Fact Finder - Music

Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' is often cited as the greatest rock song ever recorded, but it was never officially released as a single. Guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant began writing the song at Headley Grange, a remote manor house in Hampshire, England. Page had been working on the acoustic guitar parts for months, carrying a small recorder around to capture ideas. Plant wrote many of the lyrics spontaneously while sitting by a log fire. Despite being over eight minutes long, it became the most requested song on FM radio in the 1970s. Interestingly, the famous recorder flute-like sound at the beginning was actually played by bassist John Paul Jones on a set of wooden recorders. The song's slow build from a folk ballad to a hard-rock crescendo with a legendary guitar solo defined the 'album-oriented rock' era.