Led Zeppelin ‘Love’ Songs Ranked
No other bands of the era compared to Led Zeppelin. Their mix of heavy blues, sonic experimentation, gentle acoustic songs, and forays into folk music made them more than a one-trick classic rock pony. Some musicians hated Led Zeppelin, but their scores of fans loved them immediately. The band showed the love, too, penning one of their Houses of the Holy songs (“The Ocean”) in their honor. Yet we won’t discuss that song on our list of Led Zeppelin ‘love’ songs — four tunes with love in the title.
4. ‘Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)’
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page hates “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman).” The Led Zeppelin II track seamlessly flows from the excellent “Heartbreaker,” which led radio DJs to keep the needle on the record for both songs. How much does he loathe the song? It never made it into Led Zeppelin’s concert setlist.
It might not be one of Zep’s finest songs, but we feel Page is wrong for how much he detests the song. The main riff in “Living Loving Maid” is instantly recognizable. It dances around the low end of the E and A strings, and it’s catchy as hell for what is essentially a relatively simple blues-based riff. It’s an entry point for wanna-be guitar heroes who want to pretend they’re Page, even if it’s only for a couple of minutes.
Still, we’ll side with the band’s founder here and place it last among Led Zeppelin’s love songs
3. ‘All of My Love’
Page and drummer John Bonham planned to make a heavy music following In Through the Out Door. The 1979 album saw bassist John Paul Jones compose many of the songs on his synthesizer, and it lacked the electric blues fingerprints Led Zeppelin was known for. “All of My Love” is one of the best examples of the direction he took the band, and it didn’t sit right with Page.
The guitarist didn’t take a songwriting credit and didn’t like the song, but he delivered the goods on “All of My Love.” Singer Robert Plant wrote the song in honor of his son, who died suddenly in 1977. Page’s tastefully delicate playing on the chorus and restrained solo following Jones’ synth solo help make the song one of Plant’s best Led Zeppelin moments.
2. ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’
Ranking the top two Led Zeppelin love songs wasn’t easy, and we can thank “Since I’ve Been Loving You” for that. The Led Zeppelin III centerpiece delivers the goods in every way.
The band had played the tune live before recording the album, but making something new out of a basic blues song made it the toughest track to record. Zep traded blows with the song before finally getting the take they wanted — the one with some of Plant’s best vocal work, Bonham’s drumming intensity at the right moments, and Jones playing organ with his hands and bass with foot pedals.
And let’s not forget Page, who laid down his best guitar solo that isn’t “Stairway to Heaven” on the song. It’s a blistering firebomb replete with flashy fingerwork and wild string bends that lasts more than a minute — and he did it in one take in a random studio in Memphis.
1. ‘Whole Lotta Love’
Led Zeppelin’s best love song comes as no surprise. The lead track on Led Zeppelin II has it all: Page’s primal blues riff, some of Plant’s best vocal work until he learned how to sing, and masterful studio experimentation.
The psychedelic freakout in the middle of “Whole Lotta Love” — with Bonham’s restrained drum work, Plant’s echoey howl, and Page seemingly torturing his guitar while moonlighting as a theremin player — remains a mind-melting experience more than 50 years later.
“Whole Lotta Love” was so successful that Atlantic Records pushed out an edited version as a single. It stripped away the sonic experimentation, and Page hated it. The full version, as performed by Led Zeppelin the way they intended, finally reached the singles charts in 1997.
Led Zeppelin’s love songs gave us some of the band’s finest moments, even if Page didn’t like two of the tunes he starred on.
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