Studio - 2. Led Zeppelin II
4. Release and reception.
The album was released on 22 October 1969 on Atlantic Records, with advance orders of 400,000 copies.[16] The advertising campaign was built around the slogan 'Led Zeppelin II Now Flying'.[4] Commercially, Led Zeppelin II was the band's first album to hit #1 in the U.S., knocking The Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) twice from the top spot, where it remained for seven weeks.[4] By April 1970 it had registered three million American sales, whilst in Britain it enjoyed a 138 week residence on the LP chart, climbing to the top spot in February 1970.[4]
The album also yielded Led Zeppelin's biggest hit, with the track "Whole Lotta Love". This song reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970, after Atlantic Records went against the group's wishes by releasing a shorter version on 45. The single's B-side, "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)", also hit the Billboard chart, peaking at #65 in April 1970. The album helped establish Led Zeppelin as an international concert attraction, as for the next year, the group continued to tour relentlessly, initially performing in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums and eventually stadiums as their popularity grew.[17]
In 1970 art director David Juniper was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package for Led Zeppelin II.[4] On 10 November 1969, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and in 1990 it was certified 5x platinum reflecting sales of over five million copies. By 14 November 1999, Led Zeppelin II had sold over twelve million copies and was certified 12x platinum by the RIAA.[18]
5. Influence.
Led Zeppelin II has been cited by music writers as a blueprint for heavy metal bands that followed it.[8][19] Blues-derived songs like "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "The Lemon Song" and "Bring It On Home" have been seen as representing standards of the genre, where the guitar-based riff (rather than vocal chorus or verses) defines the song and provides the key hook.[4] Such arrangements and emphasis were at the time atypical in popular music.[8] Page's guitar solo in "Heartbreaker" featuring rapid-fire runs of notes tapped only by the left hand, was a major inspiration to the later work of metal soloists and "shredders" such as Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai.[20] As such, the album is generally considered to be very influential on the development of rock music, being an early forerunner of heavy metal, and inspiring a host of other rock bands including Aerosmith, Van Halen and Guns N' Roses.[8][21]
Since its initial critical reception, Led Zeppelin II has been acknowledged by many critics and music writers as one of the most influential albums of rock music, and has earned several accolades from music publications, frequently placed at or near the top of "best album" lists.[22] In 1989, Spin magazine ranked the album number 5 on its list of The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time.[22] In 2000, Q magazine placed Led Zeppelin II at number 37 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.[23] In 2003, the album was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[13]
