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Stairway to Heaven: 1971 song written and recorded by Led Zeppelin, which became their signature tune and a centrepiece for the group's live performances. [e] The metadata subpage is missing. You can start it via filling in this form or by following the instructions that come up after clicking on the [show] link to the right. Do you see this on PREVIEW? then SAVE! before following a link. To find out more about the use of metadata for the management of Citizendium pages, see CZ:Metadata. You may see this box for one of two reasons. Either: A - New page has been created, or subpages template was added to an existing page B - Cluster move is in progress Click either the A or B link for further instructions. [Feel free to recommend improvements to the text or links in this template] A - For a New Cluster use the following directions Subpages format requires a metadata page. Using the following instructions will complete the process of creating this article's subpages. Click the blue "metadata template" link below to create the page. On the edit page that appears paste in the article's title across from "pagename =". You might also fill out the checklist part of the form. Ignore the rest. For background, see Using the Subpages template Don't worry--you'll get the hang of it right away. Remember to hit Save! the "metadata template". However, you can create articles without subpages. Just delete the {{subpages}} template from the top of this page and this prompt will disappear. :) Don't feel obligated to use subpages, it's more important that you write sentences, which you can always do without writing fancy code. [Feel free to recommend improvements to the text or links in this template] B - For a Cluster Move use the following directions The metadata template should be moved to the new name as the first step. Please revert this move and start by using the Move Cluster link at the top left of the talk page. The name prior to this move can be found at the following link. [Feel free to recommend improvements to the text or links in this template] Stairway to Heaven 1972 promotional single Appears on Led Zeppelin IV Published by Superhype Music Registration ASCAP 490294198 Release date 8 November 1971 Recorded December 1970 – February 1971 Genre Hard rock, folk rock Language English Length 8 minutes 1 second Composer Jimmy Page, Robert Plant Label Atlantic Records Producer Jimmy Page Engineer Andy Johns 'Stairway to Heaven' is a song written and recorded by Led Zeppelin, which first appeared on Led Zeppelin's 1971 untitled fourth album, often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV. One of their best-known songs, it has become the band's signature tune. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists this song as one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time. 'Stairway to Heaven' remains the biggest-selling sheet music in the history of rock with more than 1.2 million copies sold (An average popular tune sells 10,000 to 15,000 copies). It is also regarded and often quoted as being one of the most requested songs on U.S. radio, despite never being officially released as a single. Guitarist Jimmy Page was voted the top guitar soloist of all time for this song, and it regularly tops most popular song lists. Album version Led Zeppelin began working on 'Stairway to Heaven' during the rehearsal sessions for Led Zeppelin III at Bron-Yr-Aur, and finally recorded the main track in December 1970, for inclusion on Led Zeppelin IV. The construct of the song came about from different ideas Page had captured on a New Vista tape recorder, in the lead up to that Welsh cottage. The song's opening guitar line is similar to a progression used by Page for a session with Scottish band Cartoone in October 1968, on the song 'Ice Cream Dreams' (Cartoone, 1969), while the main riff evolved from a previous track called 'Tangerine' which was recorded for Led Zeppelin III, but utilised a progression Page had toyed with during his earlier mid-1960s Yardbirds stint. Melody Maker journalist Chris Welch referred to 'Tangerine' as an 'embryonic Stairway to Heaven'. Robert Plant later added lyrics during sessions at Headley Grange, Hampshire, in early 1971 and the Page guitar solo was recorded at Island Studios' Sarm West Studio. It was finally mixed and mastered at Island Studios in London, United Kingdom with engineer Andy Johns. This song with its mix of delicate Celtic-inspired acoustic music and the swaggering bluster of electric blues, has, perhaps, more than any other single song, defined the development of both the 'power ballad' and the raw bombastic mainstream heavy metal song- musical references to 'Stairway' are in evidence all over the popular culture map. Page's classic guitar solo on was played on a 1958 Fender Telecaster plugged into a Supro amp. Page recorded three different improvised solos for 'Stairway to Heaven', and finally chose one version of the solo on the current recording, as he felt it best fit the mood of the song. The other guitar parts on 'Stairway to Heaven' were played using a Fender Electric XII (12-string) and a Martin acoustic. These can be heard on the right and left recording channels respectively. John Paul Jones used two bass recorders for the intro and a Hohner Electra-Piano electric piano for the middle section. ‘ I'd been fooling around with the acoustic guitar and came up with several different sections which flowed together nicely. I soon realised that it could be the perfect vehicle for something I'd been wanting to do for a while: to compose something that would start quietly, have the drums come in the middle, and then build to a huge crescendo. I also knew that I wanted the piece to speed up, which is something musicians aren't supposed to do: Jimmy Page. ’ The song begins in folk ballad form with gentle finger-picked arpeggiated acoustic guitar and harmonised bass recorders filling the background behind Plant's