Fifty years of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven — the epic all epics are measured against. Atlantic Records sent promo copies of Stairway to Heaven to American radio stations, which lapped up the track despite its monumental length…It’s all the more remarkable when you consider the song’s contents — it has no conventional chorus, it opens with a medieval-sounding combination of recorders and acoustic guitar, the vocals don’t start until almost one minute into the song, the drums don’t join in until more than four minutes in, and the last two and a half minutes feel like a completely different song…But radio DJs loved it, and so did the listeners.
Led Zeppelin live at Knebworth 8/4/79
Jimmy Page tells the BBC how the song was written
Heart live cover at Kennedy Center
Mary J. Blige cover
Stanley Jordan live cover at Montreux
100 covers of Stairway mashed into one
Frank Zappa cover Cleveland 3/5/88