities and criminal acts of the highest order. 
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:goodposting:

I had it at 8. One of those songs that suffered from overplay be me but still a cornerstone rocker I'd never turn off if it came on the radio.

 
I would have ranked this one higher if not for overplay.  Still hit #15 on my board, did better than Stairway, which didn't hit the board.

Definitely a great song

 
Whole Lotta Love is a monster. Especially that middle section with all the layers going on. I regret ranking this at #3. A do over would have had me swap my #1 song Dazed and Confused with #3. Still contend my top 5 now all identified are a tier above everything else. Anyone who disputes that is simply wrong. And I continue to be confused on how Levee could be ranked higher than any of these 5 songs. I will offer some forgiveness and understanding for Stairway and Kashmir.

My top 25 (consensus)

1. Dazed and Confused (5)
2. Since I've Been Loving You (15)
3. Whole Lotta Love (4)
4. The Rain Song (17)
5. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (10)
6. The Ocean (20)
7.
8. Travelling Riverside Blues (43)
9. Ten Years Gone (22)
10. Heartbreaker / Living Loving Maid (12)
11. Good Times Bad Times (11)
12. Over the Hills and Far Away (9)
13. What is and What Should Never Be (16)
14. Immigrant Song (8)
15. Ramble On (6)
16. Black Dog (7)
17. 
18.
19. Hey, Hey, What Can I Do (24)
20. Going to California (13)
21. In My Time of Dying (26)
22. Houses of the Holy (37)
23. Communication Breakdown (18)
24. I Can't Quit You Baby (50)
25. Your Time is Gonna Come (39)

The 5 consensus top 25 songs that didn't make my list:

Rock & Roll (14)
No Quarter (19)
The Battle of Evermore (21)
The Song Remains the Same (23)
Misty Mountain Hop (25)

 
Anarchy99 said:
There are hundreds of covers of WLL. I posted one or two of them. There may be some acts most people may have heard of on the list. 
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I'm listening to the Tina Turner version now.  SOOOOOO GOOD.  I love the funky and this just is amazing.

Now I'm hearing the REM version.  This must be so early REM...  Can't be Stipe singing.  I love it.

Rik Emmett killed it...

 
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SteevieG said:
I'm listening to the Tina Turner version now.  SOOOOOO GOOD.  I love the funky and this just is amazing.
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If you are starting with the first one and plan on going through all of them, I think I posted 83 versions. Like I said, I could have posted 300 of them. There may be no oil to be had, but there's an ample supply of WLL covers.

 
Anarchy99 said:
If you are starting with the first one and plan on going through all of them, I think I posted 83 versions. Like I said, I could have posted 300 of them. There may be no oil to be had, but there's an ample supply of WLL covers.
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I just put the "Skid Row" version on.  That is not the Skid Row I grew up with... But JB was on there and it was at the Whisky, so it didn't suck.

 
Had it @9 but like others overplay held it back a little. Overplay or not it's still a must listen every time it comes on. 

@Anarchy99I wasn't that far off when I predicted WLL #1. You made it out like I was way off. 

 
In The Zone said:
Had it @9 but like others overplay held it back a little. Overplay or not it's still a must listen every time it comes on. 

@Anarchy99I wasn't that far off when I predicted WLL #1. You made it out like I was way off. 
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I don't remember the comments surrounding this. Four is a still a fair bit away from one in the grand scheme of things. It ended up almost 100 votes from first. I certainly hoped it would have ended up higher than 4th.

 
I had WLL at #2 with my #1 still out there.  WLL is perfect for late night driving, all alone on a desolate highway.  Crank the stereo up and let yourself be audibly assaulted.

Side note: My sister was friends with a band named Friction.  They played covers and a few of their own songs.  Most notably, they'd troll their audience (Who wants to hear some Montrose?  *crowd cheers* Eh, we'll play it later.)

When they did WLL, when they got to the "gonna give you every inch of my love", the lead singer would hold his hands out, about shoulder width apart.

