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Whole Lotta Love

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"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by Led Zeppelin from their second album, Led Zeppelin II. It was the band's first hit single and a cover version of it by C.C.S. was used as the theme song for the British television show Top of the Pops.

It was recorded at various studios in New York and Los Angeles during a 1969 tour of the United States and assembled by Jimmy Page at Olympic Studios in London. Already part of their live repertoire, it saw its first official release on the LP II on October 22 1969 (Atlantic LP #8236). The song was a rewrite of the Willie Dixon song "You Need Love", a favorite of the band's as performed by the Small Faces that had also been released by Muddy Waters in 1962. This (and one other recorded by the band) would lead to a lawsuit settled out of court in the favor of Dixon in 1985 over the similarity of the lyrics. The song also included lyrical nods to Dixon's "Back Door Man" and "Shake for Me", the latter as recorded by Howlin' Wolf.

Contents

Release

Upon release of the LP, radio stations looked for a track that would fit their on-air formats from the quickly successful LP with the pulsing, skronk-raunch lead track "Whole Lotta Love" being the prime contender. However, after the trademark riff and "whole lotta love" chorus ends, beginning at 1:24 (and lasting until 3:02) the song dissolves to a free jazz-like break involving a Theremin solo and the moans of Robert Plant (sometimes called the "orgasm section"). Because many radio stations saw the freeform section as unfit to air they simply created their own edited versions. Atlantic Records was quick to respond and in addition to the release of the regular single in the US (coupled with "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)" from the same LP as the b-side) released a 3:10 version of the track with the freeform section cut and an earlier fade-out on November 7 1969. Both versions were released as Atlantic #45-2690. The edited version was intended for radio station promotional release but some copies were apparently released commercially in the US and are a collector's item for fans. Band manager Peter Grant was adamant that the band maintain a "no-singles" approach to marketing their recorded music in the UK. The song was released as a single in US, France, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium and Japan (countries where the band had less control). The edited version was withdrawn.

Chart success and live history

The song entered the Billboard Top 40 singles chart on December 6 1969. It remained on the chart for 13 weeks, peaking at #4 and becoming the band's only Top 10 single in the US. A famous concert closer for the band's live shows, it was usually performed as a medley of blues and R&B covers favored by the band. This included 50s and 60s standards such as: It occasionally included Zeppelin songs such as "I Can't Quit You Baby", "You Shook Me", "How Many More Times (inc. The Hunter)", "Your Time Is Gonna Come", "Good Times, Bad Times", "The Lemon Song", "The Crunge", "D'yer Mak'er", and "Ramble On".

Live

Live versions of "Whole Lotta Love" were released officially on the following titles:

Trivia

 

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