"Led Zeppelin's music was always on the move," Robert Plant once told MOJO. "It was never just, 'Here's a little ditty and it's going to have the same lick as all our other songs...'" Indeed, during the band's imperial 12-year reign, no two albums ever sounded the same. And as their music pinwheeled between apocalyptic heavy rock, blues, folk and balladry, it never stopped moving. Here, MOJO's world-class team of writers have charted that journey and assembled what we think is the definitive list of Zeppelin's greatest ever songs. We hope you enjoy the ride...
50 In The Evening
(In Through The Out Door, 1979)
Prefacing its John Paul Jones-penned main section with a spooky, Page-led collage of Eastern-sounding guitars, treated tympani and bass-pedal drones, the opener on Zeppelin’s ‘comeback’ album, In Through The Out Door, might Zeppelin’s last great studio hurrah.
49 Gallows Pole
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
Based on Leadbelly’s Gallis Pole, in Zeppelin’s hands it became a an ancient-sounding fusion of folk, rock and blues with a nifty banjo solo from Page.
48 For Your Life
(Presence, 1976)
A deep cut from 1976, For Your Life captures the sound of a band on the brink. Dosed up on painkillers following a car accident, Plant sings a cautionary lyric about the antics of one of the band’s LA groupies, a woozy, see-sawing riff from Page adding to the atmosphere of blurred disorientation.
47 That’s The Way
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
An acoustic rambling reverie with an ecological edge, the prettiest moment on the folk-tinged Led Zeppelin III is a song of resignation and heartbreak, influenced by Neil Young’s early albums and driven along by a simple strummed acoustic guitar.
46 Thank You
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
Written for his wife, Maureen, Plant’s song of homely gratitude is lush and textured, and boasts a stamp of classicism.
45 Dancing Days
(Houses Of The Holy, 1973)
A radio favourite in the US, Dancing Days’ twisting riff was inspired by a melody Page and Plant had encountered in India while playing with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra in February 1972.
44 How Many More Times
(Led Zeppelin, 1969)
The final track from Zeppelin’s 1969 is an eight-and-a-half minute Page and Bonham tour de force. Page combined various song ideas he’d been working on through the ‘60s to catapult the band into the next decade.
43 Celebration Day
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
Swept away by blues-rock and roots Americana, psychedelia may have fallen out of haute-rock fashion by the end of the 60s, but for Led Zeppelin its memory lingered on. Evident on the disorientating speed-rush of Robert Plant’s love letter to the Big Apple.
42 Black Mountain Side
(Led Zeppelin, 1969)
A self-confessed Bert Jansch obsessive, Jimmy Page upset members of the folk community after borrowing both tune and arrangement from Jansch’s unorthodox finger-style treatment of the Irish traditional song Blackwater Side, and passing them off as his own. An oversight that doesn’t detract from the dexterous beauty of Page’s playing here which established Led Zeppelin as an unlikely but cog in the folk process.
41 The Wanton Song
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
When it comes to sexual abandonment, few albums depict the spoils of the road as candidly as Physical Graffiti. Indeed, Plant’s opening couplet on The Wanton Song leaves little to the imagination. “Silent woman in the night, you came/Took my seed from my shaking frame!” screeches the singer over a funky reboot of the Immigrant Song riff.
40 I Can’t Quit You Baby
(Led Zeppelin, 1969)
Chicago blues translated via the ‘Surrey Delta’, I Can’t Quit You Baby was a blueprint for the relationship that developed between Plant’s voice and Page’s guitar. The slow, grinding blues tune (a take on Otis Rush’s 1966 version of a song written by Willie Dixon) became a stalwart of Zep’s early live set, evolving and changing almost nightly.
39 The Song Remains The Same
(Houses Of The Holy, 1973)
Recorded in summer 1972 at Mick Jagger’s country pile, Stargroves, The Song Remains The Same began life as an instrumental fanfare. After Plant heard the work in progress, however, he insisted writing a lyric, turning it into a rambling hymn to the band’s globe-trotting adventures. It also, of course, provide Zeppelin with the name for their movie.
38 Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman)
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
Originally titled Livin’ Lovin’ Wreck – a title inspired by a persistent older female admirer – this track has never been fully embraced by the band. Their scorn may be due to the fact that it’s also the closest that Zep have ever come to a bona fide pop song.
