History Music / LedZeppelinII

''Led Zeppelin II'' is the second studio album by Music/LedZeppelin, released in 1969. It is one of their best-selling, heaviest and most influential records. It's famous for the hit songs "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On".

** "The Lemon Song" was inspired by Music/HowlinWolf's "Killing Floor" and Music/RobertJohnson's "Travelling Riverside Blues", which shares a similar line about lemon juice dripping down legs.

* TitleOnlyChorus: "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker"

* {{Blues}}: A lot of songs take their inspiration from blues music, but the most recognisable song InTheStyleOf is "Bring It On Home", where a mouth harmonica adds to the atmosphere.

* IncrediblyLamePun: The album cover, designer David Juniper, asked to just come up with something "interesting", took a photo of [[UsefulNotes/TheRedBaron Manfred "The Red Baron" von Richthofen]] and his Flying Circus from UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, filtered it and airbrushed the band members' heads onto the bodies. All good. He then put in manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole's heads. So far so good. But then, you notice there's a woman on the cover too, namely actress Creator/GlynisJohns. You may ask what she has to do with Led Zeppelin? The answer is: bugger all. She was just thrown on there because she has [[NamesTheSame a similar name]] to Glyn Johns, who engineered the band's first album. One wonders why Juniper even bothered since Glyn's brother Andy replaced him as engineer for ''II''.

* RefrainFromAssuming: "What Is and What Should Never Be" is often incorrectly listed on listening/downloading sites as "Tomorrow".

* IncrediblyLamePun: The album cover, since designer David Juniper, asked to just come up with something "interesting", took a photo of [[UsefulNotes/TheRedBaron Manfred "The Red Baron" von Richthofen]] and his Flying Circus from UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, filtered it and airbrushed the band members' heads onto the bodies. All good. He then put in manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole's heads. So far so good. But then, you notice there's a woman on the cover too, namely actress Creator/GlynisJohns. You may ask what she has to do with Led Zeppelin? The answer is: bugger all. She was just thrown on there because she has [[NamesTheSame a similar name]] to Glyn Johns, who engineered the band's first album. One wonders why Juniper even bothered since Glyn's brother Andy replaced him as engineer for ''II''.

** The epic riff of "Whole Lotta Love" was used as the theme instrumental of ''Series/TopOfThePops'' for decades. Music/FrankZappa also quoted it during his guitar solo for "Duck, Duck, Goose" on ''Music/{{Lather}}'' (1993).
*** In 1962, Music/MuddyWaters recorded "You Need Love", written for him by peer Willie Dixon. In 1966 Music/TheSmallFaces recorded the song as "You Need Loving". Some of the lyrics of Led Zeppelin's version were copied from the Willie Dixon song, a favourite of Plant's. Plant's phrasing is particularly similar to that of Steve Marriott's in the Small Faces' version. Similarities with "You Need Love" would lead to a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin in 1985, settled out of court in favour of Dixon. The Small Faces were never sued by Dixon, even though "You Need Loving" still only credits Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott.

** "Heartbreaker" was covered by Music/{{Nirvana}}. Music/KurtCobain named this one of his favourite albums too.

--> ''T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair''
--> ''But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her''
** The Music/BeastieBoys sampled "Moby Dick" on their track "What Comes Around" from ''Music/PaulsBoutique''.
** The opening lines to "Thank You" about the sun refusing to shine and the mountains crumbling to the sea might have been inspired by the opening lines to The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "If 6 Was 9", which has the same apocalyptic imagery.

''Led Zeppelin II'' is the second studio album by Music/LedZeppelin, released in 1969. It is one of their best-selling, heaviest and most influential records. It's famous for the hit songs "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On". It was listed at #79 in Magazine/RollingStone's [[Music/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time]].

[[AC: Side One]]

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* GratuitousPanning: "Whole Lotta Love" keeps the driving riff on the left channel, and furiously twiddles during the middle freakout and was made specifically to be appreciated with headphones. "The Lemon Song" keeps the guitars mostly on the left, "Thank You" does the same but on the right channel, and "Bring It On Home" alternates.

* YourCheatingHeart: "What Is and What Should Never Be" is about an affair between Robert Plant and his wife's sister.