It was fifty years ago today … buying a stairway to heaven
Although this album has since acquired the pseudo-title of ‘Four Symbols’ due to various theories and interviews over the intervening half-century, it was untitled when released and everybody who bought it at the time just called it Led Zeppelin IV, following the convention of the first three albums, which is how I know it. In reality, none of that matters a jot because, at the time, it was one of those albums that just seemed to be on the record player everywhere you went – particularly side one. Probably the main reason it only topped the chart for two weeks was mostly due to the lack of radio-play for rock album tracks at the time, but it may also have had something to do with the contemporary competition – ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’, ‘Meddle’, ‘Imagine’, ‘Tapestry’, ‘Fragile’, ‘Electric Warrior’, ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, to name but a few. Time, however, has rightly awarded it high rankings in many leading all-time lists, including a couple of top places.
Album: IV
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Released: 8th November 1971
Weeks in UK Album Chart: 90
Number of Weeks at No.1: 2