37 In The Light
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
Regret, optimism and a need to escape the dark stuff combine on this beguiling West Coast-influenced track. Plant is on record as saying it’s his favourite Physical Graffiti track and one of the best things the band ever did.
36 Moby Dick
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
A rare moment where a drum solo actually appears on a studio tune, the rapacious Moby Dick became a vehicle for John Bonham’s percussive mastery and, live, stretched out into a 20-minute tour de force. The fact that the studio version remains a fan-favourite is a testament to Bonzo’s eternal popularity.
35 Bring It On Home
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
The closing track on II was intended as homage to Willie Dixon’s song of the same name, released in 1963 by Sonny Boy Williamson. Although the lack of acknowledgement led to a lawsuit, ultimately, the tune is defined by the core of the song; Page’s swinging stop-start multitracked riff and Plant’s joyous vocal combining with Bonham and Jones’s deft percussive interplay.
34 Bron Y-Aur Stomp
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
The acoustic country-honk of Robert Plant’s ode to his dog, Strider, is supported by the singer’s lyrical nod to Red Foley and Arthur Willis’s 1933 sentimental canine classic, Old Shep, later covered by Elvis.
33 Trampled Underfoot
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
Openly inspired by Stevie Wonder, the mischief suggested by its working title, Scotch And Coke, is evident in the thick, glammy funk melange of wah-wah guitar and clavinet.
32 Custard Pie
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
Robert Plant drew on Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee Custard Pie Blues and Bukka White’s Shake ’Em On Down for this lascivious blues. His mean, distorted mouthharp combines with Jimmy Page’s fierce solo, played through an ARP synthesizer, to deliver a sound as filthy as the lyrics.
31 Sick Again
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
A chronicle of time ill-spent in and out of Sunset Strip’s Riot House, the final track on Physical Graffiti is a paean to the road excesses that defined Zep’s tours from 1970 onwards. The opening smack-you-in-the-face, proto-punk riff drops to a mid-pace groove where Bonzo follows Page’s lead to create the track’s pummelling momentum.
30 Houses Of The Holy
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
Famously a last-minute exclusion from the album that shares its title, Houses Of The Holy was also one of the few old tracks pulled into Physical Graffiti’s orbit that required no extra work. Recorded three years before at Electric Lady, its compact groove and slinky, jazzy riff nestled far more comfortably among Physical Graffiti’s myriad stylistic changes than its predecessor's proggier elements.
29 Four Sticks
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
A boogie-jam in 5/8 and 6/8 time inspired by Ginger Baker’s drum battle with John Coltrane’s rhythmic mastermind Elvin Jones, Four Sticks is named after the number of drumsticks John Bonham employed to create the track’s relentless momentum.
READ: THE MYSTERY OF LED ZEPPELIN IV'S ARTWORK REVEALED AT LAST!
28 The Lemon Song
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
Retooling Howlin’ Wolf’s Killing Floor with a half-borrowed lyric from Robert Johnson, The Lemon Song is typical of Zeppelin’s ability to take clear influences and alchemise them into something fresh via their own extraordinary dynamics. The whole band is on fire here, but John Paul John’s almost McCartney-esque bassline – supposedly recorded in one take – just about steals the show.
27 The Ocean
(Houses Of The Holy, 1973)
A joyful tribute to Zeppelin’s ocean of fans, to rock’n’roll and its glorious doggerel, and to Plant’s daughter Carmen, “only three years old” in a nod to Chuck Berry’s Marie in Memphis, Tennessee.
26 What Is And What Should Never Be
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
Plant’s half-whispered, phased vocal is both seductive and covert, the invitation to his lady friend to visit his nearby castle sounding playful as well as slightly absurd on a song of alleged deep confession. It’s one of the singer’s all-time favourite Zep tunes.
25 Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
(Led Zeppelin, 1969)
Jimmy Page adds baroque grandeur to Joan Baez’s take on a folk standard. The band’s explosive dynamic is topped by a breath-taking vocal from Plant.
24 The Battle Of Evermore
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
The apogee of Zeppelin’s folk enchantment. Jimmy Page had declared Fairport Convention’s l Liege & Lief as his favourite album of 1969 and here singer Sandy Denny duets with Plant over a thorny hedgerow of mandolin. Amazingly, Page had never actually played the instrument before picking up John Paul Jones’ and idly improvising the hypnotic tune.
