''IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I ROCK AND ROLLED''
On January 30, 1971, Led Zeppelin were in the middle of working on their fourth album – the record that would propel them from stardom into super-stardom, selling over 24 million copies (to date) in the United States alone. But on that date, the group were still struggling with overcoming the perception that their third album sounded more like folk than blues. The band’s roots were in R&B, in old-fashioned rock and roll. As they prepared to work on the song that wound up as the B-side of the noted that since it had already received so much airplay as an album track, it clearly deserved to be released as a single to get a “run at the top.” While the song didn’t make it to the top of the charts, that bit of heart-pounding rock and roll instantly became a classic.
