"Stairway to Heaven" is a famous and influential song by British rock group Led Zeppelin.

One of the most requested songs on American FM radio stations, "Stairway to Heaven", from Led Zeppelin's fourth album, was never released officially as a single. It did however appear as a promo disc in the United States, on an Australian acoustic EP and in the 1990s as a 20th anniversary promo issue. The song had its beginnings during the sessions for Led Zeppelin III at Bron-Yr-Aur, Wales, but was completed at Headley Grange, Hampshire and finally recorded at Island Studios, London in December, 1970. It is not entirely clear whether the movie title (below) was the an inspiration for the song or the source of the song title.

Musically, the song takes the form of a multi-movement suite, with a quiet introduction featuring acoustic guitar and recorder gradually giving way to a slow electric middle section and finally a crashing hard rock final section. This form would influence many other rock artists, notably Queen, who would use a similar structure for their opus "Bohemian Rhapsody".

The lyrics, written by Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant next to an evening log fire, was inspired by his search for spiritual perfection. A seminal influence was the book Magic Arts in Celtic Britain by Lewis Spence, which Plant had recently read and contained references to May Queens, pipers, and bustling hedgerows. The song opens with John Paul Jones contributing wooden bass recorder and Hohner electric piano in the middle section. The guitar part opens with a Am-Fmaj7 chord progression with a chromatic descending bassline A-G#-G-F#-F. The extended Jimmy Page guitar solo in the song's final section was played for the recording on a 1958 Fender Telecaster plugged into a Supro amplifier. Three different solos were recorded with Page deciding to keep the one which he felt best suited the theme of the song. The other guitar parts were played using a Fender Electric XII (12-string). For later live versions Page switched to using a double-necked 6/12 1968 Gibson EDS-1275 which was custom built by Roger Griffin of Gibson's West Coast Custom Shop.

The song was first played live at Belfast's Ulster Hall on March 5, 1971 and performed at every Led Zeppelin concert thereafter, usually as part of a final encore from 1975 to 1980. Stairway was also played at Live Aid and the Atlantic Reunion in 1988, and by Jimmy Page as an instrumental version on his solo tours.

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Trivia

  • Procol Harum's 1968 song "Skip Softly, My Moonbeams", from the album Shine On Brightly, coincidentally includes a lyrical reference to "your stairs up to Heaven" (which "lead straight down to Hell").

  • Critics of rock and roll songs (and Led Zeppelin in particular) have occasionally claimed that a backward message is recorded into "Stairway to Heaven." If the song is played backwards, then supposedly the words "my sweet Satan" can be heard.

  • The tendency for all aspiring guitar players to learn to play the introduction to the song was spoofed in the 1992 Mike Myers movie Wayne's World when a "No Stairway to Heaven" regulation is enforced at a music store visited by the title character.

  • In the early 1990s, each episode of the Australian chat show The Money or the Gun ended with a different group performing an idiosyncratic cover version of "Stairway to Heaven". From a diverse range that included an Elvis impersonator, Kate Ceberano, and the Doug Anthony Allstars, the best remembered is Rolf Harris's version (complete with didgeridoo and wobble board), which reached the Top 10 on the UK singles charts.

  • A novelty song featuring the music and arrangement of the song combined with the lyrics to the Theme from Gilligan's Island (which has a similar chord progression) was recorded by the San Francisco band Little Roger and the Goosebumps and often featured on the Dr. Demento radio program.

Stairway to Heaven was also a US alternative title for the 1946 British movie A Matter of Life and Death, deriving from the film's most prominent special effect: a broad marble escalator linking Heaven and Earth.