23 Communication Breakdown
(Led Zeppelin, 1969)
An attempt to update the delinquent excitement of rock and roll with late 60s technology and power, Communication Breakdown was an early Zeppelin keystone and highlighted the combined organised strength that separated them from their Brit Blues contemporaries. Nothing here is wasted, and its raw power sounds almost proto-punk compared to the high quality production Page usually favoured for the band.
22 Misty Mountain Hop
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
A hippy allegory, like Lord Of The Rings itself.
Misty Mountain Hop was a rare piece of politics from Led Zeppelin criticising The Man’s attitude to dope (albeit couched in Plant’s J.R.R. Tolkien imagery). The band never quite got to grips with the song live, and even the album version was less than perfect: at 2.11 Page, Jones and Bonham briefly lose touch with each other while Plant elongates the lyrics to compensate, but the rest of the take was too good to waste.
21 Tangerine
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
While Tangerine harks back to Page’s time with The Yardbirds this updated version is also one of the most beautiful songs recorded by Zeppelin. The melodies are hazy yet sharp, Plant’s double tracked vocals adding to the love-lost nature of the lyric. One of the band’s understated gems.
20 Friends
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
Played live only once, Friends has a cryptic lyric that owes a lot, including its apocalyptic opening image and repeated ‘ing’ line endings, to Dylan’s It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding). Temperamentally sunny, Plant has positive advice to lighten the gloom, but, disdaining cheerfulness, the music’s foreboding never relents.
19 In My Time Of Dying
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
The longest studio track on all of Zeppelin’s albums is also one of their most spontaneous. A lose, almost sloppy swamp blues boogie that proved for all of Page’s studio genius, the heart of Zeppelin’s majesty was always its four members playing together in a room.
18 Heartbreaker
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
The definition of a Zeppelin crowd-pleaser. Page’s twanging, low-slung riff is so fabulously deviant, that you wonder why nobody invented parental advisory stickers until 1984. For all its lyrical foreplay, it’s the song’s titular heartbreaker who has the power here, Golden God Plant clearly put out when she calls him “by another guy’s name” at the most delicate of moments.
17 Going To California
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
A delicate love letter to the West Coast, and to Laurel Canyon’s first lady, Joni Mitchell, reputed to be the “queen… [who] plays guitars and cries and sings”. While Plant would later confess its dreamy lyric “a bit embarrassing, at times”, he still performs the song solo today.
16 Ten Years Gone
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
Robert Plant’s nostalgic lyric and restrained vocal is offset by a dynamic wall of sound here from Page who overdubbed his guitar 14 times to resemble an orchestral string section
15 Over The Hills And Far Away
(Houses Of The Holy, 1973)
A softly-strummed Bron Y Aur acoustic number is electrified in the studio. Plant marries a courtly feel to the battle-weariness of a touring rock star in the lyrics to what is possibly Zeppelin’s most elegant mid-period tune.
14 Good Times Bad Times
(Led Zeppelin, 1969)
Hard, knowing, rueful and propelled by the virtuoso stampede of John Bonham, track one, side one of Led Zeppelin first album is a shot of pure adrenalin - setting out both Zeppelin’s future and that of the incoming decade.
13 No Quarter
(Houses Of The Holy, 1973)
The exquisitely slothful creep of No Quarter – with Page’s slithering guitar and Plant’s ghostly murmurings of Viking death fleets emerging from eerie mists of mellotron conjured by John Paul Jones – became a live vehicle for inspired instrumental improvisations from Jones over the years. He must have been bemused then when Page and Plant chose the song as the title track of their 1994 reunion album, from which he was infamously excluded.
12 Immigrant Song
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
If, like Apocalypse Now’s Wagner-blasting fleet of choppers, Viking longships had come equipped with speakers in the 9th century then Immigrant Song’s wail and thunder would have been the only choice to strike terror into those about to be plundered. An instance of words and music in perfect synergy.