mystical lyrics. Like Ravel's 'Bolero', the song is structured to rise slowly in dramatic tension with subtle increases in instrumentation and volume, with the addition of drums, bass, electric piano and Page's ringing electric 12-string guitar. Composed in the key of A minor, the opening four bar chord progression in the verse proceeds Am-Am9-G#-C-G-D-F#-Fmaj7-G Am and back to Am, while the bassline plays a chromatic descending progression of A-G#-G-F#-F. The Telecaster guitar joining the progression at the end of the second verse on the words 'Oh, and it makes me wonder'. The long-delayed drums follow at the end of the fourth verse as 'the forests… echo with laughter'. Finally, a shimmering open D chord breaks through the melody, ushering in the guitar solo response to the discovery that the 'stairway lies on the whispering wind'. It finds Page executing a succession of blues runs and melodic phrases, with metal slide overdubs, in a performance rarely matched for sheer emotion, melody and raw energy. A final melee of power chords and unison string bends quickly ensues, leading to Plant's graceful vocal finale. The final progression is a i-VII-VI (natural minor) progression in Am-G-F. Lyrics The lyrics, composed by vocalist Robert Plant were spontaneously improvised next to an evening log fire at Headley Grange. Plant was an avid reader and was acquainted with the works of the British antiquarian Lewis Spence, and later cited Spence's Magic Arts in Celtic Britain as one of the inspirations for the lyrics to the song. The meaning behind the lyrics is shrouded in mysticism and ambiguity, perfectly complimenting the theme of 'light and shade' within Led Zeppelin IV. Page has said that the song has whatever meaning the listener wants to put to it. The most popular meaning behind the lyrics is that of spiritual liberation. The 'stairway' to heaven is the liberation of the soul, as it makes the long journey from Earth (the physical world) to the higher spiritual planes. As Plant said (on the 27 July 1973, Madison Square Gardens recording, and on other occasions) when introducing 'Stairway to Heaven', '… this is a song of hope'. This hope reflecting some of the ideals of the Hippie movement, which Plant was closely associated with, that the values of human society will turn away from desires for greed and wealth and power towards universal love and kindness and the evolution of the soul. It's not coincidental that two of the following tracks on Led Zeppelin IV — 'Misty Mountain Hop' and 'Going to California' — evoke memories of the Summer of Love. The associative powers of the lyrics can be broken up into categories. We are presented with a number of mysterious figures: a lady, the piper, the May queen. Images of nature abound: a brook, a songbird, rings of smoke through the trees, a hedgerow, wind. We find a set of concepts (that pretty much sum up the central concerns of all philosophy): signs, words, meanings, thoughts, feelings, spirit, reason, wonder, soul, and the idea that 'all are one and one is all.' We find a set of vaguely but powerfully evocative symbols: gold, the West, the tune, white light, shadows, paths, a road, and the stairway to heaven itself. At the very end, we find some paradoxical self-referentiality: 'To be a rock and not to roll.' The words provide a very open text; like those of Don McLean's 'American Pie' (also released in 1971), they invite endless interpretation. Yet they are resonant, requiring no rigorous study in order to become meaningful. Like the music, they engage with the fantasies and anxieties of our time. They offer contact with social and metaphysical depth in a world of commodities and mass communication. 'Stairway to Heaven,' no less than canonized artistic postmodernism, addresses 'decentred subjects' who are striving to find credible experiences of depth and community. It strains at mystery and promises utopia: 'A new day will dawn,' and 'If you listen very hard/The tune will come to you at last.' Another notable line includes 'If there's a bustle in your hedgerow..' A bustle in your hedgerow refers to the beginning of spring. When the flora and animals, etc., wake up and are new and refreshed after the winter, which ties in with the idea of a utopia. 'Stairway to Heaven' was the only song whose lyrics were printed on an album's inner sleeve by Led Zeppelin. Live performances © Photo: ledzeppelin.com Jimmy Page performing guitar solo on a Gibson EDS-1275 in 'Stairway to Heaven', at The Forum, Inglewood, California on 23 June 1977. For live performance of 'Stairway to Heaven', Page used a double-necked 6/12 1968 Gibson EDS-1275. Jones used a Mellotron M400 in place of the three recorders in the early performances before switching to a Yamaha CP70B Grand Piano and Yamaha GX1 to synthesize this arrangement in later years. When performed, Led Zeppelin would often extend the song to over ten minutes in length, with Page playing an improvised guitar solo and Plant inserting a number of lyrical ad-libs, such as 'Does anybody remember laughter?', 'Wait a minute!' and 'I hope so'. During live performances, visual effects were added during Page's solo, including rotating mirror balls and displaying split-screens on the background projection. The debut public performance of the song took place at Belfast's Ulster Hall on March 5, 1971.. The song was played at almost every concert since 1971. In their later concert tours, the band chose to perform the song as their final pre-encore number. Led Zeppelin's longest ever performance of this song was their last gig in Berlin in 1980. It clocked in around 15 minutes long. Page played this song as an instrumental on his solo tours. The song was performed again by the surviving members of Led Zeppelin at the Live Aid concert in 1985, and at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary party in 1988, with Jason Bonham on drums. In November 1994 on Japanese television Page and Plant played a shortened live version of 'Stairway to