Led Zeppelin knew how to sell records. Formed during the blues-rock boom of the late 1960s, the group sold a dizzying 111 million records in the US alone and remain one of the most revered heavy rock groups of their day. They bagged no fewer than seven number one albums, with Led Zeppelin II their highest-selling LP staying in the Billboard album chart for 117 weeks after two months at the top. The one thing they didn’t achieve however was a number one single. Here’s why.
Remembering the moment he listened to Led Zeppelin I for the first time Ozzy Osbourne described the album as a great breath of fresh air for somebody doing something acceptable but yet so different . From the beginning, Robert Plant Jimmy Page John Paul Jones and John Bonham sought to secure mainstream success without compromising their values. While they certainly achieved that goal it meant walking the road less travelled.
The Beatles had established themselves as the UK’s best-selling pop act through a combination of charm theatricality and catchy radio-friendly songwriting. Early hits like She Loves You Want To Hold Your Hand and Please Please Me all followed the same structure and lasted no longer than three minutes giving listeners a burst of flavour but never quenching their hunger. There’s a reason The Beatle’s music is so frequently described as bubblegum pop.
While Led Zeppelin’s first singles (‘Good Times Bad Times and Dazed and Confused) are also under three minutes, they blur and subvert the traditional pop structure pioneered by groups like The Beatles emphasising texture and virtuosity over lyrical-musical concision. These were songs to be pored over not chewed up and spat out. It’s perhaps for this reason that Zeppelin deliberately advertised themselves as a band out to sell albums and concert tickets rather than singles.
Zeppelin refused to release tracks as singles in the UK eventually allowing their label to release Whole Lotta Love as a single in the US where it became their biggest hit landing the number four spot on the Billboard Hot 100 despite clocking in at five minutes and 33 seconds. Atlantic Records actually pressed copies of a shortened version of the track for release in the UK but Jimmy Page wouldn’t allow it. I played it once hated it and never listened to the short version again he told the Wall Street Journal.
The band subsequently missed a press release clarifying that they had no intention of releasing Whole Lotta Love as they felt it formed part of their concept album. To isolate the track they argued would be to destroy it. Led Zeppelin upheld this view of their music for their entire career refusing to release their biggest songs as singles and thus negating any chance of securing a number one.
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