This '70s Rock Masterpiece Was Ranked 'Greatest Led Zeppelin Album' of All Time
- - This '70s Rock Masterpiece Was Ranked 'Greatest Led Zeppelin Album' of All Time
Jacqueline Burt CoteDecember 24, 2025 at 5:59 AM
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Photo by Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music on Getty Images
There’s no question that Led Zeppelin is one of the greatest rock bands in history…but which of their iconic albums is the best one? It’s a difficult question to answer, and fans have wildly varying (and highly passionate) opinions on the topic. Ultimately, of course, the choice comes down to personal preference…but as it turns out, data shows a clear winner.
The website Best Ever Albums ranks classic records by calculating the aggregate position of each one from over 38,000 different charts, including those from publications like Rolling Stone and Stereogum in addition to the personal charts of listeners.
According to the site, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth studio album, known as Led Zeppelin IV, ranks as the band's greatest of all time. In addition, it was ranked number 12 in the overall greatest album chart with a total rank score of 38,704, while Led Zeppelin was ranked number 6 in the overall artist rankings with a total rank score of 113,971.
Jimmy Page called ‘Rock and Roll’ a ‘spontaneous combustion’
In a 1977 interview for Trouser Press, Jimmy Page opened up about the writing process behind some of Led Zeppelin IV’s classic tracks.
“’Rock And Roll’ was a spontaneous combustion,” the guitar legend recalled.
“We were doing something else at the time, but Bonzo [John Bonham] played the beginning of Little Richard's ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ with the tape still running and I just started doing that part of the riff,” he continued. “It actually ground to a halt after about 12 bars, but it was enough to know that there was enough of a number there to keep working on it. Robert even came in singing on it straight away.”
In the same interview, Page marveled at how quickly Robert Plant wrote the lyrics for “Stairway to Heaven.”
“I'd worked it all out already the night before with John Paul Jones, written down the changes and things,” he explained. “All this time we were all living in a house and keeping pretty regular hours together, so the next day we started running it down…While we were doing it Robert was penciling down lyrics; he must have written three quarters of the lyrics on the spot. He didn't have to go away and think about them. Amazing, really.”
Over half a century since its release, fans still agree: Led Zeppelin IV is amazing, indeed.
Related: Robert Plant Begs Fans to Listen to This Rare, 'Absolutely Incredible' Album: 'If You Can Find It'
This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