Heaven' before a surprised crowd and talk show hosts. As a teaser, the first few bars were strummed alone during the Page and Plant tours, during the final notes of 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You'. It was once again performed in full during the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in the O2 Arena in 2007. There are hundreds of audio versions which can be found on unofficial Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings. Official audio versions are available on the BBC Sessions (a performance from London's Paris Theatre in 1971), on How the West Was Won (a performance from the Long Beach Arena in 1972), and on The Song Remains the Same soundtrack. Live, filmed versions of 'Stairway to Heaven' appear on the Led Zeppelin's concert film The Song Remains the Same, featuring a performance from Madison Square Garden in 1973, and on the Led Zeppelin DVD, from Earls Court Arena in May 1975. No official single As with 'Whole Lotta Love', Led Zeppelin's record label Atlantic Records, were interested in issuing this track as a single, but the band's manager Peter Grant refused repeated requests to do so since the release of Led Zeppelin IV. Grant's logic was that Led Zeppelin IV was becoming a big seller and that releasing an 8 minute single would only detract from album sales. Atlantic Records did release a limited run of seven inch promotional singles to radio stations, which are now highly collectable items. It did, eventually however, appear on a limited-edition Australian acoustic EP, and in the 1990s as a 20th anniversary promo book. In November 2007, through download sales promoting the Mothership compilation album, the song reached #37 on the UK Singles Chart, and #13 on the New Zealand Singles Chart. The 1977 Atlantic Records 2-LP promotional sampler album, We've Got Your Music, marked the very first time that Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' made its official debut appearance in a US-released various artists compilation collection. Cultural influences 'Stairway to Heaven' is still played 4,203 times a year by the sixty-seven largest AOR (album-oriented rock) radio stations in the US, according to trade magazine Monday Morning Replay. US communications company MediaBase lists 'Stairway to Heaven' as having been played a total of 1,432,403 times as of May 2008. While the song is often requested, the song itself is not played as many times such as 'Black Dog' or 'Rock and Roll' due to it's length (8 minutes 3 seconds) restricting airplay. French Charly 1300 TMP chart rated it as Number 1 In 1991, to announce their new Classic Rock format, radio station KLSK 104.1 (New Mexico) played Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' for 24 hours straight. 'Stairway to Heaven' continues to top radio lists of the greatest rock songs. Some radio stations that have listed the song as number one include WNOR (Norfolk), WEBN (Cincinnati), WGRX (Baltimore), WFXF (Indianapolis), KLSK (Albuquerque), WMYG (Pittsburgh), KLSX (Los Angeles), Virgin Radio (London), KRTH (Los Angeles), and KGON (Portland). During the early 1990s, the Australian talk show The Money or the Gun released different versions of 'Stairway to Heaven' performed with 25 different artists in their idiosyncratic style. During live performances of their song 'Tribute', Tenacious D often plays the song with bits and pieces of guitar riffs and chord progressions from 'Stairway to Heaven'. Also, they often sing the last few words of the song similarly to how the end of 'Stairway to Heaven' is sung. On their HBO series version of 'Tribute', large proportions of the song use chord progressions and vocals reminiscent of 'Stairway to Heaven'. The Spanish synchronised swimming team won the free combination gold team medal in the synchronised swimming competition at the 2009 FINA Swimming World Championships, with their routine to 'Stairway to Heaven'. Accolades Publication Country Accolade Year Rank Rock and Roll Hall of Fame United States 'The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll' 1994 * Classic Rock United Kingdom 'Ten of the Best Songs Ever!' 1999 1 VH1 United States 'The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time' 2000 3 RIAA United States 'Songs of the Century' 2001 53 Grammy Awards United States 'Grammy Hall of Fame Award' 2003 * Rolling Stone United States 'The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time' 2003 31 Q United Kingdom '100 Songs That Changed the World' 2003 43 Toby Creswell Australia '1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time' 2005 * Q United Kingdom '100 Greatest Songs of All Time' 2006 8 Rolling Stone United States '100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time' 2008 8 (*) designates unordered lists. Chart positions Single (Digital download) Chart (2007) Peak position New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 13 Norwegian Singles Chart 5 Irish Singles Chart 24 UK Singles Chart 37 US Billboard Hot Digital Songs Chart 30 US Billboard Hot Singles Recurrents Chart 16 Canadian Billboard Hot Digital Singles Chart 17 EU Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart 79 Swiss Singles Chart 17 Portuguese Singles Chart 8 Italian Singles Chart 60 Chart (2008) Peak position Swedish Singles Chart 57 German Singles Chart 71 Note: The official UK Singles Chart incorporated legal downloads as of 17 April 2005. Credits Personnel Musicians: Jimmy Page – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, producer, remastering, digital remastering Robert Plant – vocals John Paul Jones – recorders, keyboards, bass guitar John Bonham - drums, percussion Production: Peter Grant – executive producer Andy Johns - engineer, mixing Joe Sidore - original CD mastering engineer (mid-1980s) George Marino - remastered CD engineer (1990) Provenance Some content on this page may previously have appeared on Wikipedia. References  (Read more...)	Daniel Mietchen 13:44, 24 April 2010 (UTC); Meg Ireland		2

