The band was originally formed in 1968 by guitarist Jimmy Page under the name The New Yardbirds to fulfill some performance commitments booked in Scandinavia before the break-up of the original Yardbirds. The New Yardbirds consisted of Page, vocalist Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham, and former Yardbirds bassist Chris Dreja, but Dreja left early in the project to become a photographer (and would later take the photograph that appeared on the back of the group's debut album). He was replaced by Page's long-time friend John Paul Jones. Page's first choice as singer, Terry Reid, declined the opportunity but recommended Plant, who accepted and then brought in his old friend Bonham from the defunct Band of Joy.

After some concerts with this line-up billed variously as the New Yardbirds or sometimes simply The Yardbirds, the band's name was changed to Led Zeppelin, after The Who's drummer Keith Moon quipped that the band would go down faster than a "lead zeppelin" (the comment is also frequently attributed to Who bassist John Entwistle.) The group adopted the name, deliberately misspelling the first part to prevent people from pronouncing it as "leed."

Shortly after their first tour, the group's eponymous first album was released on January 12, 1969. Its blend of blues and rock influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the evolution of heavy metal music. Although several of Zeppelin's earliest songs were based on or were cover versions of blues standards, others such as "Communication Breakdown" had a unique and distinctively heavy sound. Led Zeppelin also featured delicate acoustic guitar on "Black Mountain Side", and a combination of acoustic and electric approaches on the reworked folk song "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You." The immediate success of the first album kick-started the band's career, especially in the United States, where they would frequently tour, and where their album unit-sales totals are second only to the Beatles. The second record, simply titled Led Zeppelin II, followed in similar style later that year and included the bludgeoning riff of "Whole Lotta Love" which, driven by the rhythm section of John Bonham on drums and John Paul Jones on bass, defined their sound at the time.

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were blues fanatics; two of Led Zeppelin's early hits, "Whole Lotta Love" and "You Shook Me", were very similar to earlier songs by Willie Dixon. (The band were subsequently accused of using his lyrics without crediting Dixon, and it was not until Chess Records brought suit 15 years later, that proper credit?and a monetary settlement?was given.) Page was once quoted in an interview with the hypothesis: "I've often thought that in the way the Stones tried to be the sons of Chuck Berry, we tried to be the sons of Howlin' Wolf 1" (a version of whose song "Killing Floor" featured prominently in Zeppelin's early live performances). The band also loved American rock and roll: the exuberant styles of Fats Domino and Little Richard were inspirations, and Led Zeppelin would perform rockabilly songs originally made famous by Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran. Onstage, Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours; expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire often incorporated tight workouts of James Brown, Stax, and Motown-influenced soul music and funk (favorites of bassist Jones and drummer Bonham).

For the writing of the music on their third album, Led Zeppelin III, the band retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote house in Wales. This would result in a more acoustic sound (and a song "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp", misspelled as "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on the album cover) strongly influenced by Celtic and folk music, and it also revealed a different side of guitarist Page's prodigious talent. Led Zeppelin III also ushered in an era of unique album jackets, this one featuring a wheel that displayed various images through cutouts in the main jacket sleeve when rotated. In November of 1970, Led Zeppelin's record label, Atlantic Records, released "Immigrant Song" as a single against the band's wishes (Atlantic had earlier released an edited version of "Whole Lotta Love" which cut the 5:34 song to 3:10). It included their only b-side, "Hey Hey What Can I Do". Even though the band saw their albums as indivisible, whole listening experiences ? and their manager, Peter Grant, maintained an aggressive pro-album stance ? nine other singles were released without their consent. The group also resisted television appearances, which left any ability to control their presentation and sound quality out of their own hands (with often disappointing or embarrassing results). Lack of Led Zeppelin TV exposure also enforced the band's preference that their fans hear and see them in person.

The band's diverse musical tendencies were fused on their untitled fourth album, which is variously referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, Zoso, Runes, or Four Symbols. (Not only is the album itself without a conventional title, on the original packaging, there is no indication of the name of the band.) Released on November 8, 1971, this record included hard rock such as "Black Dog", Tolkienesque folksy mysticism on "The Battle of Evermore", and a combination of both genres in the lengthy, suite-like "Stairway to Heaven", a massive album-oriented rock FM radio hit which has never been released as a single in spite of its success. The album winds up with one of their best blues songs, a Memphis Minnie cover titled "When the Levee Breaks".

Their next studio record, 1973's Houses of the Holy, featured further experimentation: longer songs and expanded use of synthesizers and Mellotron parts, with songs like "The Song Remains the Same", "No Quarter" and "D'yer Mak'er" (pronounced "Jamaica", which was fitting, given the song's reggae feel - it is also a play on words, based on the joke where a man mistakes his friend saying the word Jamaica, for "Did You Make Her?" First man: My wife is off to the Caribbean on holiday. Second man: Jamaica? First man: No, she went of her own accord), Led Zeppelin was again pushing the limits defining rock music. The album is often considered the most romantic in Heavy Metal and Hard Rock history, due to the powerful melodies and softer, more refined songs. Their 1973 tour of the U.S. again broke records for attendance: at Tampa Stadium, Florida they played to 56,800 fans (more than the Beatles' 1965 concert at Shea Stadium). Three sold-out New York shows at Madison Square Garden were filmed for a concert motion picture, but this project would be delayed for several years.

