November 7, 1969 –
The opening track from Led Zeppelin II, Whole Lotta Love, was released as a single on this date. It was the first single the band released. The B-side of the single was, Living Loving Maid. It became their highest chart topper, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Charts.
When this song became a hit in America, the UK division of the band’s label, Atlantic Records, pressed copies of a shortened version of the song to release there, but Jimmy Page quashed that idea when he heard the 3:12 truncated edit (“I played it once, hated it and never listened to the short version again,” he told the Wall Street Journal). The band issued a press release stating: “Led Zeppelin have no intention of issuing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ as a single as they feel it was written as part of their concept of the album.” The American single is the same version as found on the album.