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---

Stairway to Heaven
1972 promotional single
Appears on	Led Zeppelin IV
Published by	Superhype Music
Registration	ASCAP 490294198
Release date	8 November 1971
Recorded	December 1970 – February 1971
Genre	Hard rock, folk rock
Language	English
Length	8 minutes 1 second
Composer	Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer	Jimmy Page
Engineer	Andy Johns

'Stairway to Heaven' is a song written and recorded by Led Zeppelin, which first appeared on Led Zeppelin's 1971 untitled fourth album, often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV. One of their best-known songs, it has become the band's signature tune. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists this song as one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time. 'Stairway to Heaven' remains the biggest-selling sheet music in the history of rock with more than 1.2 million copies sold (An average popular tune sells 10,000 to 15,000 copies). It is also regarded and often quoted as being one of the most requested songs on U.S. radio, despite never being officially released as a single. Guitarist Jimmy Page was voted the top guitar soloist of all time for this song, and it regularly tops most popular song lists.

Album version

Led Zeppelin began working on 'Stairway to Heaven' during the rehearsal sessions for Led Zeppelin III at Bron-Yr-Aur, and finally recorded the main track in December 1970, for inclusion on Led Zeppelin IV. The construct of the song came about from different ideas Page had captured on a New Vista tape recorder, in the lead up to that Welsh cottage. The song's opening guitar line is similar to a progression used by Page for a session with Scottish band Cartoone in October 1968, on the song 'Ice Cream Dreams' (Cartoone, 1969), while the main riff evolved from a previous track called 'Tangerine' which was recorded for Led Zeppelin III, but utilised a progression Page had toyed with during his earlier mid-1960s Yardbirds stint. Melody Maker journalist Chris Welch referred to 'Tangerine' as an 'embryonic Stairway to Heaven'. Robert Plant later added lyrics during sessions at Headley Grange, Hampshire, in early 1971 and the Page guitar solo was recorded at Island Studios' Sarm West Studio. It was finally mixed and mastered at Island Studios in London, United Kingdom with engineer Andy Johns.

This song with its mix of delicate Celtic-inspired acoustic music and the swaggering bluster of electric blues, has, perhaps, more than any other single song, defined the development of both the 'power ballad' and the raw bombastic mainstream heavy metal song- musical references to 'Stairway' are in evidence all over the popular culture map. Page's classic guitar solo on was played on a 1958 Fender Telecaster plugged into a Supro amp. Page recorded three different improvised solos for 'Stairway to Heaven', and finally chose one version of the solo on the current recording, as he felt it best fit the mood of the song. The other guitar parts on 'Stairway to Heaven' were played using a Fender Electric XII (12-string) and a Martin acoustic. These can be heard on the right and left recording channels respectively. John Paul Jones used two bass recorders for the intro and a Hohner Electra-Piano electric piano for the middle section.

‘

I'd been fooling around with the acoustic guitar and came up with several different sections which flowed together nicely. I soon realised that it could be the perfect vehicle for something I'd been wanting to do for a while: to compose something that would start quietly, have the drums come in the middle, and then build to a huge crescendo. I also knew that I wanted the piece to speed up, which is something musicians aren't supposed to do: Jimmy Page.

’

The song begins in folk ballad form with gentle finger-picked arpeggiated acoustic guitar and harmonised bass recorders filling the background behind Plant's mystical lyrics. Like Ravel's 'Bolero', the song is structured to rise slowly in dramatic tension with subtle increases in instrumentation and volume, with the addition of drums, bass, electric piano and Page's ringing electric 12-string guitar.

Composed in the key of A minor, the opening four bar chord progression in the verse proceeds Am-Am9-G#-C-G-D-F#-Fmaj7-G Am and back to Am, while the bassline plays a chromatic descending progression of A-G#-G-F#-F. The Telecaster guitar joining the progression at the end of the second verse on the words 'Oh, and it makes me wonder'. The long-delayed drums follow at the end of the fourth verse as 'the forests… echo with laughter'. Finally, a shimmering open D chord breaks through the melody, ushering in the guitar solo response to the discovery that the 'stairway lies on the whispering wind'. It finds Page executing a succession of blues runs and melodic phrases, with metal slide overdubs, in a performance rarely matched for sheer emotion, melody and raw energy. A final melee of power chords and unison string bends quickly ensues, leading to Plant's graceful vocal finale. The final progression is a i-VII-VI (natural minor) progression in Am-G-F.

