Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Maybe, they should have asked Jimmy Page. He stitched together one of the most popular rock n’ roll bands after Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck left the Yardbirds.
The New Yardbirds had their first rehearsal August 12, 1968.
Page, brought on Robert Plant as the lead singer, John Paul Jones as the bassist and John Bonham as the drummer.
One month after their first rehearsal they played in Denmark to complete a concert obligation as the Yardbirds. They played like they’d been together forever.
They changed the name of the group shortly afterward.
Who drummer Keith Moon wasn’t the best of prognosticators when it came to the band’s success. He said it would crash and burn like a lead balloon.
The group dropped the “a” from lead and changed balloon to zeppelin to prove him wrong. They sure did. The band soared.
Our Song of the Day, “Good Times, Bad Times,” was the first cut on their first album. Page, Jones and Bonham are credited with writing it. It also was the first single they released in the United States. The song barely cracked the Billboard Hot 100, reaching 80, but the album did much better, reaching as high as tenth on the Billboard 200.
They remain a rock ‘n’ roll influence even though they disbanded more than 40 years ago. They have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide, 111.5 of them in the United States. Led Zeppelin 4, with “Stairway to Heaven,” is the ninth best-selling album of all time.
Fridays are when we enjoy a new weekly series that's part history, part trivia, and ALL music. The series features selections from former News-Press editor Sheldon Zoldan's '"Song of the Day." The initiative began as a daily lockdown project on Facebook at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, through which Zoldan highlights how every aspect of life has a connection through music.
