Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith have just received new gold and platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America, according to Loudwire. 50 years since its original release date, 1971’s Led Zeppelin IV has been bumped up to 24-times platinum. The album is the band’s only “double-diamond” collection, with diamond signifying sales of 10 million units.
The new tally of Aerosmith’s releases is career-spanning, with 1975’s Toys In The Attic now certified at nine-times platinum; and latter-day singles all receiving new certifications — “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” (five-times platinum), “Sweet Emotion” (three-times platinum), “Walk This Way” (platinum), “Jaded” (gold) and “Pink” (gold). As it stands now, Aerosmith’s “grand gold and platinum certification total to over 40 across their entire career, including ‘video longform’ in addition to albums and singles.”
Jimmy Page explained that Led Zeppelin happened because he was able to find in Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham — the key elements to bring his vision to reality: “I was keen to form a band where I would produce it. And knew what I wanted to do and I knew how to go about doing it if I could find the personnel. It was going to be a guitar tour de force. However, it was not going to be at the expense of the other musicians. So, everyone was going to be featured and the group character, if you like; the fusion of the musicians was going to be representative of each of the individuals and I think that’s really how it. . . how it was.”
Frontman Steven Tyler told us that regardless of Aerosmith’s well-documented ups and downs — unlike many of their peers — the band has proven to be truly unstoppable: “We have that one thing about us, that we never quit, we never gave up, we always went on tour, and we always did an album. If you were to ask me, ‘What’s the greatest thing Aerosmith ever did?’ — we stuck around.”