Lyrics

The lyrics, composed by vocalist Robert Plant were spontaneously improvised next to an evening log fire at Headley Grange. Plant was an avid reader and was acquainted with the works of the British antiquarian Lewis Spence, and later cited Spence's Magic Arts in Celtic Britain as one of the inspirations for the lyrics to the song. The meaning behind the lyrics is shrouded in mysticism and ambiguity, perfectly complimenting the theme of 'light and shade' within Led Zeppelin IV. Page has said that the song has whatever meaning the listener wants to put to it. The most popular meaning behind the lyrics is that of spiritual liberation. The 'stairway' to heaven is the liberation of the soul, as it makes the long journey from Earth (the physical world) to the higher spiritual planes. As Plant said (on the 27 July 1973, Madison Square Gardens recording, and on other occasions) when introducing 'Stairway to Heaven', '… this is a song of hope'. This hope reflecting some of the ideals of the Hippie movement, which Plant was closely associated with, that the values of human society will turn away from desires for greed and wealth and power towards universal love and kindness and the evolution of the soul. It's not coincidental that two of the following tracks on Led Zeppelin IV — 'Misty Mountain Hop' and 'Going to California' — evoke memories of the Summer of Love.

The associative powers of the lyrics can be broken up into categories. We are presented with a number of mysterious figures: a lady, the piper, the May queen. Images of nature abound: a brook, a songbird, rings of smoke through the trees, a hedgerow, wind. We find a set of concepts (that pretty much sum up the central concerns of all philosophy): signs, words, meanings, thoughts, feelings, spirit, reason, wonder, soul, and the idea that 'all are one and one is all.' We find a set of vaguely but powerfully evocative symbols: gold, the West, the tune, white light, shadows, paths, a road, and the stairway to heaven itself. At the very end, we find some paradoxical self-referentiality: 'To be a rock and not to roll.'

The words provide a very open text; like those of Don McLean's 'American Pie' (also released in 1971), they invite endless interpretation. Yet they are resonant, requiring no rigorous study in order to become meaningful. Like the music, they engage with the fantasies and anxieties of our time. They offer contact with social and metaphysical depth in a world of commodities and mass communication. 'Stairway to Heaven,' no less than canonized artistic postmodernism, addresses 'decentred subjects' who are striving to find credible experiences of depth and community. It strains at mystery and promises utopia: 'A new day will dawn,' and 'If you listen very hard/The tune will come to you at last.' Another notable line includes 'If there's a bustle in your hedgerow..' A bustle in your hedgerow refers to the beginning of spring. When the flora and animals, etc., wake up and are new and refreshed after the winter, which ties in with the idea of a utopia.

'Stairway to Heaven' was the only song whose lyrics were printed on an album's inner sleeve by Led Zeppelin.

Live performances

© Photo: ledzeppelin.com
Jimmy Page performing guitar solo on a Gibson EDS-1275 in 'Stairway to Heaven', at The Forum, Inglewood, California on 23 June 1977.

For live performance of 'Stairway to Heaven', Page used a double-necked 6/12 1968 Gibson EDS-1275. Jones used a Mellotron M400 in place of the three recorders in the early performances before switching to a Yamaha CP70B Grand Piano and Yamaha GX1 to synthesize this arrangement in later years. When performed, Led Zeppelin would often extend the song to over ten minutes in length, with Page playing an improvised guitar solo and Plant inserting a number of lyrical ad-libs, such as 'Does anybody remember laughter?', 'Wait a minute!' and 'I hope so'. During live performances, visual effects were added during Page's solo, including rotating mirror balls and displaying split-screens on the background projection.

The debut public performance of the song took place at Belfast's Ulster Hall on March 5, 1971.. The song was played at almost every concert since 1971. In their later concert tours, the band chose to perform the song as their final pre-encore number. Led Zeppelin's longest ever performance of this song was their last gig in Berlin in 1980. It clocked in around 15 minutes long. Page played this song as an instrumental on his solo tours. The song was performed again by the surviving members of Led Zeppelin at the Live Aid concert in 1985, and at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary party in 1988, with Jason Bonham on drums. In November 1994 on Japanese television Page and Plant played a shortened live version of 'Stairway to Heaven' before a surprised crowd and talk show hosts. As a teaser, the first few bars were strummed alone during the Page and Plant tours, during the final notes of 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You'. It was once again performed in full during the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in the O₂ Arena in 2007.

There are hundreds of audio versions which can be found on unofficial Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings. Official audio versions are available on the BBC Sessions (a performance from London's Paris Theatre in 1971), on How the West Was Won (a performance from the Long Beach Arena in 1972), and on The Song Remains the Same soundtrack. Live, filmed versions of 'Stairway to Heaven' appear on the Led Zeppelin's concert film The Song Remains the Same, featuring a performance from Madison Square Garden in 1973, and on the Led Zeppelin DVD, from Earls Court Arena in May 1975.

