The First Album Led Zeppelin Appeared on Wasn’t Their Own
Led Zeppelin released their debut album, Led Zeppelin, in 1969. However, it wasn’t the first album where you could hear the band playing together. The first album they appeared on wasn’t their own. Here is where you could hear Led Zeppelin playing together before they dropped their first album.
Led Zeppelin formed in 1968
Shortly after The Yardbirds disbanded, guitarist Jimmy Page needed a new crew. With help from manager Peter Grant, Page recruited 19-year-old singer Robert Plant. The two were later joined by drummer John Bonham and bass singer John Paul Jones. According to Rolling Stone, the band first played together in a small basement in Gerrard Street in London in 1968, where they instantly knew they had something special.
“We got together in this small rehearsal room and just played ‘Train Kept a-Rollin’’ which was a number I used to do with the Yardbirds, and I think Robert knew it,” Page said in a 1990 Rolling Stone interview. “At the end of it we knew that it was really happening, really electrifying. Exciting is the word. We went on from there to start rehearsing for the album.”
Led Zeppelin produced another album before debuting their own
While rehearsing for their upcoming two-week live run through Scandinavia, Led Zeppelin worked on another artist’s album. Texas-born singer P.J. Proby had booked John Paul Jones for a few sessions, and Jones decided to bring along his fellow bandmates to help make his album, Three Week Hero.
In an interview with Proby for the Finding Zoso fan site, the artist says he knew from those recording sessions that Led Zeppelin would be a massive success.
“The boys told me they were going over to play in San Francisco and all that, and I said, ‘Look, from what I’ve heard and the way you boys played tonight, not only are you not going to be my backing band, I’m going to say goodbye right now, because I don’t think I’m ever going to see you again,'” Proby shared. “‘That’s how successful you’re going to be. You’re exactly what they want, you play all that psychedelic stuff and everything.’ I said, ‘You’re going to go over there and go down so great I don’t think you’re ever going to come home.’ They didn’t ever come back until they changed their name to Led Zeppelin and stayed over there and came back huge huge stars. … I said goodbye that day when I cut that album and I haven’t seen one of them since.”
‘Three Week Hero’ was not a commercial success
Three Week Hero was not a commercial success when it debuted in 1969, and it is mainly remembered for being the first album where you can hear Led Zeppelin playing together. The album was released by Liberty Records and features a mixture of pop, blues, country, and rock-style songs. Jones is credited for arranging a majority of the 12 songs, and it featured the other band members playing various instruments.
