On This Day in 1969, Led Zeppelin Released One of the Greatest Rock Albums of All Time and “Inspired Many Inferior Groups To Imitate Their Style”

On this day (October 22) in 1969, Led Zeppelin released their second self-titled album. It was their first No. 1 in the United States and their native United Kingdom. Moreover, it has gone down in history as their heaviest album and one of the most influential LPs in the history of rock music.

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Led Zeppelin was not the first band to make blues-based rock music. However, they were the first to take it to a heavier, more riff-based place. With their first album, they gave listeners worldwide a taste of what they could do, establishing themselves as one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. Then, with their sophomore release, they refined their sound and gave the world something new, heavy, and irresistible.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1979, Led Zeppelin Scored Their Fourth Consecutive No. 1 with Their Most Experimental Album]

Led Zeppelin II was more than a huge influence on future musicians and a seminal heavy metal record. It’s also a great album that has stood the test of time. It introduced the world to their first major hit, the enduring classic, “Whole Lotta Love.” It was the only single from the album and reached the top 10 in multiple countries.

Led Zeppelin Laid the Groundwork for Heavy Metal

It’s easy to see how Led Zeppelin helped shape the future of rock music. “Whole Lotta Love” is a great example of how they honed their sound into something fresh and, more importantly, heavy. The 1970s saw the rise of countless bands looking to Zeppelin for inspiration.

“They practically invented heavy metal, inspired many inferior groups to imitate their style, and even formed a record company to promote some of them,” music critic Tom Hull wrote of Led Zeppelin. “Lyrics are there, of course, but as an integral part of the music, a music better appropriated tactilely, through incoherent sensation, than intellectually, literally,” he said of the band’s sophomore release. “Another key, another question, to their mass appeal, the appeal of the masses to music that lets them along, that demands nothing and provides much, that helps them keep on trucking,” he added.

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