No official single

As with 'Whole Lotta Love', Led Zeppelin's record label Atlantic Records, were interested in issuing this track as a single, but the band's manager Peter Grant refused repeated requests to do so since the release of Led Zeppelin IV. Grant's logic was that Led Zeppelin IV was becoming a big seller and that releasing an 8 minute single would only detract from album sales. Atlantic Records did release a limited run of seven inch promotional singles to radio stations, which are now highly collectable items. It did, eventually however, appear on a limited-edition Australian acoustic EP, and in the 1990s as a 20th anniversary promo book. In November 2007, through download sales promoting the Mothership compilation album, the song reached #37 on the UK Singles Chart, and #13 on the New Zealand Singles Chart.

The 1977 Atlantic Records 2-LP promotional sampler album, We've Got Your Music, marked the very first time that Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' made its official debut appearance in a US-released various artists compilation collection.

Cultural influences

'Stairway to Heaven' is still played 4,203 times a year by the sixty-seven largest AOR (album-oriented rock) radio stations in the US, according to trade magazine Monday Morning Replay. US communications company MediaBase lists 'Stairway to Heaven' as having been played a total of 1,432,403 times as of May 2008. While the song is often requested, the song itself is not played as many times such as 'Black Dog' or 'Rock and Roll' due to it's length (8 minutes 3 seconds) restricting airplay. French Charly 1300 TMP chart rated it as Number 1

In 1991, to announce their new Classic Rock format, radio station KLSK 104.1 (New Mexico) played Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' for 24 hours straight. 'Stairway to Heaven' continues to top radio lists of the greatest rock songs. Some radio stations that have listed the song as number one include WNOR (Norfolk), WEBN (Cincinnati), WGRX (Baltimore), WFXF (Indianapolis), KLSK (Albuquerque), WMYG (Pittsburgh), KLSX (Los Angeles), Virgin Radio (London), KRTH (Los Angeles), and KGON (Portland).

During the early 1990s, the Australian talk show The Money or the Gun released different versions of 'Stairway to Heaven' performed with 25 different artists in their idiosyncratic style. During live performances of their song 'Tribute', Tenacious D often plays the song with bits and pieces of guitar riffs and chord progressions from 'Stairway to Heaven'. Also, they often sing the last few words of the song similarly to how the end of 'Stairway to Heaven' is sung. On their HBO series version of 'Tribute', large proportions of the song use chord progressions and vocals reminiscent of 'Stairway to Heaven'.

The Spanish synchronised swimming team won the free combination gold team medal in the synchronised swimming competition at the 2009 FINA Swimming World Championships, with their routine to 'Stairway to Heaven'.

Accolades

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame	United States	'The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll'	1994	*
Classic Rock	United Kingdom	'Ten of the Best Songs Ever!'	1999	1
VH1	United States	'The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time'	2000	3
RIAA	United States	'Songs of the Century'	2001	53
Grammy Awards	United States	'Grammy Hall of Fame Award'	2003	*
Rolling Stone	United States	'The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time'	2003	31
Q	United Kingdom	'100 Songs That Changed the World'	2003	43
Toby Creswell	Australia	'1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time'	2005	*
Q	United Kingdom	'100 Greatest Songs of All Time'	2006	8
Rolling Stone	United States	'100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time'	2008	8

(*) designates unordered lists.

Chart positions

Single (Digital download)

Chart (2007)	Peak position
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	13
Norwegian Singles Chart	5
Irish Singles Chart	24
UK Singles Chart	37
US Billboard Hot Digital Songs Chart	30
US Billboard Hot Singles Recurrents Chart	16
Canadian Billboard Hot Digital Singles Chart	17
EU Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart	79
Swiss Singles Chart	17
Portuguese Singles Chart	8
Italian Singles Chart	60
Chart (2008)	Peak position
Swedish Singles Chart	57
German Singles Chart	71

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

Credits

Personnel

Musicians: Jimmy Page – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, producer, remastering, digital remastering Robert Plant – vocals John Paul Jones – recorders, keyboards, bass guitar John Bonham - drums, percussion Production: Peter Grant – executive producer Andy Johns - engineer, mixing Joe Sidore - original CD mastering engineer (mid-1980s) George Marino - remastered CD engineer (1990)

Provenance

Some content on this page may previously have appeared on Wikipedia.

References

(Read more...)

