Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven [Lyrics] HD - YouTube Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven [Lyrics] HD Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 14, 2013 "Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, recorded 1970-1971. Released in late 1971. (Audio rights owner: WMG) It was composed by guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant for the band's untitled fourth studio album (often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV). It is often referred to as one of the greatest rock songs of all time. The song, running eight minutes and two seconds, is composed of several sections which increase in tempo and volume as the song progresses. The song begins as a slow acoustic-based folk song accompanied by recorders before electric instrumentation is introduced.

The final section is a high-tempo hard rock section highlighted by an intricate guitar solo by Page and Plant's wailing vocals, ending with Plant's a cappella delivery of the final line: "And she's buying a Stairway to Heaven". Category Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven facts Led Zeppelin (AKA Led Zeppelin IV, Zoso. It didn't actually have a title) Album released Jimmy Page "Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the British rock group Led Zeppelin released in 1971 on their fourth studio album, Zoso, sometimes called Led Zeppelin IV. It is widely accepted as one of the greatest of all rock songs and is the most frequently requested song on FM radio stations in the United States, despite never being released as a single. It did, however, appear as a promotional disc in the United States, on an Australian acoustic EP, and in the 1990s as a 20th anniversary promo issue.

The band began to write the song during the sessions for Led Zeppelin III at Bron-Yr-Aur, Wales, but it was completed at Headley Grange, Hampshire, and finally recorded at Island Studios, London, in December 1970. It is not entirely clear whether a movie title was an inspiration for the song or the title. The first time the song was played live was during the recording of the Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions. The song was first played live at Belfast's Ulster Hall on March 5, 1971 and it was performed at every subsequent Led Zeppelin concert from 1975 to 1980, usually as part of a final encore. "Stairway" was also played at Live Aid in 1985 and the 40th anniversary celebration of Atlantic Records in 1988, and by Jimmy Page as an instrumental version on his solo tours. "Stairway to Heaven" is one of the biggest-selling sheet music publications in rock history. Since 1971, it has sold more than 1.2 million copies.

The lyrics, written by Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant next to an evening log fire, were inspired by his search for spiritual perfection. A seminal influence was the book Magic Arts in Celtic Britain by Lewis Spence, which Plant had recently read; it contained references to May Queens, pipers, and "bustling hedgerows." Jimmy Page with his double-necked guitarThe song is a multi-movement suite. A quiet introduction featuring acoustic guitar and recorder gradually moves into to a slow electric middle section, before the faster hard rock final section. This style is found in many Zeppelin songs recorded after Stairway to Heaven's release. The guitar introduction is one of the most famous pieces ever played on the guitar, but was in fact borrowed from the song Taurus by Spirit, who were touring with Led Zeppelin at the time. They have been interviewed about this and apparently do not mind. It opens with an Am-Fmaj7 chord progression with a chromatic descending bassline A-G#-G-F#-F. John Paul Jones contributed overdubbed wooden bass recorders in the opening section (he used an organ, and later, a mellotron to synthesize this arrangement in live performances) and a Rhodes electric piano in the middle section.

The extended Jimmy Page guitar solo in the song's final section was played for the recording on a 1958 Fender Telecaster plugged into a Supro amplifier. Three different solos were recorded with Page deciding to keep the one which he felt best suited the theme of the song. The other guitar parts were played using a Harmony acoustic guitar and Fender Electric XII (12-string); both can be heard on the left and right recording channels respectively. For later live versions Page switched to using a double-necked 6/12 1968 Gibson EDS-1275, which was custom-built by Roger Giffin of Gibson's West Coast Custom Shop. Critics of rock and roll songs (and of Led Zeppelin in particular) have alleged that a backward message is recorded into "Stairway to Heaven." If a portion of the song is played backwards, then supposedly words beginning with "Oh, here's to my sweet Satan" can be heard [1]. Christian fundamentalists and others have interpreted different lyrics from the allegedly-backmasked portion, which most agree to be the lines beginning with "If there's a bustle in your hedgerow...".

The theory was primarily advanced by Michael Mills, Jacob Aranza, and Jeff Godwin, sometimes offering detailed analyses of the hidden meanings of both the "backwards" and actual lyrics. Led Zeppelin has for the most part ignored such claims; for years the only comment came from Swan Song Records which issued the statement: "Our turntables only play in one directionï¿½forwards"[2]. Robert Plant expressed frustration with the accusations in an interview [3]: "To me it's very sad, because 'Stairway To Heaven' was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music." Trivia The opening chord progression in "Stairway to Heaven" is similar to that of the 1968 instrumental "Taurus" by the group Spirit. The group opened for Spirit on a 1968 tour. While nobody in the group has ever cited influence from the track, the band was known to cover the Spirit song Fresh Garbage during their early days, and Jimmy Page has said that his use of a theremin was inspired by seeing Randy California use one.

It is also quite similar to a very slowed-down version of the opening to the Irish traditional song "The Irish Rover". The tendency for many aspiring guitar players to learn to play the introduction to the song was spoofed in the 1992 Mike Myers movie Wayne's World, when a "No Stairway to Heaven" regulation is enforced at a music store visited by the title character. The intro was replaced with a more generic, non-"Stairway" riff in later releases of the movie, making the joke incomprehensible. Plant himself referenced the scene's "No Stairway? Denied!" line during a concert appearance with Page in 1995. In the early 1990s, each episode of the Australian chat show The Money or the Gun ended with a different group performing an idiosyncratic cover version of "Stairway to Heaven". From a diverse range that included an Elvis impersonator, Kate Ceberano, and the Doug Anthony All Stars, the best remembered is Rolf Harris's version (complete with didgeridoo and wobble board), which reached the Top 10 on the UK singles charts.

Harris is said to have received death threats from fans of the song for his version of this iconic rock anthem. A compilation album, Stairways to Heaven, was put out on the Atlantic label, featuring versions of the song by The Australian Doors Show, The Beatnix, John Paul Young, Kate Ceberano, Leonard Teale, Michael Turkic, The Ministry of Fun, Neil Pepper, Pardon Me Boys, Robyne Dunn, The Rock Lobsters, Rolf Harris, Sandra Hahn, Vegimite Reggae and others. A novelty song featuring the music and arrangement of the song combined with the lyrics to the "Theme from Gilligan's Island" (which has a similar chord progression) was recorded by the San Francisco band Little Roger and the Goosebumps and often featured on the Dr. Demento radio program. Singer Plant has described this as his favorite cover version of the song. A heavy metal band Down named their second album A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, which is a quotation from this song. The Butthole Surfers, in an act of parody and/or tribute, released an album in 1988 called Hairway to Steven.

