"Led Zeppelin II" Turns 40

Forty years ago today, Led Zeppelin released Led Zeppelin II just nine months after unleashing their historic debut. Produced by guitarist Jimmy Page, II laid the groundwork for heavy metal with its classic "Whole Lotta Love" and firmly established Zeppelin as one of the loudest and greatest bands in rock at the time. II also boasts Robert Plant's unparalleled vocal prowess on hits like "Ramble On" and "What Is and What Should Never Be" and John Bonham's still-unmatched drum solo on "Moby Dick."

Led Zeppelin live: photos from their legendary reunion show.

When the album came out 40 years ago, Rolling Stone critic John Mendelsohn wasn't exactly glowing in his 1969 review of the album, writing tongue-in-cheekily, "I'll concede that until you've listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it's just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides. But, hey! You've got to admit that the Zeppelin has their distinctive and enchanting formula down stone-cold, man." Of course, Mendelsohn's opinion turned out to be the small, small minority, and Rolling Stone went on to place Led Zeppelin II on our 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The New Rolling Stone Album Guide awarded Led Zeppelin II the five-star review it rightly deserves, adding that "Whole Lotta Love" "became a starting point for Aerosmith, Guns n' Roses and Van Halen, among others. It's an amazing song not just for its seismic riff and bingeing-on-lust vocal performance, but for its mind-bending midsection, in which Page orchestrates the aural equivalent of an orgasm (Theremin included.)"

So bust out your old II vinyl or eight-track or CD, crank up your stereo volume high and celebrate the album's fortieth birthday.

More Led Zeppelin:
• Led Zeppelin Album Guide
• Robert Plant on the Led Zeppelin Rehearsals: The Band Has "Done It. It's There."
• Classic Led Zeppelin Photos

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

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