 
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Anarchy99 said:
#4 - Whole Lotta Love from Led Zeppelin II (1969)

Appeared On: 51 ballots (out of 62 . . . 82.3%)
Total Points: 780 points (out of 1,550 possible points . . .  50.3%)

#1 Rankers: @UncleZen@PIK95@BroncoFreak_2K3@raidergil@Anarchy99
Top 5 Rankers: @Tom Servo@jamny@timschochet@Getzlaf15@cap'n grunge@wildwombat@Rustoleum@joker@fatguyinalittlecoat@[scooter]@jwb@Binky The Doormat
Highest Ranking: 1

Live Performances:
LZ: 312 (London - 1969-06-29, London - 1970-01-09, London - 1971-04-01, Osaka - 1971-09-28, Long Beach - 1972-06-25, New York - 1973-07-28, London - 1975-05-24, Los Angeles - 1977-06-21, Kenbworth - 1979-08-11, Berlin - 1980-07-07 <-- (Way different version), Philadelphia - 1985-07-13, New York - 1988-05-14, London - 2007-12-10)
Page & Plant: 141 (Albuquerque - 1995-09-29, Tokyo - 1996-02-13, Cologne - 1998-08-23)
Plant: 344 (Montreux - 1993-02-07, Chicago - 2005-09-16, Sao Paulo - 2015-03-28, London - 2017-10-06)
Page: 1 (Beijing - 2008-08-24)
JP & The Crowes: 19 (Wantagh - 2000-07-10)
Coverdale / Page: 1 (Nagoya - 1998-12-22)

Covers: Tina Turner, Prince, Slash & Beth Ford, Perry Farrell, Train, Ben Harper, Pat Travers, Goldbug, Tori Amos, Foreigner, Adam Lambert, Mary J. Blige, Santana & Chris Cornell, Sammy Hagar & The Circle, Hollywood Vampires, Krokus, 2CELLOS, Def Leppard, Hozier, Dread Zeppelin, John Waite, Vince Neil, Barenaked Ladies, Moby, Radiators, #####cat Dolls, Boston, KISS, Gov’t Mule, Lenny Kravitz, Aerosmith, Billy Gibbons, Randy Jackson, Siena Root, Phil Lesh, Great White, L.A. Guns, Phish, Robert Randolph, Bullet Boys & Slaughter, Steve Stevens, Nina Persson, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Billy Joel, Nicole Scherzinger, Bob Seger, Patty Smyth, Umphrey’s McGee, Sebastian Bach, David Cook, Silverchair, Rik Emmett, Zakk Wylde, Zac Brown Band, U2, Foo Fighters & Jewel, Leona Lewis, Screaming Trees, Juliette Lewis, Nelson & Frank Hannon, Arnel Pineda, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Skid Row, String Cheese Incident, Michael Winslow, Robin Zander, Velvet Revolver, 4 Non Blondes, The Church & Chester Bennington, Jack Johnson, Steve Vai & Zepparella, Chris Daughtry, Melissa Etheridge, Jamiroquai, R.E.M., Wall Of Voodoo, Wolfmother, Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Collective Consciousness Society, Jess Greenberg

Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 92 songs): 2
Vulture Ranking (out of 74 songs): 3
Rolling Stone Ranking (out of 40 songs): 1
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 3
Uproxx Ranking (out of 50 songs): 24
WMGK Ranking (out of 92 songs): 2
SPIN Ranking (out of 87 songs): 12
Ranker Ranking (out of 87 songs): 3
Anachronarchy Ranking (out of 80 songs): 3

Sorry for limping to the finish line, but I am short on time and low on energy these days. Our first song to merit five #1 selections. Our first entry to fetch 17 Top 5 votes. It ends up as the song that appeared on the second most ballots (51). It started off slow in the balloting (only one Top 5 vote in the first 20 ballots) and then took off (16 Top 5 votes in the final 42). We say goodbye to the second album, which based on total points awarded, finishes up as out second ranked album.

We also say goodbye to someone else. WLL is the final selection from @Long Ball Larry, and he wins the award as the first person to have his entire list revealed. He does not leave empty handed, however, as he will receive a copy of the home version of the Rank Your Favorite Led Zeppelin Song board game (always a hit at parties).

Since I selected it as the best Zeppelin song, anyone that didn’t vote that way is clearly wrong. Rolling Stone agrees with me. The medley version of the song performed in London 1971 is my all-time most played LZ song. Just fantastic. While that version appears on the BBC Sessions album, they cut out almost half of the medley. I would have picked the studio version of the song #1 as well, as to me it’s their most rocking song, best produced, and most creative, even if the lyrics are sophomoric and the song has been played to death. Sadly, the full version of that performance is not posted online.

Like many of the early LZ songs, this one was basically a rip-off of a 1962 recording by Muddy Waters of a song written by Willie Dixon called You Need Love. Once again, the band initially gave no writing credit to Dixon, who filed a lawsuit and reached a financial settlement and subsequent writing credit in 1985. The Small Faces recorded a version in 1966 very similar to the one LZ would release in 1969. Singer Steve Marriott was not pleased, “Plant sang it the same, phrased it the same, even the stops at the end were the same.” Plant responded in 1990, “Page's riff was Page's riff. It was there before anything else. I just thought, 'well, what am I going to sing?' That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for. At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence that ... well, you only get caught when you're successful. That's the game.”