On original versions of the song "Tribute" by Tenacious D (as well as on the Tenacious D TV show) one can hear Kyle Gass play the opening to "Stairway to Heaven", and, commonly, during live performances after the song is completed, harmoniously sing "And they're playing the best song in the world", in a manner identical to the ending lyrics of "Stairway to Heaven" ("And she's buy-y-ying a stair-r-way to heav-en"). Robert Plant sings the phrase "Stairway to Heaven" only three times in the entire length of the song. In 1991 an Albuquerque, New Mexico radio station kicked off its Classic Rock format by playing "Stairway to Heaven" for 24 hours straight. In 1998 ApologetiX recorded a parody called "Narrow Way to Heaven" on the album Jesus Christ Morningstar. On an episode of South Park, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman hold a contest. The winner will replace Kenny as the fourth member of the group. Towlie performs the intro to Stairway To Heaven but messes up after the first few chords.

Led Zeppelin - Biography - IMDb Led Zeppelin Jump to: Overview (1) | Mini Bio (1) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (46) Overview (1) Led Zep Mini Bio (1) Led Zeppelin are a popular British band best known for their iconic "Stairway to Heaven" as well as for co-creating the music genre of heavy metal. Since their nine albums were recorded between 1968 and 1979, Led Zeppelin has been one of the most popular bands of all time, having sold more than 300 million records and millions of concert tickets worldwide. The quartet was conceived at the end of the Hippie love era, in a group marriage of blues, rock and roll, soul, rockabilly, folk ballad, jazz, classical and Eastern music, and something else scattered over some woozy sounds of their songs. It was their mutual artistic stimulation, their group interplay and imagination that incorporated mythology and mysticism, and concocted their inimitable style, and established the concept of album-oriented rock career.

Jimmy Page was already an experienced lead guitarist who worked with multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones in 1967, and they agreed to work on the next project. In August 1968 Page invited Robert Plant and John Bonham to join his band, the New Yardbirds, for a September tour in Scandinavia. In October 1968 they took the name Led Zeppelin, which stemmed from a humorous conversation among several musicians about their chances of going down like a lead balloon. However, British bands were highly anticipated in the USA, and the Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun signed the new band without even seeing them. Their debut album, 'Led Zeppelin', recorded and mixed in just about 36 hours in October 1968, at Olympic Studios in London, kicked open the door for all extremes and experiments. The phallic image of the blown up Hindenburg airship on the cover, designed by George Hardie, announced the hardening of rock and coming of the new super-group. While ascending to musical success as a powerhouse band, Led Zeppelin explored a variety of styles, from English folk ballads to blues and rock, and created their own inimitable style.

Prior to the release of their first album, Led Zeppelin made live appearances at the University of Surrey and in London in October 1968, then went on their first American tour in December 1968. In their first year, Led Zeppelin made four concert tours in the USA, and another four tours in the UK. Their second album was recorded entirely on the road at several American recording studios, and was an even greater success than the first one. "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "Living, Loving Maid", and "Ramble On" became big international hits. Each member of the quartet contributed to their compositions, thus setting a fine example of group creativity. Their songs and albums rambled on with the highly versatile voice-guitar interplay. Plant's incredible vocal range and Page's enchanting guitar solos were as responsible for the band's singularity as its musical wanderlust. Plant's and Page's musicianship was supported by the tight playing by John Paul Jones on bass, and John Bonham on drums. The intense interaction of all four players on stage gave their live performances a visual counterpoint to well intertwined harmonic and rhythmic structures of their compositions.

Their third album, Led Zeppelin III, influenced by folk and Celtic music, offered more inventiveness with acoustic/electric sound-work, and revealed more of the band's versatility with such compositions as the "Immigrant Song" and "Since I've Been Loving You". With the release of their fourth, and most popular album, Led Zeppelin achieved a reputation of the biggest band in the world. 'Stairway to Heaven' became the most played radio hit, several other songs became rock classics, and nobody knows how many more times their lines would help other musicians (like the opening riff from "How Many More Times" was later used by Pink Floyd in their hit "Money"). Capitalizing on the success of their first four albums, the band toured extensively in the 1970s. At that time they chartered a private jet, nicknamed the Starship, that carried the band's name and later added the famous 'Swan Song' winged Apollo image on the tail.

Going to California turned into a ritual of wildness and excess, most notably at the Hyatt House hotel on the Sunset strip in Los Angeles, known colloquially as the "Riot House" for a series of some most exciting off-stage events, such as riding a motorcycle inside the hotel and throwing TV set out of the window. One of their concerts under a heavy thunderstorm in Florida ended with police using tear gas, and led to a temporary pause in their concert tours. During the 70s their career was interrupted several times by accidents, deaths and other unfortunate events. In September 198O on the eve of an American tour, John Bonham accidentally died from pulmonary oedema after a day of drinking. In December 1980, Led Zeppelin disbanded, albeit the public could still feel their presence. In 1982 a collection of out-takes from various sessions from the 70s was released as their last album, Coda.

During the 80s the remaining three members experienced a serious communication breakdown, until they briefly united for a short set in 1985, and once again, in 1988, with Bonham's son, Jason, for the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show. In 1994 Page and Plant showed their softer side when they performed live together on 'MTV Unplugged', which was released the same year as album titled 'No quarter'. Then they made an international tour with an orchestra. In 1995 Page and Plant were joined by Jones when the band was indicted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, albeit the three former band-mates did not perform together. By that time Jimmy Page as well as Robert Plant had pursued individual careers touring and recording with their own bands. Another ten years gone. Page's and Plant's call-and-response interplay took them through good times and bad times. Their sonic originality had sparked imagination and creativity in millions of open minds. Singers, songwriters, armies of music fans and a rainbow of dedicated 'led heads', as well as guitarists and guitar collectors worldwide remained united through the acquired experience and conditioning to the Led Zep sounds.

Hats off to Led Zeppelin, who opened the new extremes of musical expression, and are now back in the light confirming their presence. Their long anticipated reunion in December 2007 was a true celebration day. Their live performance was as tight as a rock band can be, and their living, loving song remains the same since we've been loving them. That's the way! Thank you, Friends. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Trade Mark (1) Often covered blues standards Trivia (46) Reunited on December 10, 2007, and gave a sold-out two-hour performance before 22,000 fans at the O2 arena in London, England. The name "Led Zeppelin" stemmed from a humorous conversation among several musicians about the new band's chances of going down like a lead balloon. Won the 2006 Polar Music Prize. Won the 2005 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Their song "Misty Mountain Hop" is named after J.R.R.

Tolkien 's "Misty Mountains"; "Ramble On" refers to Gollum and Mordor and "The Battle of Evermore" is an allegory from the "Battle of the Pelennor Fields" from "The Return of the King". VH1 named the group the #1 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock. On 12 January 1995 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. Jimmy Page had also been previously inducted as a member of The Yardbirds . Jimmy Page 's first choice as singer was Terry Reid , but he declined and recommended Robert Plant instead. Plant accepted and brought in John Bonham to be the drummer. The band traveled in a jet nicknamed "The Starship". On the week ending 3 November 1979, the band set a new Billboard record for the most number of albums (nine) by a single artist in the Billboard 200 album chart, in any charting week. The band had surpassed the previous record, held by them in March 1975.

