"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 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:

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.

Similarities to "You Need Love"

In 1962, Muddy Waters recorded a blues vocal, "You Need Love", for Chess Records. As he had done with "You Shook Me", Waters overdubbed vocals on an instrumental track previously recorded by blues guitarist Earl Hooker and his band. Willie Dixon wrote the lyrics, which Dixon biographer Mitsutoshi Inaba describes as being "about the necessity of love": In 1966, the British band Small Faces recorded the song as "You Need Loving" for their eponymous debut Decca album. According to Steve Marriott, the group's vocalist and guitarist, Page and Plant attended several Small Faces gigs, where they expressed their interest in the song. Plant's phrasing is particularly similar to that of Marriott's, who added "he [Plant] sang it the same, phrased it the same, even the stops at the end were the same". Similarities with "You Need Love" led to a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin in 1985, settled out of court in favour of Dixon for an undisclosed amount. On subsequent releases, Dixon's name is included on the credits for "Whole Lotta Love". Plant explained in an interview with Musician: "Page's riff was Page's riff. It was there before anything else. I just thought, 'well, what am I going to sing?' That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for. At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence that... well, you only get caught when you're successful. That's the game."

Accolades

(*) designates unordered lists.

Charts

The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 22 November 1969. It remained on the chart for 15 weeks, peaking at number four and becoming the band's only top-10 single in the US.

Original release

Single (digital download)

Note: The official UK Singles Chart incorporated legal downloads as of 17 April 2005.

Year-end charts

Certifications

Performances

Led Zeppelin first performed "Whole Lotta Love" on 26 April 1969. Other live versions were released officially: "Whole Lotta Love" was the last song Led Zeppelin played live. It was, however, performed again at the band's reunions at Live Aid in 1985 (with drummers Phil Collins and Tony Thompson), at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert in 1988, and at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at the O2 Arena, London, on 10 December 2007 (both with drummer Jason Bonham). In 2008, a reworked version by Jimmy Page on guitar, with Leona Lewis on vocals, was performed in the "London 2012" presentation during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Both Lewis and the organisers requested that some of the lyrics be changed, notably "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love". Lewis felt that the line made little sense coming from a female singer.

Cover versions

"Whole Lotta Love" has been recorded by several artists. Versions that reached the record charts include: