Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” is one of the greatest opening tracks on any album. This one, though, happened to be on one of the greatest rock albums in history – Led Zeppelin II. The US release became their first hit single, it was certified Gold in April 1970, having sold one million copies. As with other Led Zeppelin songs, no single was released in the United Kingdom, but singles were released in Germany (where it reached number one), the Netherlands (where it reached number four), Belgium and France.
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 magazine 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 the greatest guitar riff of all time.
VOCAL only (Robert Plant):
GUITAR only (Jimmy Page)–check out what Page does starting at the 1:54 mark:
SLIDE GUITAR/THEREMIN/MISC. GUITAR overdubs only (Jimmy Page)
BASS (John Paul Jones):
