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"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English Rock band Led Zeppelin , featured as the opening track on their second album, '' Led Zeppelin II ''. It was their first hit single. In 2004, the song was ranked #75 on Rolling Stone 's list of The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time , and in March 2005, ''Q'' Magazine placed "Whole Lotta Love" at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. It was recorded at various studios in New York and Los Angeles during a 1969 Concert 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 ''Led Zeppelin II'' on October 22 1969 ( Atlantic LP #8236). SONG CONSTRUCTION The song begins with a trademark Page riff and moves into the first chorus. Then, 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"). As audio engineer Eddie Kramer has explained: "The famous Whole Lotta Love mix, where everything is going bananas, is a combination of Jimmy and myself just flying around on a small console twiddling every knob known to man." Much of the lyrics are taken from the Willie Dixon song "You Need Love", a favorite of the band's as performed by the Small Faces as 'You need Loving' on their debut Decca LP (Steve Marriot's vocal style on the track being not disimilar to Plant's) that had also been released by Muddy Waters in 1962. This (and " Bring It On Home ") 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 . "You Need Love" would also inspire the song " Custard Pie " featured on Led Zeppelin's later album, '' Physical Graffiti ''. Robert Plant has stated that: 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, because many radio stations saw the freeform middle 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 " 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 the US, France , Germany (as No 1), Switzerland , The Netherlands , Belgium and Japan (countries where the band had less control). The edited version was withdrawn. Several years later, Atlantic Records reissued "Whole Lotta Love" (with its original B-side "Living Loving Maid") on its Oldies Series label (OS-13116) with a slight error. The edited 3:10 version was used for the reissue, but the labels were printed with the unedited running time of 5:33. In 1997 Atlantic Records released a CD-single edited (to 4:50 this time) from the original 1969 recording of the song. This version charted in the UK where the band had maintained control over single releases during their existence. 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 show closer at Led Zeppelin Concerts , it was usually performed as a medley of Blues and R&B covers favored by the band. This included 1950s and 1960s standards such as:
When performed live, "Whole Lotta Love" also occasionally included segments of other Led 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 versions of "Whole Lotta Love" were released officially on the following titles:
"Whole Lotta Love" was the last song Led Zeppelin ever played live. OTHER VERSIONS Several artists have covered Led Zeppelin's version or have played it live:
In 2002,Prince did a version on his 'One Nite Alone' tour in Europe and also featured on a live DVD,"Live From The Aladdin". TRIVIA
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