Page described, “I came up with the guitar riff in the Summer of ’68 on my houseboat. I suppose my early love for big intros by rockabilly guitarists was an inspiration, but as soon as I developed the riff, I knew it was strong enough to drive the entire song, not just open it. When I played the riff for the band in my living room several weeks later during rehearsals for our first album, the excitement was immediate and collective. We felt the riff was addictive, like a forbidden thing.”

The label wanted to release WLL as a single. The four band members and Peter Grant all refused, citing creative control. Atlantic Records on their own distributed some promotional copies of a pared down, edited version to radio stations, shaving 2:15 from the song. Page quashed that idea when he heard the 3:10 truncated edit ("I played it once, hated it, and never listened to the short version again." The band issued a press release stating: "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." Ultimately, WLL as it appeared on the second album was released as a single in the U.S., backed with Living Loving Maid. Within 5 weeks it had sold over a million copies and peaked at #4 on the Billboard singles chart, making it the best-selling single from the band.

WLL was a tour de force for Jimmy Page the producer. The center section of the song features all sorts of effects and overdubs recorded in the studio. One of the more interesting sections of the song comes at the 4-minute mark, where the distant voice of Robert Plant sings each line ("Way down inside... woman... you need... love") before his full-throated vocal comes in. This is known as backward echo, and one of the first uses of the technique, but it happened by accident. A different take of Plant's vocal bled over to his master vocal track, so when Page and engineer Eddie Kramer mixed the song, they couldn't get rid of it. They did what most creative professionals do with a mistake: they accentuated it to make it sound intentional, adding reverb to it so Plant sounded like he was foreshadowing his lines from afar. They used a bunch of innovative recording techniques in the studio as well, far too many to list here.

Rough Mix With Vocal, Isolated Tracks, No Overdubs, Alternate Version, 2007 Rehearsal

The song's guitar riff was voted the greatest of all time by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in a 2014 poll. Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses came in second with Back In Black by AC/DC third. In 2021, Total Guitar and Guitar World magazines also chose Jimmy Page's riff from this song as their #1 riff of all time. Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train came in second place and AC/DC's Back In Black again in third.

With 312 performances, WLL was the second most performed song by Led Zeppelin. Many of those were played as medleys with many other songs, frequently lasting 25-30 minutes long. Plant topped that with 344 performances. Page & Plant added another 141. Jimmy & The Crowes added 19 times and Coverdale / Page one time.

Ultimate Classic Rock (2 of 92 songs): Everything about Led Zeppelin can pretty much be summed up in the five-and-a-half-minute opening song from their second album: the awesome riff, the borrowed lyrics, the mid-track freak out, the sheer power and energy of every musical instrument, including Plant's searing vocal. Their only Top 10 single too.

Vulture (3 of 74 songs): A titanic recording; pace George Martin and Jimi Hendrix, this represented the farthest reaches of unquestionably pop-based studio sound and bravura guitar-slinging of the era. Page’s riff — implacable, huge, and priapic, more thunderous (and menacing) than Satisfaction” more ominous than Smoke on the Water, more primal than Louie Louie, and delivered with a machine-like intensity — defines rock at its hardest. Plant’s singing is a definitive set of authoritative declamations and howls of desire that pretenders like Roger Daltry, Ian Gilliam, and Ozzy could only dream of, and Page takes it to another dimension in the studio, everything from the backward echo you can hear if you turn the damn thing up to the fact that he keeps the drums off the tack for the first 30 seconds, making the hardest rock you’d ever heard suddenly even harder. Then there’s the daringly long percussion break, culminating with paroxysms of noise, some heavy breathing from Plant, and then, almost matter-of-factly, the return of that guitar riff. Docked a notch for ripping off lyrics from Willie Dixon’s You Need Love (which contains the lines, “Way down inside / Woman, you need love”) and forcing the aging bluesman to sue them for credit.

