The legendary rock music group rose from The Yardbirds’ ashes with Page at the helm, who was in search of a new moniker to mark their ascent to rock fame.
A recent Reddit thread has seen fans exchanging their theories on the moment which gave Led Zeppelin their name, and how they deliberately misspelled the suggestion.
Some point to rock icon Keith Moon, The Who’s drummer, as the catalyst for the band’s iconic name.
The tale unfolds back in 1968 when Jimmy Page was piecing together a new lineup featuring Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham, initially called the “New Yardbirds.”
The name “Led Zeppelin” sprang from a suggestion by Keith Moon and John Entwistle of The Who, during discussions of a potential supergroup.
Moon humorously remarked that such a group would “go over like a lead balloon,” suggesting it would be a flop.
This joke struck a chord with Page, who twisted the phrase into the now-famous name.
The deliberate choice of “Led” instead of “Lead” was to make sure English-speaking fans pronounced the band’s name as “leed” and not “led.”
Thus, “Led Zeppelin” was coined, symbolizing both the weightiness of their sound and their artistic ambition to rise above the norm (much like a zeppelin airship).
Regardless of the spelling, Led Zeppelin is undeniably one of the greatest British rock bands, boasting over 300 million albums sold worldwide.
They are true music royalty, with all nine of their studio albums achieving multi-platinum status, and some even marking defining moments in rock music history.
Their legendary 1973 concert at Tampa Stadium set records for attendance at a single-artist concert at that time, attracting a massive crowd of 56,800. The 1979 Knebworth Festival saw them perform before an audience of more than 120,000 fans.
Their legacy was further solidified by their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and receiving a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
It comes as fans admit they used to avoid a hit song from the band, with ominous origins surrounding the song peddled by those who disagreed with their sound.
The now-rubbished legend of Satanic symbolism in one of the group’s best songs seems to have left an impact on those who grew up with the band’s music. Music-lovers took to a Reddit thread and shared their stories of avoiding Stairway to Heaven, the iconic song from Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, Led Zeppelin IV.
Now considered one of the greatest songs of all time, the eight-minute masterpiece has been cemented in rock history. But a more negative attitude towards the song was around at the time of its release.