During 1975 three other albums by Swan Song recording artists-- Bad Company , The Pretty Things and Maggie Bell --were also in the Top 200. The band was formed under the name "The New Yardbirds". They were based on the original The Yardbirds rock band, which was the last band that Jimmy Page played in before joining Led Zeppelin. They were formed to finish performance commitments that The Yardbirds had booked in Scandinavia before the break-up of the original band. Robert Plant was given the nickname of Percy while he was a member of the band. "Dazed and Confused", "In the Light, In the Evening" and "How Many More Times" are the only Led Zeppelin songs in which lead guitarist Jimmy Page bows the guitar with a violin bow. "In My Time of Dying" is the longest song that Led Zeppelin ever recorded on a studio album. It clocks at 11 minutes and 4 seconds. It is found on the "Physical Graffiti", album which they released in 1975.

The band's concert in Uniondale, New York, at the Nassau County Coliseum on June 14, 1972, is the longest concert the band has ever performed in. It lasted 4-1/2 hours. The tune "Stairway to Heaven" is reputed to be the most played song of all-time on radio, even though it was never officially released as a single. Jimmy Page 's guitar, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul , is known for its powerful and distinctive sound that defined the music of Led Zeppelin. The guitar is considered one of the most valuable musical instruments ever. Page authorized a limited reissue edition of signature guitars to be made by the original maker. "Presence" is the only Led Zeppelin album that does not have any pianos, organs or keyboard-type instruments being used on any of the songs. Former member of The Yardbirds Chris Dreja took the picture that appears on the back of the self-titled first Led Zeppelin album. In "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All time, Jimmy Page was ranked at #3.

Robert Plant re-united with Jimmy Page in 1993 for a tour and album, "No Quarter.". "Dazed and Confused" was originally 6 minutes and 26 seconds on the band's first album. In concert, they would improvise and stretch the song from its original time to 7, 10, 20, and by 1975 it was stretched to 40 minutes. Sometmes the band would include parts of their other songs, like "Walter's Walk" and "The Crunge", and Scott McKenzie 's "San Francisco". After John Bonham 's death, there were media rumors that Cozy Powell , Carmine Appice , Simon Kirke or Bev Bevan might replace him as the band's drummer, but there was never any real consideration for this. Jason Bonham , the son of John Bonham , is widely considered as good a drummer as his father was. He successfully played his father's classic drums solos at the band's reunion concert in 2007.

Jack Black videotaped a plea to Led Zeppelin to use "Immigrant Song" in his movie School of Rock (2003) After receiving the message, the band gave him permission to use the song for his movie. Steve Winwood , Steve Marriott and Donovan were considered for the job of lead singer for Led Zeppelin before Robert Plant was hired. Sandy Denny is the only guest vocalist ever to be included in a Led Zeppelin song. She sang "The Battle of Evermore" with them on their untitled fourth album. The untitled fourth Led Zeppelin album has been referred to as "Untitled", "Zoso", "Runes", "Sticks", "Man With Sticks" or simply "Led Zeppelin IV". The largest concert in the history of the band took place in August 1979 at the Knebworth Festival where 420,000 people witnessed them perform. Their last official concert before John Bonham 's death was in Berlin, Germany, on July 7, 1980, at the Eissporthalle.

They made several unofficial reunion performances during the 1980s and 1990s at various parties and anniversaries. Finally the official reunion concert was performed on December 10, 2007, in London. When the band first played in Denmark, the Countess Zeppelin (relative of the designer of the famous dirigibles) angrily protested about their use of her family name. To defuse the situation, they played Danish shows under the name "The Knobs". They are the only rock band to have all of their albums, including re-releases and compilation albums, reach the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Before their one-off reunion in 2007, they had never played "Ramble On" live. After the group broke up, Jimmy Page would perform "Stairway to Heaven" as an instrumental. He felt no one could do the song justice except Robert Plant . The group was well-known for their reluctance to license their music. Two notable exceptions are the Cadillac television commercials featuring "Rock and Roll" and the appearance of "Immigrant Song" in School of Rock (2003).

'Stairway to Heaven' intro is from Led Zeppelin, says jury - CSMonitor.com 'Stairway to Heaven' intro is from Led Zeppelin, says jury Latest News A federal court jury decided that Led Zeppelin did not use a riff from the band Spirit's song 'Taurus' for the classic song 'Stairway to Heaven.' Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant both testified during the trial. By Brian Melley, Associated Press June 23, 2016 Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page (l.) and singer Robert Plant (r.) appear at a press conference ahead of the worldwide theatrical release of the concert film 'Celebration Day' in New York in 2012. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP View Caption of Led Zeppelin did not steal a riff from an obscure 1960s instrumental tune to use for the introduction of its classic rock anthem "Stairway to Heaven," a federal court jury decided Thursday. The verdict in Los Angeles settles a point that music fans have debated for decades but didn't find its way to court until two years ago, when the trustee for the late Randy Craig Wolfe filed a copyright lawsuit.

The trust claimed that Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page lifted a passage that Wolfe, better known as Randy California, wrote for "Taurus," a short work he recorded with his band Spirit in 1968. Jurors found the trust had cleared a few hurdles, including that Page and Plant had "access" to "Taurus," meaning they would have been familiar with it. Trust attorney Francis Malofiy said he was sad and disappointed by the jury's decision. "The reality is that we proved access, but they could never hear what they had access to," Malofiy said. "It's bizarre." In trying to show the works were substantially similar, the trust had the tricky task of relying on sheet music because that's what is filed with the U.S. Copyright Office. Jurors were not played the "Taurus" recording, which contains a section that sounds very similar to the instantly recognizable start of "Stairway." Instead, they were played guitar and piano renditions by musicians on both sides of the case. Not surprisingly, the plaintiff's version on guitar sounded more like "Stairway" than the defense version on piano. Page and Plant, who wrote the "Stairway" lyrics, said their creation was an original.

In several hours of often-animated and amusing testimony, they described the craft behind one of rock's best-known songs, all the while denying knowledge of one of the genre's least-known tunes. In closing arguments, Malofiy criticized Page and Plant's "selective" memories and "convenient" truths on the witness stand. Experts for both sides dissected both compositions, agreeing mainly that they shared a descending chord progression that dates back three centuries as a building block in lots of songs. The trust's experts, however, went further and noted several other similarities that made the two works unlike the many other tunes they were compared to, including "My Funny Valentine" and The Beatles' "Michelle." Led Zeppelin's lawyer said the trust didn't own the copyright and that the plaintiff failed to prove a case that should have been brought more than 40 years ago when Wolfe was alive and Page and singer Robert Plant would have had better memories. "How can you wait a half century and criticize people ... 45 years later for the delay you caused?" Peter Anderson said.

"They should have sued in 1972." Wolfe, who died in 1997, had spoken with lawyers over the years about suing, but they never took on the case because it was old, said Glen Kulik, another lawyer for the trust. A Supreme Court ruling in 2014 over the movie "Raging Bull" opened the door to bring a copyright case at any time with damages only dating back three years and continuing into the future. Malofiy asked jurors to give Wolfe a songwriting credit and millions of dollars in damages, though he didn't provide a specific figure. The defense said record label profits from the past five years were $868,000, but Anderson reminded jurors that only a fraction of the eight-minute song was being challenged. The trial took jurors and lucky observers who managed to pack into the courtroom on a musical journey through the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Spirit, a California psychedelic group that blended jazz and rock, was achieving stardom as the hard-rocking British band was being founded.

