My new Project Director, Carolyn, and Chief Consultant, Clive, have conspired connived arranged for me to play this song tonight!  I must admit that it is a worthy addition to my music posts and I’m quite happy with their joint decision!  Thank you, my new team, whom I shall dub C&C!

I must admit that, while I’ve long liked this song, I never realized the heights to which it rose!  For example, this song, Stairway to Heaven, has been called “the most famous rock song of all time.”  Despite that, it was never a chart hit, simply because it was never released as a single.

According to SongFacts …

Led Zeppelin began recording “Stairway to Heaven” in December 1970 at Island Records’ new recording studios on Basing Street in London. The song was completed by the addition of lyrics by Plant during the sessions for Led Zeppelin IV at Headley Grange, Hampshire, in 1971. Page then returned to Island Studios to record his guitar solo.

The song originated in 1970 when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were spending time at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, following Led Zeppelin’s fifth American concert tour. According to Page, he wrote the music “over a long period, the first part coming at Bron-Yr-Aur one night”. Page always kept a cassette recorder around, and the idea for “Stairway to Heaven” came together from bits of taped music. The first attempts at lyrics, written by Robert Plant next to an evening log fire at Headley Grange, were partly spontaneously improvised and Page claimed, “a huge percentage of the lyrics were written there and then”. Jimmy Page was strumming the chords, and Robert Plant had a pencil and paper.

The complete studio recording was released on Led Zeppelin IV in November 1971. The band’s record label, Atlantic Records, wanted to issue it as a single, but the band’s manager Peter Grant refused requests to do so in both 1972 and 1973. As a result, many people bought the fourth album as if it were the single.

“Stairway to Heaven” is often rated among the greatest rock songs of all time. According to music journalist Stephen Davis, although the song was released in 1971, it took until 1973 before the song’s popularity ascended to truly “anthemic” status. As Page recalled, “I knew it was good, but I didn’t know it was going to be almost like an anthem … But I knew it was the gem of the album, sure.”

Now, I like the Led Zeppelin version, but … on December 26^th, 2012, a group called Heart, led by Ann and Nancy Wilson, brought the house down when they performed this song at the CBS-televised Kennedy Center Honours in a tribute to Led Zeppelin.  And it is this version that I will lead with tonight, but in fairness, I am also including the Led Zeppelin recording … both are well worth your time!

Stairway to Heaven

Led Zeppelin/Heart

There’s a lady who’s sure
All that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
There’s a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know, sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook
There’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Ooh, it makes me wonder

Ooh, it makes me wonder

There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder

Ooh, it really makes me wonder

And it’s whispered that soon
If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

Oh whoa-whoa-whoa, oh-oh

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
And there’s still time to change the road you’re on

And it makes me wonder

Oh, whoa

Your head is humming and it won’t go
In case you don’t know
The piper’s calling you to join him

Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow?
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all, yeah
To be a rock and not to roll

And she’s buying a stairway to heaven

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant

Stairway to Heaven lyrics © Flames Of Albion Music Inc., Succubus Music Ltd., Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.