[lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Led Zeppelin[/lastfm] had already estabished itself as the king of hard rockin’ blues by 1969 on its first two big-selling albums, even though rock critics of the time regularly lambasted the quartet. They threw a curveball with Led Zeppelin III, emphasizing acoustic folk roots that most people never suspected the band members possessed.

Then on November 8, 1971, the mighty fourth album appeared.

There was no title to this record, only a sticker on the shrink-wrap identifying the album as “Led Zeppelin.” But, officially, there was no title. The executives at Atlantic Records nicknamed it “The Suicide Album,” because they thought no one would know who released the anonymous product.

[photogallerylink id=97569 align=right]

Those execs, of course, couldn’t have been more wrong. Everyone knew it was the new Zeppelin album – and this was well before the internet and Facebook!

News traveled quickly, because to folks in high school and college in 1971, Zeppelin was the coolest band on the planet. The Beatles had broken up, so along with The Who and the Rolling Stones, they were rock’s greatest hope.

And the music did not disappoint, effortlessly melding the hard rock of the first two records with the Celtic roots of III to form songs as iconic as “Stairway to Heaven.”

Did it really get much better than this? Forty years later, the answer is still “No.”

[metrolyrics artist="Led Zeppelin" song="Stairway To Heaven"]