Led Zeppelin was a British rock band that became one of the most popular and influential musical ensembles of all time.

The four-member group debuted in 1968 with a raucous and revolutionary take on British blues-rock, and later developed their music in other ways that would contribute to the birth of hard rock and eventually to the rise of heavy metal.

They proved to be consistent innovators while remaining popular and accessible, fusing disparate elements from an eclectic spectrum of popular music, including rockabilly, soul, funk, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, and even Latin. More than two-and-a-half decades after the band retired in 1980, their music continues to sell well, garner widespread radio play, and prove a seminal influence on modern rock. Their epic "Stairway to Heaven" is rated as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century.[1] To date, the group is reported to have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide[2], including 109 million sales[3] in the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Besides "Stairway To Heaven", some of their most famous songs are: "Rock and Roll", "Black Dog", "Heartbreaker", "Immigrant Song", "Kashmir", "Dazed and Confused", "Whole Lotta Love", "Communication Breakdown", "Achilles Last Stand", "When the Levee Breaks", "No Quarter", and "The Song Remains The Same".

The band’s diverse musical tendencies were fused on its untitled fourth album, whose actual title was given as four unpronounceable symbols (); it is thus variously referred to as The Unnamed Album, Led Zeppelin IV, Zoso, Runes, or Four Symbols. (Not only is the album itself without a conventional title - on the original packaging, there is no indication of the name of the band.) Released on November 8, 1971, this record included hard rock such as "Black Dog", Tolkienesque fantasy on "The Battle of Evermore", and a combination of both genres in the lengthy, suite-like "Stairway to Heaven", a massive album-oriented rock FM radio hit which, despite its success, has never been released as a single. The album concludes with a radically altered version of a Memphis Minnie/Kansas Joe McCoy blues song titled "When the Levee Breaks". The song opens with a unique sounding drum track that has been sampled many times and used in modern Rock and Rap releases.[7]

Their next studio record, 1973's Houses of the Holy, featured further experimentation: powerful melodies, longer tracks and expanded use of synthesizers and Mellotron orchestration. With "The Song Remains the Same", "No Quarter" and "D'yer Mak'er" (pronounced "Jamaica", which was fitting, given the song's reggae feel), Led Zeppelin was again pushing the limits defining rock music. Their 1973 tour of the U.S. again broke records for attendance: at Tampa Stadium, Florida they played to 56,800 fans (more than the Beatles' 1965 concert at Shea Stadium). Three sold-out New York shows at Madison Square Garden were filmed for a concert motion picture, but this project would be delayed for several years.

In 1974, Led Zeppelin launched their own record label called Swan Song, named after one of only five songs that the band never recorded for commercial release (the track was re-tooled as "Midnight Moonlight" by Page's post-Zeppelin band The Firm on their first album). The record label's logo, based on Evening, Fall of Day (1869) by painter William Rimmer, features a picture of the Greek mythology figure Apollo, although often it is misinterpreted as Icarus or Lucifer. This logo can be found on much Led Zeppelin memorabilia. In addition to using it as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label's roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, Pretty Things, Maggie Bell, Detective, Dave Edmunds, Midnight Flyer, Sad Café and Wildlife.

1975 saw the release of Physical Graffiti, their first double-album, on the Swan Song label. Led Zeppelin again showed their impressive range with songs like the lush and complex "Ten Years Gone", the acoustic "Black Country Woman", the driving "Trampled Underfoot" and the thundering, Indian-Arabic-tinged "Kashmir".

Shortly after the release of Physical Graffiti, the entire Led Zeppelin catalogue of six albums simultaneously re-entered the top-200 album chart. The band embarked on another U.S. tour, again playing to record-breaking crowds. To top off the year, they played five sold-out nights at the UK's Earls Court (these shows were recorded, since they were originally broadcast on huge video screens behind the band on stage live, so patrons in the back could also get a great view of the band. Portions of which would be released on DVD some 28 years later). At this peak of their career, Led Zeppelin was the biggest rock band in the world.

If the band's popularity on stage and record was impressive, so too was its reputation for excess and off-stage wildness. Zeppelin traveled in a private jet (nicknamed "The Starship"), rented out entire sections of hotels, and became the subjects of many of rock's most famous stories of debauchery. Tales of trashed hotel rooms, groupies and heavy use of drugs and alcohol have become more extraordinary with each passing year. Several people associated with the band would later write books about the wild escapades of the group, while band members themselves have disavowed many of the tales.

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