Despite being released 55 years ago, Led Zeppelin‘s 1971 untitled record, known as Led Zeppelin IV, is still receiving acclaim.
On March 20, Collider released a list of the 10 top “most perfect” classic rock albums that were released in the 1970s, an era known for the genre. The list included classics like Queen‘s 1975 album, A Night at the Opera, The Beatles‘ Let It Be from 1970, Patti Smith‘s 1975 album, Horses, Bruce Springsteen‘s album Born to Run, released in 1975, and Pink Floyd‘s 1973 record, The Dark Side of the Moon. The top five ranking featured Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s Déjà Vu from 1970, Santana‘s record Abraxas, Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumors from 1977, and Grateful Dead‘s 1970 album, American Beauty.
Led Zeppelin IV, which features such hits like “Black Dog,” “Stairway to Heaven,” and “Misty Mountain Hop,” took home the number one spot.
Jimmy Page Explained Why the Beloved Album Was Untitled
In a November 2014 interview with Classic Vinyl, Led Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page explained why the band didn’t title their fourth studio album. He said that he and his bandmates, which included Robert Plant, the late John Bonham, and John Paul Jones, decided not to give their 1971 record a title because they wanted to release the album with limited information.
“It was the right way to deal with things at that time. Just like a lot of other things where you wanted to do things that other people hadn’t done, we wanted to do something like that, at that point of time, with the fourth album, to put it out with no information on it seemed exactly the right logical thing,” said the musician, now 82.
He clarified that the record company wasn’t happy about the band’s decision not to give the 1971 album a name.
“There was a lot of friction with the record company because the way they saw things was things [should] run normally,” said the guitarist.
Page then told Classic Vinyl that the band was eventually proven right. In addition, he noted that the album cover has become an iconic image in rock history.
“The fact of having that album out and this the old man with the sticks and the picture frame is so iconic that it was the right thing to do,” said Page in the 2014 interview.
