Led Zeppelin's remaster series has taken the band back to the heights of the US charts, with all three titles entering the top 10.
The new editions of Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III – curated by Jimmy Page and complete with companion discs of unreleased material – entered the Billboard album list at numbers 7, 9 and 10 respectively. A total of 103,000 sales was recorded.
It’s the first time since the death of Whitney Houston in 2012 that an artists has seen three records enter the top 15 at the same time.
But Zep’s success story, which follows a similar achievement in the UK charts at the weekend, might not have happened just a few years ago. Billboard formerly had a rule that no album with an original release date more than 18 months previously could be given a chart placing.
That changed in 2009 after Beatles remasters notched up 600,000 sales but were ruled ineligible, then Michael Jackson’s death meant his catalogue outsold the best-performing new titles for six weeks without chart recognition.
Led Zep’s label Warner Bros report that over 80% of the band’s sales came from CDs and vinyl. Exec Kevin Gore says: “For those who thought the days of physical releases are gone, it seems far from the truth.”
Page recently dismissed as “ridiculous” the claim that the opening riff on classic track Stairway To Heaven was stolen from US band Spirit’s song Taurus.
