Whole Lotta Love (1969)

"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released as a single in 1969 in several countries; as with other Led Zeppelin songs, no single was released in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it became their first hit and was certified gold. Parts of the song's lyrics were adapted from Willie Dixon's "You Need Love", recorded by Muddy Waters in 1962; originally uncredited to Dixon, a lawsuit in 1985 was settled with a payment to Dixon and credit on subsequent releases.

In 2004, the song was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in March 2005, Q placed "Whole Lotta Love" at number three in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. It was placed 11 on a similar list by Rolling Stone. In 2009 it was named the third greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. In 2014, listeners to BBC Radio 2 voted "Whole Lotta Love" as containing the greatest guitar riff of all time.

Composition and recording

Jimmy Page came up with the guitar riff for "Whole Lotta Love" in the summer of 1968, on his houseboat on the River Thames at Pangbourne, Berkshire, England. However, John Paul Jones stated that it probably was developed from a live improvisation during Yardbirds' performances of "Dazed and Confused". Page denied that the song originated onstage and that he had the riff and the rest took it from there. The chugging riff sounds like twin guitars because Page is playing two guitar strings in unison, while bending one of them to slightly change the pitch. At the same time, John Paul Jones is using the same technique on bass guitar, doubling the guitar part in a lower octave. Page recorded his part while playing through a solid-state amplifier.

Notation for the song indicates the key of E major and a tempo of 92 beats per minute in a compound AABA form.

During the two day mix of the Led Zeppelin II album, audio engineer Eddie Kramer discovered what he thought was some magnetic tape bleedthrough on Plant's vocals on the "Whole Lotta Love" track, which could not be removed, so he put some echo on it, and Page liked the sound. Page also employed a backwards echo production technique. Years later, engineer J. J. Blair analyzed the multi-track tape and found that the second guitar track contained traces of an earlier vocal track by Plant caused by microphonic induction of the guitar pickup. This thin-sounding vocal preceded the main vocal track in a manner similar to bleedthrough.

Personnel

According to Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin:

• Robert Plant – vocals, tambourine
• Jimmy Page – guitars, theremin, backing vocals
• John Paul Jones – bass guitar, bongos, backing vocals, keyboards
• John Bonham – drums, congas, maracas

Release

On 7 November 1969, "Whole Lotta Love" was released as a single in several countries, with "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)" as the B-side. In the US, Atlantic provided an edited 3:12 version as the flipside for radio stations. Billboard described the single as a "powerful, commercial swinger that should have no trouble putting [Led Zeppelin] up the Hot 100."Cash Box described it as "a mixture of rock and blues with special production touches and a rousing lead vocal performance." In the UK, Atlantic Records expected to issue an edited version, and pressed initial copies for release on 5 December 1969, but this was cancelled by request of manager Peter Grant.