Stops on the tour of testimony included Spirit shows at "love-ins" during the "Summer of Love," Led Zeppelin's U.S. debut as an opening act for Spirit and Vanilla Fudge in Denver in December 1968, and, finally, to a country house in the south of England where Page, Plant, and bassist John Paul Jones described how "Stairway" was born. Page said his ambition was to write a song that would accelerate to a crescendo and he first shared the opening with keyboardist and bassist John Paul Jones to get an ally in his scheme. Singer Robert Plant said he was sitting by the fire at Headley Grange in the spring of 1970 when Page played the intro on acoustic guitar and he offered the start of a couplet he had been working on: "There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold/and she's buying a stairway to heaven." Jurors never heard a note from Page or Plant live, but they were treated to lo-fi vintage recordings of the band creating the song, renditions on guitar and piano by other musicians, and, finally, the full recording of one of rock's most enduring anthems.

Page, 72, bobbed his head and moved to the tune while Plant, 67, sat still. Both men wore sharp suits, white shirts, and ties throughout the trial and had their hair pulled back in neat ponytails. They didn't chat with anyone in the gallery, including several fans, and were escorted by personal bodyguards to the restroom and in and out of the federal courthouse each day. One afternoon, a group of women clapped and Page flashed a smile as the rock stars were hustled across the courthouse corridor to a private hallway. The case is not the first time Led Zeppelin was accused of swiping another artist's work. The lawsuit listed at least six other songs in which the band reached settlements over songwriting credits for works, including "Whole Lotta Love," ''The Lemon Song," and "Dazed and Confused." Next up Get the Monitor stories you care about delivered to your inbox.

Daily Known covers of "Stairway To Heaven" Known covers of "Stairway To Heaven" ï¿½2008 Scott Swanson; please send corrections/submissions to swandwn AT agora.rdrop.com Artist Richard Abel, His Band & Orchestra MOST REQUESTED SONGS OF THE 20TH CENTURY # AIRSHIP PLAYS THE SOUND OF LED ZEPPELIN ROCKABYE BABY! - LULLABY RENDITIONS OF LED ZEPPELIN Lullaby version ApologetiX ("Narrow Way To Heaven") # artist name may be Brian Bell 13 Nick Barker and the Reptiles 1992 STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] Rachel Barton ("Heartbreaker/Black Dog/Stairway To Heaven" medley) 1997 Bass-heavy version of the song 16 I LOVE CHILLOUT, VOL.

2 Electronica version BEFORE THE BALLOON WENT UP EARLY DEMOS AND LATER GIGS; PHOENIX RISING THE CELTIC TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN - LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY The British Rock Symphony with Ann Wilson 1999 Orchestrated versions of classic rock songs; Wilson is from Heart 27 Jimmy Page actually sessioned with Brooks in the '60s 29 Source is The Covers Project ( 33 Camper Van Beethoven ("Stairway To Heavan") * not actually a cover of the Zep song 35 Kate Ceberano and the Ministry Of Fun 1992 Barry and Sally Childs-Helton (with the Black Book Band) ("Stairway To Fandom") 1987 Cinnamon ("News Station Version", Live) 1996 Cover of 1994 Page/Plant Japan TV appearance 40 THE SOUNDTRACK FROM THE FILM?

(The Song Replay The Same II) Japanese Zep tribute band The Classic Rock String Quartet 2004 A CLASSIC ROCK TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] Gospel version Barry Crocker and the Doug Anthony Allstars 1992 STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] Comedic act Rare European LP of Led Zeppelin covers 48 HATS OFF TO LED ZEPPELIN Italian Zep tribute band Dash Rip Rock ("Stairway To Freebird") ROCK 'N' LULL, VOLUME I * may be same as Del Nileppez version; title may be "Yawriats Ot Nevaeh" 58 Features tuba & banjo with zydeco influence 59 "Money Or The Gun", Australian TV Lounge version Downes is from the '80s band Asia 61 Dr.

Gonzo ("Dylan Does Stairway") Original lineup, live in 1991 65 HAUNTED HOUSES O' THE HOLY Medley with "Misty Mountain Hop" 67 First studio version by new lineup 68 BOOTLEG - HOTS ON FOR FRESNO "Money Or The Gun", Australian TV DJ Earworm ("Stairway To Bootleg Heaven") Environmental Channel Programming (muzak version) 1990 STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] Techno version Featuring Steve Lukather on guitar 79 STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] Country version "Craig Kilborn Show", US TV 11/17/00 Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins acoustic version 85 Friends Of The Castanet Club 1989 "Money Or The Gun", Australian TV Percussionists dressed as pirates The Geezinslaws with Willie Nelson 2005 STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] In the style of Broadway musicals 90 * this may be same as Peter Bennett version 91 Lou Gramm with Zakk Wylde 1997 STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

 (Tribute To Led Zeppelin) Gramm is ex-Foreigner MASTERS OF CHANT CHAPTER II Artist name may be Masters Of Chant 97 Sandra Hahn and Michael Turkic 1992 WHAT IF MOZART WROTE "BORN TO BE WILD" Apparently this is a new version of the song?

103 Andrew Hansen ("Stairway To Kevin") 2007 BALLET CLASS MUSIC VOL.

4 # Semi-sendup of Harris' "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" 109 BRENT HAVENS CONDUCTS THE MUSIC OF LED ZEPPELIN Justin Hayward with Mike Batt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra 1989 2004 bonus track; from 1976 concert 113 * may be same as John Vearity version 115 DREW'S FAMOUS GRADUATION 2003 PARTY MUSIC Cheesy copycat version Huntington High School Jazz Ensemble 99-2000 HUNTINGTON HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ ENSEMBLE 99-2000 # WHOLE LOTTA BLUEGRASS - A BLUEGRASS TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN Bluegrass version From 10/81 studio rehearsal, available on bootleg 123 STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] Jones is also known as "Toots" 126 VOL 1-- HITS OF LED ZEPPELIN Multiple karaoke versions exist GUITAR TECHNIQUE OF JIMMY PAGE Greg Koch & The Tone Controls LED THE R OUT - A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN

 Spoof by DJs Mark Davis and Rob "Iceman" Izenberg 140 A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN California Zep tribute band Little Roger & the Goosebumps ("Stairway To Gillgan") 1978 Spoof featuring Stairway lyrics sung to "Gilligan's Island" theme song 143 London Symphony Orchestra & The Royal Choral Society 1981 May be same as 1981 version above 146 SYMPHONIC ROCK: THE BRITISH INVASION May be same as 1981 version above 147 WHOLE LOTTA ZEPP - A MALAYSIAN MUSICIANS' TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN Malaysian artist; recorded live at the Hard Rock Cafe in Kuala Lumpur 154 POP IN THE 70's & 80's # Apparently the group played this live at least once 158 Me First And The Gimme Gimmes (live) 2004 Recorded live at an actual bar mitzvah 160 James Hetfield/ Metallica (live, partial) "A Year In The Life Ofï¿½ Part 1

" [home video] Brief clip Source is The Covers Project 168 Adam Moses ("Shopping At 7-11") Bill Murray (as Nick Lava) (live, partial) 1978?

