• Writers: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
• Producer: Jimmy Page
• Recorded: 1971, Island Studios, London
• Released: November 8, 1971
• Players:
  Robert Plant–vocals
  Jimmy Page–guitar
  John Paul Jones–bass, keyboards
  John Bonham–drums
• Album: The band’s untitled fourth album (Atlantic, 1971)
• Also On:
  The Song Remains The Same (Atlantic, 1976)
  Led Zeppelin (Atlantic, 1990; boxed set)
  Remasters (Atlantic, 1992)
  The Complete Studio Recordings (Atlantic, 1994)
  BBC Sessions (Atlantic, 1997)
  Early Days: The Best Of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1 (Atlantic, 1999)
• The eight-minute “Stairway To Heaven” is Led Zeppelin‘s best-known track, and one of the most popular classic rock songs of all time. Because of audience fatigue, it gets played much less nowadays.
• Guitarist Jimmy Page said, “I thought ‘Stairway’ crystallized the essence of the band. It had everything there and showed the band at its best… It was a milestone for us.”
• Zeppelin began working on the song in late 1970, in a cottage in Bron-Yr-Aur, Wales. Recording began in December 1970.
• Page told reporters that singer Robert Plant “must have written three quarters of the lyrics on the spot. He didn’t have to go away and think about them. Amazing, really.”
• What’s it about? Zeppelin biographer Stephen Davis says “Stairway” “tells, in poetic terms, of a mythographic lady’s quest for spiritual perfection.” The lyrics reflect Plant’s reading at the time — Spenser, Robert Graves, and particularly Lewis Spence‘s Magic Arts In Celtic Britain.
• The lyrics to “Stairway” were the only song lyrics printed on the fourth album’s sleeve. Zeppelin, angered by negative critical reaction to their third album, wouldn’t even let Atlantic Records put the group’s name on the fourth album’s spine.
• Although popular and durable, it was never a single release and never hit the Billboard chart.
• Religious crusaders have periodically accused the band of putting subliminal satanic messages into the song, which the group has always denied.

FAST FORWARD:

• The death of John Bonham in 1980 caused the three remaining members to dissolve the group. There have been a few reunions over the years, for special events like Live Aid in 1985, the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988, and Led Zeppelin’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
• In 1994, Page and lead singer Robert Plant reunited to release the No Quarter album, which they followed up with 1998’s Walking Into Clarksdale. However, the partnership has splintered over Plant’s desire to work outside the Led Zeppelin umbrella.
• On January 1, 1990, WKRL-FM in St. Petersburg, Florida, played “Stairway To Heaven” for 24 consecutive hours as a prelude to an all-Zeppelin format, which gave way to other artists less than two weeks later.
• Plant and Page have long differed on the song’s importance. Plant says he prefers the Zeppelin epic “Kashmir.” Page remembers the singer telling him that he never wanted to sing “Stairway” again after the 1988 Atlantic Records gig. “I thought, ‘So much for you then, mate’,” Page said.
• In the movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High, author-filmmaker Cameron Crowe used the song — “with its mythic optimism and thundering guitar soloing” — as a favorite for one of his main characters. Crowe also used the song in a scene for his 2000 film Almost Famous — but it was cut because the band wouldn’t let the song be used.

Led Zeppelin refused to allow their performance at Live Aid in 1985 to be included on the DVD release of the event, citing the poor quality of their work that day.