Rolling Stone (1 of 40 songs): Led Zeppelin's defining song – obscene, brutish and utterly awesome. "Way down inside," squeals Robert Plant, "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love" – adding, "I wanna be your backdoor man!" just for extra romance. His post-verbal singing is even dirtier, especially around the 4:30 mark, where he starts saying "love," and then shoots his wad into a black hole of echo. (The ghost vocals were a happy accident, the result of a bleed-through from an unused vocal track that Jimmy Page decided to leave in.) Years later, Plant freely admitted his heavy lyrical debt to You Need Love" by uncredited blues-master Willie Dixon (who sued and won); "I just thought, 'Well, what am I going to sing?' That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for." But Whole Lotta Love" recorded at London's Olympic Studios and mixed in New York, was far more than a remake. The midsection is a black-light head trip, a tornado of orgasmic moans, cymbal teases and shivering theremin foreplay, all magnified by wild stereo-panning. Page's pumping riff – made with a metal slide and augmented with some backward echo – is one of the most straightforwardly bruising to ever come out of a Les Paul, and John Paul Jones and John Bonham back it up thrust for thrust. Said Page, "Usually my riffs are pretty damn original. What can I say?"

Louder (3 of 50 songs): When Zeppelin faced the task of creating a follow-up to their mega successful debut, they blasted fans and critics alike with Led Zeppelin II, released in October 1969. This confident album topped the charts in the US and the UK, and sold three million copies within months. The opening salvo, Whole Lotta Love, rapidly became their new anthem. When played live, it caused a sensation and fans roared whenever Page set up that earth-shattering, blues-drenched riff.

The guitar, bass and drums heralded Robert Plant’s ear-shattering whoop and personal assessment that: 'Woman you need love!' This piece of rampant sexual chemistry was concocted at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, and mixed later in New York; with the band constantly on the move, sessions had to be scheduled whenever tour dates permitted.

Plant opens his vocal section to Whole Lotta Love with a just-audible laugh and a yell of 'Baby, I’m not foolin’… I’m gonna give you my love!' Each of Robert’s love calls is greeted by a glissando from the guitar. Jimmy produced this particular effect by using a metal slide on the strings, as well as adding a backwards tape echo.

During the percussion interlude on this song, John Bonham stomps on his hi-hat and plays patterns on the bells of his ride cymbals, before unleashing an unwavering, battering assault on his snare drum. This innovative freak-out was largely cooked up by Page and Bonham alongside the band’s engineer, Eddie Kramer.

The track was edited down for US single release and got to number four in December 1969. Whole Lotta Love was a hit for Alexis Korner and his CCS big band, and became the long-running theme tune for the BBC’s Top Of The Pops programme.

Uproxx (24 of 50 songs): This song is a lot. Along with Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, it is the most notorious example of a faked orgasm in modern popular music. Only Zeppelin did it before Deep Throat mainstreamed pornography; this is proto-John Holmes rock. (It also brings to mind one of my all-time favorite quotes about Led Zeppelin, courtesy of journeyman hard-rock singer Michael Des Barres: “Robert was Marilyn Monroe, and Jimmy was Hedy Lamarr with a Les Paul.”) Hearing this as a kid felt incredibly unseemly, though now when I hear Whole Lotta Love I focus on the filth of Page’s guitar. Jack White once called the little solo during the break “some of the greatest guitar notes ever played,” and I don’t think that’s hyperbole.

WMGK (2 of 92 songs): From Jimmy Page’s iconic riff and solo to the dizzying overdubs to Robert Plant’s wailing roar, Whole Lotta Love is perhaps the perfect example of Zeppelin’s overall bravado. Dripping with hard rock lust, Whole Lotta Love is the sound of a band that is confident and quite aware of the sheer force they are and aren’t afraid to share that with the world.

SPIN (12 of 87 songs): The band’s biggest U.S. chart hit, hitting #4 in late ’69, and a regular on pretty much any greatest-rock-song-ever list, for a reason. The riff has justly become part of the DNA of popular music, the theremin breakdown section (“A combination of Jimmy and myself just flying around on a small console twiddling every knob known to man,” engineer Eddie Kramer said of it) was decades ahead of its time, and Plant’s “WAYYYYYY DOWWWWN INSIIIIDE….” a capella testifying is among the most spellbinding vocalizing ever heard on a rock record. It might not sound quite as fresh the 10,000th time as it did its first, but its greatness is inarguable.
Click to expand...
My rank: 18

My friend's rank: 12

One of my early favorites that I still love, but as others have mentioned, docked for overplay. As a teen I was all about the middle section, but that's less appealing to me now, except for what Bonzo does there. But the riffage is monstrous and the song may be the best example of how Zep reworked the blues into something else. When he's not fake-orgasming, Plant turns in one of the most powerful vocals ever recorded. 

My friend loves the early blues reworkings, and stuff with over-the-top vocals did well on his list, so I'm not surprised this is one of his favorites. 

 
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