"Saturday Night Live" television broadcast Lounge spoof Mike Myers (as Wayne Cambpell) 1992 Scene in film shows Wayne playing "Stairway" intro 172 * remix of 50+ "Stairway" covers 174 University Of New South Wales Orchestra/ Joe Wolfe/Colin Piper ("The Stairway Suite") 2004 Orchestral variations in the styles of Schubert, Holst, Mahler, Bizet, Beethoven, and Glen Miller 176 * may be same as Thomas Dimuzio version 177 rev.norelpref ("stare weigh 2 heaven") None - "Late Night" US TV show Brief version sung during skit on his show 184 * song is sung completely backwards! 185 LOVE IS WHERE WE FIND IT # # may be same as Osiris version 189 A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN IV "The A.R.M.S.

Concert 2" home video Only released solo version by ex-Zep member 194 "STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN" AND OTHER SONGS RECORDED BY LED ZEPPELIN MIDI recording Community choir from North Carolina 207 SITTING IN AN ENGLISH GARDEN # CLASSIC ROCK MAGAZINE PRESENTS: A TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN Roscommon High School Jazz Band A TEARDROP IN THE OCEAN # SCTV spoof ("Stairways To Heaven") 1980s Spoof compilation album with several renditions of the song; inspiration for "Stairways To Heaven" CD?

226 Mary Schneider, Yodeling Queen of Australia FROM THE LAND OF THE ICE AND SNOW British Zep tribute band Numerous live versions available on bootlegs 233 Sparky And The Time Pirates NUMBER ONE IN THE NORTH COUNTRY # CLASSIC ROCK BALLADS; LED ZEPPELIN: A TRIBUTE This may be same as John Vearity version 242 THE STRING QUARTET TRIBUTE TO LED ZEPPELIN String quartet version BABIES GO LED ZEPPELIN [Japan?] STAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN [Australia only] Mark Thornton, Randy Howard, Jim Unger, Robby Turner, Brent Truitt, Pat Bergeson, David Grier, etc. 1996 COUNTRY PICKS -- CLASSIC ROCK; PICKIN' ON CLASSIC ROCK Country version BLUEGRASS THEN AND NOW - CMH RECORDS 25TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION Unsure if this is related to other versions featuring Thornton 255 Mark Thornton/Pat McGrath/David Grier/Robby Turner/Pat Bergeson/Charlie Cushman/Bob Warren 2000 PICKIN' ON ZEPPELIN/ PICKIN' ON LED ZEPPELIN VOL. ONE & VOL.

TWO [2003]; GUITAR GODS: A BLUEGRASS CELEBRATION Unsure if this is related to other versions featuring Thornton 256 Jury: 'Stairway to Heaven' was all Led Zeppelin Jury: 'Stairway to Heaven' was all Led Zeppelin A jury decided the band Led Zeppelin did not steal the opening to 'Stairway to Heaven.' Post to Facebook Jury: 'Stairway to Heaven' was all Led Zeppelin A jury decided the band Led Zeppelin did not steal the opening to 'Stairway to Heaven.' Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 56 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Jury: 'Stairway to Heaven' was all Led Zeppelin AP Published 1:32 p.m. ET June 23, 2016 | Updated 3:12 p.m.

ET June 23, 2016 CLOSE x Share A federal court jury decided on June 23rdd that Led Zeppelin did not steal a riff from an obscure 1960s instrumental tune to use for the introduction of its classic rock anthem 'Stairway to Heaven.' USA TODAY Led Zeppelin prevailed in the copyright case over 'Stairway to Heaven' on Thursday. (Photo: Evan Agostini, AP) 9423 CONNECT TWEET 1 LINKEDIN 56 COMMENTEMAILMORE LOS ANGELES (AP) — Led Zeppelin did not steal a riff from an obscure 1960s instrumental tune to use for the introduction of its classic rock anthem Stairway to Heaven, a federal court jury decided Thursday. The verdict in Los Angeles settles a point that music fans have debated for decades but didn't find its way to court until two years ago, when the trustee for the late Randy Craig Wolfe filed a copyright lawsuit. The trust claimed that Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page lifted a passage that Wolfe, better known as Randy California, wrote for Taurus, a short work he recorded with his band Spirit in 1968.

Page and singer Robert Plant, who wrote the Stairway lyrics, said their creation was an original. "We are grateful for the jury's conscientious service and pleased that it has ruled in our favor, putting to rest questions about the origin of Stairway to Heaven and confirming what we have known for 45 years. We appreciate our fans' support and look forward to putting this legal matter behind us," reads a statement from Page and Plant. In several hours of often-animated and amusing testimony, they described the craft behind one of rock's best-known songs, all the while denying knowledge of one of the genre's least-known tunes. Plant cracked up the courtroom when said he didn't remember most people he had hung out with over the years. In closing arguments, Francis Malofiy, a lawyer representing Wolfe's trust, criticized Page and Plant's "selective" memories and "convenient" truths on the witness stand. In trying to show the works were substantially similar, the trust had the tricky task of relying on sheet music because that's what is filed with the U.S. Copyright Office. Jurors were not played the Taurus recording, which contains a section that sounds very similar to the instantly recognizable start of Stairway.

Instead, they were played guitar and piano renditions by musicians on both sides of the case. Not surprisingly, the plaintiff's version on guitar sounded more like Stairway than the defense version on piano. Experts for both sides dissected both compositions, agreeing mainly that they shared a descending chord progression that dates back three centuries as a building block in lots of songs. The trust's experts, however, went further and noted several other similarities that made the two works unlike the many other tunes they were compared to, including MyFunny Valentine, and The Beatles' Michelle. Led Zeppelin's lawyer said the trust didn't own the copyright and that the plaintiff failed to prove a case that should have been brought more than 40 years ago when Wolfe was alive and Page and singer Robert Plant would have had better memories. "How can you wait a half century and criticize people ... 45 years later for the delay you caused?" Peter Anderson said. "They should have sued in 1972." Wolfe, who drowned in 1997 saving his son at a beach in Hawaii, had spoken with lawyers over the years about suing, but they never took on the case because it was old, said Glen Kulik another lawyer for the trust.

A Supreme Court ruling in 2014 over the movie Raging Bull opened the door to bring a copyright case at any time with damages only dating back three years and continuing into the future. Malofiy asked jurors to give Wolfe a songwriting credit and millions of dollars in damages, though he didn't provide a specific figure. The defense said record label profits from the past five years were $868,000, but Anderson reminded jurors that only a fraction of the eight-minute song was being challenged. The trial took jurors and lucky observers who managed to pack into the courtroom on a musical journey through the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Spirit, a California psychedelic group that blended jazz and rock was achieving stardom as the hard-rocking British band was being founded. Stops on the tour of testimony included Spirit shows at "love-ins" during the Summer of Love, Led Zeppelin's U.S. debut as an opening act for Spirit and Vanilla Fudge in Denver in December 1968 and, finally, to a country house in the south of England where Page, Plant and bassist John Paul Jones described how Stairway was born.