11 The Rain Song
(House Of The Holy, 1973)
“The problem with you guys is that you never do ballads,” George Harrison told Led Zeppelin in the early ’70s. “I’ll give him a ballad,” Page thought, later quoting Harrison’s Something on The Rain Song’s first two chords. Page’s after-the-storm acoustic strum and swooning lead find perfect match in Jones’s symphonic mellotron, and Plant’s croons to heart-melting effect. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, George.
10 Rock And Roll
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
Rock And Roll’s lyrics reference The Book Of Love, Walking In The Moonlight and The Stroll. As steeped in the band’s formative influences as it is, though, it sounds as good as any of the classic tracks it nods to. Simple, sexy, feral and - from the opening seconds of Little Richard Keep A Knockin’ drum beat at the beginning - an absolute blast.
9 Ramble On
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
Page’s jangly acoustic intro, Bonham seemingly tapping the rhythm with bare hands on a guitar case, Jones picking moody bass runs while Plant delves deep into his psyche to deliver mysterious references to Gollum, Mordor and other Tolkien… Ramble On is the very definition of what the guitarist calls “light and shade”.
8 Achilles Last Stand
(Presence, 1976)
Arguably the last undeniable Zeppelin epic, Achilles Last Stand proceeds at a gallop, but as Bonham’s fills underline, the ‘hammer of the gods’ is wielded with dazzling precision. The thrillingly intense, improvisation-friendly tune became a staple of Zeppelin live shows until the band’s 1980 demise.
7 Dazed And Confused
(Led Zeppelin, 1969)
“There are certain songs that have to be here, and this is one of them,” said Robert Plant introducing this tune at Zeppelin’s 2007 O2 show. Clocking in at 11 minutes and 44 seconds, it remains the epitome of Zep’s early dynamism, and a template for more expansive adventures
6 Since I’ve Been Loving You
(Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
Zeppelin’s live-in-the-studio aesthetic is fully evident on this slow blues which begins with a beautiful Page solo, underpinned by Jones’s Hammond organ and Bonham’s steady rolling. Remarkably enough, an earlier, alternative version that appears on III’s recent reissue is arguably even more emotive than the original album version.
5 Black Dog
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
From its tremulous intro – the sound of Page warming up his Les Paul – Black Dog manages to sound both ominous and sensual. A triple-tracked, super-fuzzed twisting guitar pattern and John Paul Jones’s complex time signatures are punctuated by Plant’s call-and-response vocal and ambiguous ‘evil-woman’ lyricism.
4 Stairway To Heaven
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
At just over eight minutes, Stairway To Heaven is an astonishing piece that has become over familiar and yet, no matter how many times it’s played, Page’s guitar solo still seems to come in at the most unexpected moment (at 5:56), shifting the tone of the music and driving the song on to an exalted climax. The most requested song in the history of American FM radio it still remains evergreen.
3 Whole Lotta Love
(Led Zeppelin II, 1969)
One of the greatest rock riffs of all-time collides with Page’s Theremin-led orgiastic freak-out. Its light fingered approach to Willie Dixon’s You Need Love might have landed them with a law-suit but Whole Lotta Love is arguably Zep’s most instantly recognisable tune.
2 When The Levee Breaks
(Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
Led Zeppelin’s music has the power to evoke wonder at the mercilessness of nature, and never more so than on When The Levee Breaks. Based on 1928 recording by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, Page turned the song inside out and created an elemental masterpiece. John Bonham famously set-up at the bottom of the stairwell creating one of the most evocative drum performances of all time; a booming, omnipresent forewarning of inescapable danger around which all the other parts layer and build.
1 Kashmir
(Physical Graffiti, 1975)
In a 1988 interview with MOJO’s Robert Fricke, Robert Plant gently knocked back a suggestion that Stairway To Heaven was Zeppelin’s finest song. “It’s a nice, pleasant, well-meaning naive little song, very English,” he smiled. “It’s not the definitive Led Zeppelin song - Kashmir is.” Who are we to argue? A sweeping, swirling storm of strange magic, Kashmir was dense with everything at which Zeppelin excelled: ancient blues, psychedelic dreaming and signature brawn, charged with new, exotic risk. Their greatest on every count.
If you want to dive deeper into Zeppelin's music and the stories behind it, MOJO's two Led Zeppelin specials are now available in one sumptuous volume - LED ZEPPELIN: MOTHERSHIP 1968-2022 Deluxe Anthology Edition is in shops and available to buy HERE.