Previous Winners

•  Cryptography [r]: A field at the intersection of mathematics and computer science that is concerned with the security of information, typically the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of some message. ^[e]
•  English spellings [r]: Lists of English words showing pronunciation, and articles about letters. ^[e]
•  Folk saint [r]: A deceased person or spirit that is venerated as a saint but who has not been officially canonized by the Church. ^[e]
•  Led Zeppelin [r]: English hard rock and blues group formed in 1968, known for their albums and stage shows. ^[e]
•  Locality of reference [r]: A commonly observed pattern in memory accesses by a computer program over time. ^[e]
•  Rabbit [r]: Long-eared, short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. ^[e]
•  Scarborough Castle [r]: Ruined stone castle on the east coast of Yorkshire, England, begun in mid-twelfth century. ^[e] (September 3)
• The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order [r]: Add brief definition or description (August 27)
•  Mauna Kea [r]: One of the three main volcanic mountains on Hawaii, the biggest island in Hawaii (U.S. state). ^[e] ((August 20)
•  Brute force attack [r]: An attempt to break a cipher by trying all possible keys; long enough keys make this impractical. ^[e] (August 13)
•  Cruiser [r]: While definitions vary with time and doctrine, a large warship capable of acting independently, as a flagship, or a major escort; capabilities include anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, land attack, and possibly ballistic missile defense ^[e] (August 5)
•  The Canterbury Tales [r]: Collection of stories in verse and prose by Geoffrey Chaucer. ^[e] (July 30)
•  Milpa agriculture [r]: A form of swidden agriculture that is practiced in Mesoamerica. Traditionally, a "milpa" plot is planted with maize, beans, and squash. ^[e] (July 23)
•  Domain Name System [r]: The Internet service which translates to and from IP addresses and domain names. ^[e] (July 16)
•  Scuticaria [r]: A genus of orchids, closely related to Bifrenaria, formed by nine showy species of cylindrical leaves, which exist in three isolated areas of South America. ^[e] (July 9)
• Torture [r]: Add brief definition or description (July 2)
•  Miltonia [r]: An orchid genus formed by nine showy epiphyte species and seven natural hybrids of Brazil, one species reaching Argentina and Paraguay. ^[e] (June 25)
•  Ancient Celtic music [r]: The music and instruments of the ancient Celts until late Antiquity. ^[e] (June 18)
•  Bifrenaria [r]: A genus of orchids formed by circa twenty species of South America, some widely cultivated because of their large and colored flowers; divided in two distinct groups, one with large flowers and short inflorescences and the other with small flowers and long inflorescences. ^[e] (June 11)
•  Halobacterium NRC-1 [r]: A microorganism from the Archaea kingdom perfectly suited for life in highly saline environments giving biologists an ideal specimen for genetic studies. ^[e] (June 4)
•  Animal [r]: A multicellular organism that feeds on other organisms, and is distinguished from plants, fungi, and unicellular organisms. ^[e] (May 28)
•  Coal [r]: a combustible, black rock formed after millions of years of heat and pressure were applied to the decayed remains of plants and organic matter in what were then swamps. ^[e] (May 21)
•  Johannes Diderik van der Waals [r]: (1837 – 1923) Dutch scientist, proposed the van der Waals equation of state for gases. ^[e] (May 7)
•  Scientific method [r]: The concept of systematic inquiry based on hypotheses and their testing in light of empirical evidence. ^[e] (Apr 14)
•  Korematsu v. United States [r]: A U.S. Supreme Court case, in which the internment of Japanese-Americans was deemed constitutional due to military necessity ^[e] (Apr 7)
•  Orchid [r]: Any plant classified under Orchidaceae, one of the largest plant families and the largest among Monocotyledons. ^[e] (Mar 31)
•  Oliver Cromwell [r]: (1599-1658) English soldier, statesman, and leader of the Puritan revolution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides". ^[e] (Mar 24)
•  Wisconsin v. Yoder [r]: 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision in which it was held that the constitutional rights of the Amish, under the "free exercise of religion" clause, were violated by the state's compulsory school attendance law. ^[e] (Mar 17)
•  Conventional coal-fired power plant [r]: power plant that burns coal in a steam generator to produce high pressure steam, which goes to steam turbines that generate electricity. ^[e] (Mar 10)
•  Battle of the Ia Drang [r]: Add brief definition or description (Mar 3)
•  Ether (physics) [r]: Add brief definition or description (Feb 24)
•  Large-scale trickle filters [r]: Add brief definition or description (11 Feb)
•  Homeopathy [r]: Add brief definition or description (28 Jan)
•  Microeconomics [r]: Add brief definition or description (14 Jan)
•  Speech Recognition [r]: Add brief definition or description (26 Nov)
•  Mashup [r]: Add brief definition or description (19 Nov)
•  Tux [r]: Add brief definition or description (14 Oct)
•  Hydrogen bond [r]: Add brief definition or description (7 Oct)
•  Lead [r]: Add brief definition or description (1 Sept)
•  DNA [r]: Add brief definition or description (8 July)
•  Augustin-Louis_Cauchy [r]: Add brief definition or description (1 July)
•  Vasco da Gama [r]: Add brief definition or description (24 June)
•  Phosphorus [r]: Add brief definition or description (17 June)
•  Crystal Palace [r]: Add brief definition or description (10 June)
•  Gross Domestic Product [r]: Add brief definition or description (3 June)
•  RNA interference [r]: Add brief definition or description (27 May)
•  Latino history [r]: Add brief definition or description (20 May)
•  Navy Grog [r]: Add brief definition or description (13 May)
•  Systems biology [r]: Add brief definition or description (6 May)
•  Steroid [r]: Add brief definition or description (22 Apr)
•  Lebanon [r]: Add brief definition or description (15 Apr)
•  Wheat [r]: Add brief definition or description (7 Apr)
•  Benjamin Franklin [r]: Add brief definition or description (1 Apr)
•  Coherer [r]: Add brief definition or description (25 Mar)
•  U.S. Civil War [r]: Add brief definition or description (18 Mar)
•  Life [r]: Add brief definition or description (11 Mar)
•  Petroleum refining processes [r]: Add brief definition or description (4 Mar)
•  Shirley Chisholm [r]: Add brief definition or description (20 Feb)
•  Telephone Newspaper [r]: Add brief definition or description (4 Feb)
•  Wristwatch [r]: Add brief definition or description (28 Jan)
•  Korean War of 1592-1598 [r]: Add brief definition or description (21 Jan)
•  Andrew Carnegie [r]: Add brief definition or description (11 January 2008)
• Bowling [r]: Add brief definition or description (31 December 2007)
•  Architecture [r]: Add brief definition or description (December 6)
•  Civil society [r]: Add brief definition or description November 29
•  Joan of Arc [r]: Add brief definition or description (November 22)
•  Chemistry [r]: Add brief definition or description (November 15)
•  Albert Gallatin [r]: Add brief definition or description (November 8)
•  Prime number [r]: Add brief definition or description (November 1)
•  Tennis [r]: Add brief definition or description (October 25)
•  Rottweiler [r]: Add brief definition or description (October 18)
•  Theodor Lohmann [r]: Add brief definition or description (October 9)
•  William Shakespeare [r]: Add brief definition or description (October 2)
•  Edward I [r]: Add brief definition or description (September 25)
•  El Tío [r]: Add brief definition or description (September 18)
•  Scotland Yard [r]: Add brief definition or description (September 11)
•  Kilt [r]: Add brief definition or description (September 4)
•  U.S. Electoral College [r]: Add brief definition or description (August 28)
•  Butler [r]: Add brief definition or description (August 21)
•  Tony Blair [r]: Add brief definition or description (August 14)
•  Northwest Passage [r]: Add brief definition or description (August 7)
•  Literature [r]: Add brief definition or description (July 31)
•  Biology [r]: Add brief definition or description (July 25)