Page said his ambition was to write a song that would accelerate to a crescendo and he first shared the opening with keyboardist and bassist John Paul Jones to get an ally in his scheme. Singer Robert Plant said he was sitting by the fire at Headley Grange in the spring of 1970, when Page played the intro on acoustic guitar and he offered the start of a couplet he had been working on: "There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold/and she's buying a stairway to heaven." Jurors never heard a note from Page or Plant live, but they were treated to lo-fi vintage recordings of the band creating the song, renditions on guitar and piano by other musicians and, finally, the full recording of one of rock's most enduring anthems. Page, 72, bobbed his head and moved to the tune while Plant, 67, sat still. Both men wore sharp suits, white shirts and ties throughout the trial and had their hair pulled back in neat ponytails. They didn't chat with anyone in the gallery, including several fans, and were escorted by personal bodyguards to the restroom and in and out of the federal courthouse each day.

One afternoon, a group of women clapped and Page flashed a smile as the rock stars were hustled across the courthouse corridor to a private hallway. The case is not the first time Led Zeppelin was accused of swiping another artist's work. The lawsuit listed at least six other songs in which the band reached settlements over songwriting credits for works including Whole Lotta Love, The Lemon Song, and Dazed and Confused. 9423 CONNECT TWEET 1 LINKEDIN 56 COMMENTEMAILMORE Read or Share this story: NEVER MISS OUT Life Be a pop culture maven. Get the news, reviews and the juiciest celebrity stories that keep you in the know, Monday-Friday. Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven vs. Spirit's Taurus: A Reckoning? - Bloomberg Bloomberg the Company & Its Products Bloomberg Anywhere Remote LoginBloomberg Anywhere Login Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Advertising Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world.

Customer Support Stairway to Heaven: The Song Remains Pretty Similar Did Led Zeppelin write the greatest song opening in rock history—or steal it? by Subscribe Reprints Photograph by Heilemann/Camera Press/Redux Weary from touring, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page retreated in 1970 to a stone cottage in Wales, called Bron-Yr-Aur, with no power or running water. Legend has it King Arthur fought his last battle nearby. Not far off is the mountain Cader Idris where, it’s said, those who spend a night at its summit are fated to die, go mad, or become poets. At Bron-Yr-Aur, by candlelight, Page constructed the bones of what may well be the most popular, and valuable, rock ’n’ roll song of all time, Stairway to Heaven. This included the introductory finger-picked section that launched a million guitar lessons. Back in England that winter, Page laid out the budding epic for the band at another house, Headley Grange, where the magic continued around a fire fueled on one occasion by a section of stairway banister. As Page plucked, singer Robert Plant seemed to channel another world as he wrote the lyrics.

To Page, who has referred to the song as “my baby,” it was Zeppelin’s crowning achievement. “Stairway crystallized the essence of the band,” he told then-teenage rock writer Cameron Crowe in a March 13, 1975, Rolling Stone interview. “It was a milestone for us. Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did it with Stairway.” For generations of middle-class youth, the song is the 8-minute soundtrack of adolescent romance—or at least the anticipation of it. Stairway is slow dancing, the last song played at high school proms, sweet-16 parties, and summer camp mixers across a broad swath of the late 20th century. Jimmy Page in 1969 Photograph by Chris Walter/WireImage via Getty Images Stairway’s stature—financially, culturally, and musically—is towering. By 2008, when Conde Nast Portfolio magazine published an estimate that included royalties and record sales, the song had earned at least $562 million.

It was so profitable in part because Led Zeppelin refused to release the song as a single, forcing fans to shell out for the entire album, which is untitled but known as Led Zeppelin IV. In the U.S., the album has sold more copies (23 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America) than any save Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971-75). To this day, Warner Music Group cites the song in its annual reports as an example of its publishing portfolio. For live audiences, Stairway’s power starts with its introductory notes. “Can you think of another song, any song, for which, when its first chord is played, an entire audience of 20,000 rise spontaneously to their feet, not just to cheer or clap hands, but in acknowledgment of an event that is crucial for all of them?” Observer critic Tony Palmer wrote in a 1975 profile.

Dave Lewis writes in Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music that “Stairway has a pastoral opening cadence that is classical in feel and which has ensured its immortality.” But what if those opening notes weren’t actually written by Jimmy Page or any member of Led Zeppelin? What if the foundation of the band’s immortality had been lifted from another song by a relatively forgotten California band? You’d need to rewrite the history of rock ’n’ roll. In 1968 a Los Angeles area band called Spirit put out its first album, the self-titled Spirit. Among the songs was an instrumental piece, Taurus, written by the band’s guitarist, Randy California. (Born Randy Wolfe, California got his stage name while playing with Jimi Hendrix’s band in New York in 1966. Hendrix took to calling him Randy California to distinguish him from another Randy in the band. California, only 15 at the time, chose to make it stick.) Taurus runs just 2 minutes and 37 seconds. About a minute of it is a plucked guitar line that sounds a lot like the opening measures of Stairway to Heaven.

For Led Zeppelin, 1968 was a big year. The band recorded its first album and flew to the U.S. to promote it with a series of shows. The day after Christmas, it played its first concert in America at the Denver Auditorium Arena. Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit. Mark Andes, Spirit’s founding bassist, says he believes the members of Led Zeppelin heard Taurus that day, beginning a process that would lead to its appropriation for Stairway. Taurus was a fixture of Spirit’s set at the time. “It was such a pretty moment, and it would typically come after a big forceful number and always got a good response,” Andes says at his home in a Houston suburb, where his music room is lined with framed gold records, many from the decade he later spent with the band Heart. “They would have seen it in that context.” Members of Spirit including Jay Ferguson, Mark Andes, Ed Cassidy, Randy California and John Locke, pose for a portrait in 1970 in Los Angeles Photograph by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Within four days of its inaugural U.S. gig, Led Zeppelin had already assimilated some of Spirit’s other music into its act.

At Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., the band played a medley that included Spirit’s Fresh-Garbage. The song, with its grinding bass line, shares side one of Spirit with Taurus. Set lists posted on Led Zeppelin’s official website name Fresh-Garbage as a song for the Spokane show and at least 11 other shows in the following months. Even if Page hadn’t heard Taurus at that first gig, he would have had other chances to hear it live as the bands crossed paths through 1969. “We did quite a few shows with those guys,” says Andes. “Not to say they might not have heard it from the record.” On May 16, 1969, the bands played a concert together in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom. On July 5, 1969, at the Atlanta Pop Festival, Spirit played right before Zeppelin. The two bands played the closing day of the Seattle Pop Festival on July 27. The weekend of Aug. 30, they played on two separate days at the Texas International Pop Festival. California doesn’t seem to have griped about Stairway’s genesis, at least publicly, for decades.