In 1974, Led Zeppelin launched their own record label called Swan Song, named after one of only five songs that the band never recorded for commercial release (the track was re-tooled as "Midnight Moonlight" by Page's post-Zeppelin band The Firm on their first album). Besides using it as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label's roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, Pretty Things, Maggie Bell, Detective, Dave Edmunds, Midnight Flyer, Sad Caf頡nd Wildlife.

1975 saw the release of Physical Graffiti, their first double-album set, on the Swan Song label. Led Zeppelin again showed its impressive range with songs like the lush and complex "Ten Years Gone", the acoustic "Black Country Woman", the driving "Trampled Underfoot" and the thundering, Indian-Arabic-tinged "Kashmir".

Shortly after the release of Physical Graffiti, the entire Led Zeppelin catalogue of six albums was simultaneously on the top-200 album chart. The band embarked on another U.S. tour, again playing to record-breaking crowds. To top off the year, they played five sold-out nights at the UK's Earls Court (these shows were recorded, portions of which would be released on DVD some 28 years later). At this peak of their career, Led Zeppelin was the biggest rock band in the world.

If the band's popularity on stage and record was impressive, so too was their reputation for excess and off-stage wildness. Zeppelin traveled in a private jet (nicknamed "The Starship"), rented out entire sections of hotels, and became the subjects of many of rock's most famous stories of debauchery: trashed hotel rooms (TVs out the window, motorcycling in the halls), sexual escapades (some of which involved animals), and heavy use of drugs and alcohol. Several people associated with the band would later write books about the wild escapades of the group, while band members themselves have disavowed many of the tales.

In 1976 the band took a break from the road and began filming "fantasy" segments for the concert film entitled "The Song Remains The Same". During this break, Robert Plant and his wife were in a car crash while on holiday in Greece which broke Plant's ankle; Maureen Plant was very seriously injured, and only a flight back to London and a timely blood transfusion saved her life. Unable to tour, the band returned to the studio and, with Plant sitting on a stool during the sessions, they recorded their seventh studio album Presence. The album was a platinum seller, but marked a change in the Zeppelin sound as straightforward, guitar-based jams such as "Nobody's Fault But Mine" had replaced the intricate arrangements of previous albums. A highlight of the album was the epic-length Achilles Last Stand featuring a driving bassline and thundering drums, melodic Page riffs and a memorable guitar solo. Overall the album received mixed responses from critics and fans, with some appreciating the looser style and others dismissing it as sloppy; some critics speculated that the band's legendary excesses may have caught up with them at last. The year 1976 marked the beginning of Page's heroin use, a habit which would often interfere with their live shows and studio recordings in their later years.

Late 1976 finally saw the release of the concert film The Song Remains the Same and its soundtrack double LP. Despite the release date, the concert footage was actually from 1973; it would be the only filmed document of the group available for the next 20 years. The soundtrack album of the film had some songs missing and some added compared to the film, and some songs are different cuts from the three nights the band performed at Madison Square Garden. The soundtrack is not generally considered a great live album, but it would remain the only official live document of the band until the eventual release of the BBC Sessions in 1997.

In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another massive U.S. tour, again selling out up to five nights in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. (Seattle and Cleveland shows from this tour were the sources of Bootleg recordings prized by fans.) Following a show at the "Day on the Green" festival in Oakland, the news came that Robert Plant's son Karac had died from a stomach infection. The rest of the tour was canceled, and malicious critics and superstitious fans whispered of a "curse" said to be related to Page's interest in the occult. Such charges were scoffed at by the band.

The band did little recording or live work during 1978; the sombre mood was extended with the death of their friend, Keith Moon. The summer of 1978 saw the group recording again, this time at Swedish Polar Studio, owned by the pop group ABBA; this album would be titled In Through the Out Door and would highlight the talent of drummer John Bonham on the epic "Carouselambra" and the tropical "Fool In The Rain". The album also featured rockers like "In The Evening", and the balladic tribute to Plant's son, "All My Love". John Paul Jones had a lot of influence over the album, presumably as Page's heroin problem was at its peak. The album consequently features many synthesizers. After a decade of recording and touring, the band was now considered a dinosaur in some quarters, as mainstream musical tastes had moved in favor of disco and critical focus had turned to punk rock. Nevertheless, the band still commanded legions of loyal fans, and the album easily reached #1 in the US and UK.

In the summer of 1979, after two warm-up shows in Copenhagen, Led Zeppelin was booked as headliner at England's Knebworth Festival in August. Close to 400,000 fans witnessed the return of Led Zeppelin and, with the release of In Through the Out Door in August, they were ready to tour again, planning a short European tour followed by another American tour.

The 1980 American tour was not to be, however. On September 25, 1980, shortly before embarking on the U.S. leg of the tour, drummer John Bonham died of an accidental asphyxiation after a day long alcohol binge. Because of Bonham's death, the remaining band members determined they could not continue as Led Zeppelin. For many years after, there would be rumours of a reunion and plans for various collaborative projects.

Two years after Bonham's death, the band released Coda, a collection of out-takes from previous recording sessions. In the years to follow, a steady stream of boxed sets and greatest-hits collections would keep the band on the charts, as Led Zeppelin continued to garner heavy airplay on rock radio.

--Wikipedia --Wikipedia