Rules and Procedure

Rules

• The article's status must be 0 or 1, i.e., only "Advanced Articles" may be nominated.
• Any Citizen may nominate an article.
• No Citizen may have nominated more than one article listed under "current nominees" at a time.
• The article's nominator is indicated simply by the first name in the list of votes (see below).
• At least for now--while the project is still small--you may nominate and vote for articles of which you are a main author.
• An article can be Article of the Week only once every six months. Nominated articles that have won top honors should be removed from the list.
• Comments on nominations should be made on the article's talk page.
• The list of nominees should be kept below 20, or thereabouts. Articles with very few supporters and which have not gained any new supporters in the last two weeks or so may be deleted to make room for new nominees.
• Any editor may entirely cancel the nomination of any unapproved article in his or her area of expertise if, for example, it contains obvious and embarrassing problems.

Voting

• To vote, add your name and date in the Supporters column next to an article title, after other supporters for that article, by signing <br />~~~~. (The date is necessary so that we can determine when the last vote was added.) Your vote is alloted a score of 1.
• Add your name in the Specialist supporters column only if you are an editor who is an expert about the topic in question. Your vote is alloted a score of 1 for articles which you created and a score of 2 for articles which you did not create.
• You may vote for as many articles as you wish, and each vote counts separately, but you can only nominate one at a time; see above. You could, theoretically, vote for every nominated article on the page, but this would be pointless.

Ranking

• The list of articles is sorted by number of votes first, then alphabetically.
• Admins should make sure that the votes are correctly tallied, but anyone may do this. Note that "Specialist Votes" are worth 3 points.

Updating

• Each Thursday, one of the admins listed below should move the winning article to the Current Winner section of this page, announces the winner on Citizendium-L and updates the "previous winning articles" section accordingly.
• The winning article will be the article at the top of the list (ie the one with the most votes).
• In the event of two or more having the same number of votes :
  • The article with the most specialist supporters is used. Should this fail to produce a winner, the article appearing first by English alphabetical order is used.
    
  • The remaining winning articles are guaranteed this position in the following weeks, again in alphabetical order. No further voting would take place on these, which remain at the top of the table with notices to that effect. Further nominations and voting take place to determine future winning articles for the following weeks.

Administrators

These are people who have volunteered to run this program. Their duties are (1) to ensure that this page remains "clean," e.g., as a given article garners more votes, its tally is accurately represented and it moves up the list, and (2) to place the winning article on the front page on a weekly basis. To become an administrator, you need not apply anywhere. Simply add your name below. Administrator duties are open to editors and authors alike.

• Carl Jantzen
• Todd Coles
• David E. Volk
• Milton Beychok

See Also

• CZ:New Draft of the Week
• CZ:Markup tags for partial transclusion of selected text in an article
• CZ:Monthly Write-a-Thon

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