Finally, citing the gigs they played together, California told journalist Jeff McLaughlin in the winter 1997 issue of Listener magazine that Led Zeppelin had filched his song. “I’d say it was a ripoff,” California said. “And the guys made millions of bucks on it and never said ‘Thank you,’ never said, ‘Can we pay you some money for it?’ It’s kind of a sore point with me. Maybe someday their conscience will make them do something about it.” On Jan. 2, 1997, California drowned while rescuing his 12-year-old son from a rip current in Hawaii. Now the late California’s allegation may get its day in court. Andes and the trust that handles California’s royalties say they’re teaming up to seek credit for Stairway. They’re working with Francis Alexander Malofiy, a Philadelphia lawyer whose cases include a pending suit against the singer Usher over the writing credit for the song Bad Girl, which Usher is fighting. Starting in June, Led Zeppelin is preparing to cash in anew on Stairway and other hits by releasing all its albums in deluxe, remastered vinyl and CD editions.

Malofiy says he is going to file a copyright infringement lawsuit and seek an injunction to block the rerelease of the album containing the song. “The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on Stairway to Heaven,” says Malofiy, 36, who says he grew up with posters of Led Zeppelin on his bedroom wall. “It’s been a long time coming.” Andes, 66, says he was so wrapped up in his music back then that he only recently noticed how similar Stairway was to California’s song. “The clarity seems to be a present-day clarity, not at the time of infringement. I can’t explain it. It is fairly blatant, and note for note,” he says. “It would just be nice if the Led Zeppelin guys gave Randy a little nod. That would be lovely.” Jason Elzy, a spokesman for New York-based Warner Music, says, “Both Led Zeppelin and Warner Music will be offering no comment for this story.” Hollenbeck Music, which publishes Taurus and receives a portion of the royalties, is run by music mogul Lou Adler, a childhood friend of Randy California’s mother, who signed Spirit to its first record contract.

Associates of Adler say he’s told them he believes the lick was lifted, but Adler isn’t part of the lawsuit and didn’t respond to requests for comment. Hollenbeck has compared the songs and doesn’t think there is a case, says Howard Frank, an executive at the Santa Monica (Calif.)-based company. It’s no secret Led Zeppelin borrowed from blues and folk musicians in what it said was part of an organic tradition that created new, original works. Page has explained how he crafted songs with bits of others. “I always tried to bring something fresh to anything that I used,” he said in an interview for Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page by Brad Tolinski. “I always made sure to come up with some variation. In fact, I think in most cases, you would never know what the original source could be.” Zeppelin histories that address the issue seem to favor Page, calling him a transformer rather than a thief.

In When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin, Mick Wall details the Welsh genesis of the song and writes that if Page was influenced by the chords from Taurus, “what he did with them was the equivalent of taking the wood from a garden shed and building it into a cathedral.” But songwriters from whom Led Zeppelin drew inspiration, or more, have brought legal challenges for decades, often successfully. Since its 1969 debut album, the band has altered the credits and redirected portions of the royalties for some of its biggest songs, including Whole Lotta Love and Babe I’m Gonna Leave You. A copyright infringement suit over Dazed and Confused, a defining number that formed the centerpiece of Led Zeppelin’s live shows, was settled in 2012. The rise of the Internet has made comparisons by amateur plagiarism detectives easier, with mashup videos of Zeppelin songs and their alleged antecedents appearing on YouTube. After its first two, mostly hard-rocking albums met with instant acclaim, Led Zeppelin put out the mainly acoustic Led Zeppelin III in October 1970, only to see it panned by critics. It did not sell well.

The band called off a planned British Christmas tour so it could go back to the studio, according to When Giants Walked the Earth. The press speculated about a breakup. Against this backdrop, “Jimmy would soon discover his compromise between the two realms of music, the acoustic and the metallic,” Stephen Davis writes in Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga. The six-string intro, according to Davis, was recorded at the Island Records studio in London in December 1970 before the band decamped to Headley Grange, where Plant wrote the lyrics. The song that emerged is a concerto in three movements. The first is the finger-picked portion, with a recorder accompaniment played by bassist John Paul Jones. The second section, on which Page switches to a 12-string guitar and drummer John Bonham comes in, is the “and it makes me wonder” section. The third and final “and as we wind on down the road” movement speeds up the tempo.

A headbanging three-chord progression repeats under Page’s guitar solo before the instruments surrender to Plant’s final, a cappella “and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.” The song made Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, released in November 1971, its biggest. As the band rose to rock deity status on the back of Stairway, behind the scenes the slow and expensive unraveling of its intellectual-property foundations was already beginning. In the early 1970s, Chester (Howlin’ Wolf) Burnett’s music publisher sued Led Zeppelin for The Lemon Song, saying it was derived from Burnett’s Killing Floor. The parties settled, according to When Giants Walked the Earth. Burnett got a writing credit. Willie Dixon in 1970 Photograph by Gilles Petard/Redferns via Getty Images The next case started around 1979, after Shirley Dixon-Nelson, the daughter of blues legend Willie Dixon, heard Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love at a friend’s house in Chicago. It’s Led Zeppelin’s highest-charting U.S. single, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

To Dixon’s 13-year-old daughter, the song sounded a lot like her father’s You Need Love. Dixon sued, reaching a settlement in 1987, and the song is now credited to the four Zeppelin members and Dixon, who died in 1992. Despite the settlement, “there was no significant money to Willie from record sales. He went to his grave feeling that he was not represented properly,” his wife, Marie Dixon, told Barney Hoskyns in Led Zeppelin: The Oral History of the World’s Greatest Rock Band. Today in Chicago, Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation runs a blues education program in local schools and awards college scholarships to study topics including artists’ legal rights. In the mid-’80s, another artist stepped forward. To reach the home of the 83-year-old woman who wrote the original Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, you drive up a dirt road on the edge of California’s Sierra National Forest. In a house made from two double-wide mobile homes, Anne Bredon, silver-haired and lanky, spends her days making jewelry, which she sells at craft fairs.

To get to town for supplies, she drives a white electric car plastered with bumper stickers like “My Other Car Is a Broom.” She’s not a fan of hard rock. Bredon wrote Babe around 1960 as a student at the University of California at Berkeley. She shared the chords and words with a fellow student, Janet Smith, who took Babe with her to Oberlin College and popularized it there. In 1962, Joan Baez came through the Ohio campus, heard Babe, and added it to her repertoire, including it in a songbook (credited to Bredon) and on a live album (not credited). In 1969, Led Zeppelin’s first album included a version of the song based on the Baez recording, listed as “Trad. arr. Jimmy Page.” “Jimmy Page must have assumed it was a folk song,” Bredon says. She, in the meantime, had no idea that her song was in the pantheon of classic rock. In 1981, Bredon’s old college friend, Smith, was strumming the tune at home when her 12-year-old son popped into the room.

