Despite the size and status of the band, it’s rather remarkable to think about the fact that Led Zeppelin barely had any hits throughout their entire career.
Towards the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s, achieving a hit single wasn’t actually the be-all and end-all for a band of the hard rock variety, with album charts still doing a lot of heavy lifting on their behalf. This was not only proven by the success of acts like Led Zeppelin, who reached number one in the UK with six consecutive albums from Led Zeppelin II to Presence, but also by other acts like Pink Floyd, who seemed adverse to the idea of releasing singles.
Not only was Led Zeppelin’s highest-charting UK single a measly entry at number 21 for ‘Whole Lotta Love’, but they also managed to support themselves by being a formidable live act as well as releasing incredible albums. Both of these factors played a significant role in their ascent to stardom, and therefore, they didn’t need to worry too much about releasing singles.
Besides, the fact that many of their most famous songs are well over five minutes long, something that was frowned upon in a singles chart that expressly rewarded brevity and the ability to capture people’s attentions in a matter of three minutes or less, meant that they weren’t ever likely to succeed in this fashion.
However, had Led Zeppelin arrived earlier in the 1960s, things might have been a different story, and they would have been unlikely to gain any traction due to how the singles chart was perceived as the more important chart to establish yourself on, and success was unlikely to come as a result of purely being an album-focused or live-focused act.
Prior to helping form the band, guitarist Jimmy Page was known for having been a member of the Yardbirds, and even before this stepping stone towards his big break, he was earning money playing as a session musician in the early 1960s.
Given how the early ‘60s was all about having hits, he was concerned that if he didn’t have one as a result of playing on a track that he’d been recruited for, his career might be dead in the water before it had even had a chance of starting. During a 1977 interview with The Trouser Press, Page revealed that he was deeply concerned about his own prospects and put many of his hopes of having a successful career on one of the first singles he ever worked on.
“I think it was called ‘Your Momma’s Out of Town’, by Carter-Lewis and the Southerners,” he reflected, before correcting himself on the chronology of his works. “Wait a minute; I’d played on one before that, ‘Diamonds’ by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan, but that didn’t mean anything to me. They were both hits, and that gave me impetus to keep on doing it. If ‘Your Momma’s Out of Town’ hadn’t been a hit, though, I might have abandoned it then and there.”
Not that many people really remember Carter-Lewis’ minor hit now, due in part to the fact that it only ever reached the lower rungs of the UK chart, but it’s odd to think that this forgotten pop gem is directly responsible for the existence of Led Zeppelin, and had it not managed to catch anyone’s attention, we probably wouldn’t be talking about Page or his exploits today.