“Gee, Mom, I didn’t know you did Led Zeppelin songs,” he said, according to Smith. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that Smith happened to look at a copy of the debut Led Zeppelin album in a Tower Records store and realized her friend hadn’t gotten credit. She contacted Bredon with a proposal to hire a lawyer, and the two agreed to split any money they could recover. To resolve the dispute, Led Zeppelin’s publisher made an offer: Because the band had made the song famous, the authorship of the Zeppelin version should be split 50-50, with half going to Bredon and the other half to Page and Plant. Future editions of the song would be credited, “Words and music by Anne Bredon, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant.” Bredon, who was married to a math professor and living in New Jersey at the time, got what she says was a small amount for back royalties and has collected royalty checks regularly since. “I just wish we could have known about it earlier,” says Bredon in her living room, holding her banjo. “I lost out on a lot of money. … What I really wanted was my credit.

I wanted to get my name on the song so they knew I wrote it, damn it.” In June 2007, Howard Stern had Denny Somach on as a guest. Somach was the producer of the syndicated Led Zeppelin show, Carol Miller’s Get the Led Out. A big chunk of Somach’s appearance with Stern was devoted to Dazed and Confused and how it sounded a lot like another song called … Dazed and Confused. The earlier version, by a folk singer named Jake Holmes, has the same slow, descending bass line, a similar melody, and some lyrics in common. Holmes had since left folk music to write advertising jingles, including Dr Pepper’s Be a Pepper and the U.S. Army recruiting song Be All You Can Be. After the radio program put Holmes in the spotlight, “He hired a lawyer,” Somach says. On June 28, 2010, Holmes sued Page and his publishing and record companies in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging copyright infringement of his 1967 Dazed and Confused. He demanded damages, profits, and an accounting.

In a 2007 interview published in Somach’s book, Get the Led Out: How Led Zeppelin Became the Biggest Band in the World, Holmes said he’d known Led Zeppelin had done a version of his song but had been unaware it was a highlight of its live show, with renditions running as long as 20 minutes. “I wasn’t interested in Led Zeppelin,” he said. “It wasn’t until about 20 years later that I really thought this wasn’t fair.” On April 6, 2011, Page’s lawyers filed his response to the lawsuit, denying any copyright infringement and saying the 1969 Led Zeppelin song was independently created. Additionally, Page’s filing said of the Holmes song, “plaintiff’s composition entitled ‘Dazed and Confused’ lacks originality and is thus not protectable by copyright.” Page also requested attorneys’ fees and costs. At the time, Led Zeppelin was preparing for the 2012 release of Celebration Day, the DVD and double CD of its 2007 London reunion concert—on which Dazed and Confused, at 11 minutes and 19 seconds, was to be the longest track. On Nov.

7, 2011, the two parties stipulated to the court that the case should be dismissed, which it was, on Jan. 17, 2012. When Celebration Day came out in November of that year, Dazed and Confused was credited as “Jimmy Page; inspired by Jake Holmes.” Citing the settlement, Holmes declined to comment for this story. “I can’t really talk about it,” he said in an e-mail. The school, work and life hacks you need to get ahead. You will now receive the Game Plan newsletter On an evening in March, about 50 children wearing Randy California Project T-shirts take the stage at a middle school there, where Randy once lived. These performers get their music lessons, loaner instruments, and band direction paid for by Randy California’s trust, which has made the music project its sole mission. Over the past four years the trust has given $93,000 to Ventura schools and $27,000 to schools in Quincy, Mass., where Skidmore lives, he says. California’s sister, Marla Randall, is attending the concert. She stands in the back of the room, wearing a peace sign pendant around her neck.

The first group, third graders with recorders and xylophones, plays Old MacDonald Had a Farm. They’re followed by the Randy California Band, a brass, woodwind, and percussion ensemble of fourth and fifth graders. Halfway through the show, Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Trudy Arriaga takes the microphone and pays tribute to the man whose music has made this all possible. “Randy California is watching over, looking over, the children of Ventura,” she says. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Jimmy Page: How Stairway to Heaven was written - BBC News - YouTube Jimmy Page: How Stairway to Heaven was written - BBC News Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Oct 10, 2014 Subscribe to BBC News Stairway to Heaven was one of the biggest rock songs of the 1970s - loved, imitated and sometimes parodied.

Now Led Zeppelin's classic track is back on the turntable, on a re-mastered version of the band's fourth album. 43 years after its release, the song continues to hold a place in many music fans' hearts. Guitarist Jimmy Page gives a personal account of how a rock anthem came together. Camera: Dave O'Neill, Richard Kenny. Editing: Dave O'Neill. Producer: Amanda Bruckshaw Subscribe to BBC News HERE Check out our website: Bron-Yr-Aur cottage sees Led Zeppelin fans because Stairway to Heaven was written there | Daily Mail Online Share Father-of-three Scott said: 'They come from all over the world.

'One guy walked all the way here from Germany, foraging berries and sleeping in churchyards as he went.' One rambler walked all the way there from Germany, eating berries and sleeping in churchyards as he went Stairway To Heaven was written by Zep frontman Robert Plant (centre) and guitarist Jimmy Page (right) and formed the centrepiece of their untitled fourth album, referred to as Led Zeppelin IV Page and Plant wrote the song from a selection of tapes they recorded while staying at the cottage in 1970 Scott lives with wife Ruth and their daughter at Bron-Yr-Aur, near Machynlleth, Mid Wales. He told us: 'We love our home and are very lucky to live here.' The property was bought by Ruth's father in 1970 shortly after the rockers moved out. Led Zeppelin wrote much of their third album at the house and it is immortalised in the song 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp' - although the band accidently misspelled its name. One mystery Led Zeppelin fan even managed to sneak up and take the sign from outside their house GREATEST ROCK SONG OF ALL TIME?

THE HISTORY OF STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN Genius: Since its release in 1971 it has consistently ranked among the best rock songs of all time in polls While staying at Bron-Yr-Aur in 1970, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant recorded parts of Stairway to Heaven on a cassette player after the intro came to Page in the middle of the night. They then took parts of the recording back to their fellow band mates who added the bassline and drumbeats. The track was released as part of the band's fourth untitled album, usually referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, and while it was the stand-out track, it took two or three years for it to reach anthemic status. Since then it has consistently ranked among the greatest rock song of all time in magazine polls, and in the US alone it is estimated it had been played 2,874,000 times on radio, enough to last for 44 years if run back-to-back. It is perhaps not surprising then that Jimmy Page once called an Oregon radio station during a charity drive and offered to donate $10,000 if they promised never to play the track again, which the station agreed to.

In 1982 the song fell foul of the backward masking 'scandal' that affected many great rock songs of the time, as American TV stations alleged the song contained hidden satanic messages that could only be heard if it was played backwards. Among the messages said to be hidden in Stairway To Heaven were 'Here's to my sweet Satan' and 'I sing because I live with Satan', which could allegedly be heard if the lyrics 'If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now...' were reversed. For more information on Bron Yr Aur click here Read more:

Question: Which 1970's group recorded Stairway to Heaven?
Answer: Led Zeppelin