35. Dread Zeppelin – Heartbreaker (At the End of Lonely Street)
When Dread Zeppelin released Un-Led-Ed, their first album, the press fell over themselves to find out what the band members thought of a reggae band fronted by an Elvis impersonator doing Led Zeppelin covers. What they weren’t expecting: Robert Plant loved the band, promoting them at every opportunity, saying things like “They do ‘Your Time Is Gonna Come’ better than we did.” He singled out their take on “Heartbreaker” for special praise, and no wonder: the cover shows imagination, real chops, and an unmistakable sense of humor besides. – Patrick Robbins
34. Knock Knock – Moby Dick
What, you thought “Moby Dick” was an instrumental track? Not anymore. Knock Knock have an idea so good you wonder why it took so long for someone to do it: Read Moby Dick the book over “Moby Dick” the song. [Editor’s note: Hot damn tamale, Ahab, someone did!] Captain Ahab’s deranged ranting, courtesy the song’s surprise new co-writer Herman Melville, perfectly accompanies that thunderous riff. On the musical side, John Bonham’s famous drum solo gets company from accordion, kazoo, and plenty of other briefly-featured ironic instruments. This comes off the undersung three-disc epic tribute album From the Land of Ice and Snow (The Songs of Led Zeppelin), which features many other similarly inventive and irreverent takes on Zeppelin. – Ray Padgett
33. Zepperella – The Wanton Song
The English folk tradition is full of lascivious women who trick men into bed, with their feminine wiles. Looking at Robert Plant’s stage presence during the Led Zeppelin years, they probably did not have to try that hard. Nevertheless, Plant was willing to write a song about it, using his knowledge of the lore. In addition to his charisma and folk knowledge, Plant’s voice is difficult to reproduce, emphasizing the unique appeal of the band.
Some of the best tribute bands to Led Zeppelin use the female contralto to cover Plant’s range, to marvelous effect. Zepperella are one of the most longstanding and successful, and their version of “The Wanton Song” would beguile many, if needed. – Mike Tobyn
32. Angela Petrelli – No Quarter
This is a slow burn of a song with a lot of sonic layering. In this version, the group definitely gets that jam session vibe with a variety of instruments (hard rock harmonica anyone?) taking turns on center stage, and the vocals taking a back seat. We do lose some of the weirdness of the original, though; the alien-like synth that lurks in the background of the original and juxtaposes the more classical piano is not as much of an emphasis here. Instead, both the electric guitar and piano get more of an emphasis. – Sara Stoudt
31. Sones de Mexico Ensemble Chicago – Four Sticks
“Four Sticks” was given its title because drummer John Bonham played the song’s complicated rhythm using four drumsticks instead of the usual two. The song is so notoriously difficult to play that Zeppelin only ever played it once on tour, actually before it was even released on IV. But the Sones de Mexico Ensemble Chicago are ready for the challenge. (It helps that son mexicano is often in 6/8, one of the time signatures for “Four Sticks.”) Their version is almost entirely instrumental, though there are wordless vocals in the refrain singing the rhythm guitar melody. Sones de Mexico use traditional Mexican instruments and solve the problem of getting the time right by having a drummer and multiple percussionists (as well as stomping feet). Robert Plant’s vocals are replaced by an ocarina on the verse. The result is a lively but surprisingly faithful transposition of a loud, knotty rock song into traditional Mexican music. In this version “Four Sticks” could almost be a traditional song. An extremely fun cover. – Riley Haas
30. Missioned Souls – Whole Lotta Love
Missioned Souls is a band from Cebu (a province in the Philippines). When one looks at these four young kids, one might not set particularly high expectations for the quartet, but you’d better think again! Once the opening guitar riff segues into a deep, rich voice, it becomes apparent that the song is a mere vessel to showcase wisdom and skills that are far beyond these four musicians’ years. After sticking through it ’til the end, you’re going to need to know who they are; Missioned Souls is a six-member Filipino family band who are best known for viral ’80s rock covers. The lead vocalist is typically taken on by Sheena (the mother) while the father (Secan) covers bass and engineering. – Aleah Fitzwater
29. Ofra Haza – Kashmir
Ofra Haza, who died, age 43, in 2000, was known as the Madonna of the East. Whilst that may demonstrate her local impact, it undervalues the richness of her cultural worth and importance. This Israeli singer transcended the geo-political divides of her homeland, becoming an ambassador for her fusion of Middle Eastern styles and those of the west. With a voice that can make every uttering an incantation, she takes this and inhabits it with her entire being. There is a version that blends her singing with a backing track to ape the arrangement of the original. This version, without, is far superior. – Seuras Og
28. Michael Kiwanuka – Ten Years Gone
In a 1975 interview with Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone magazine, Robert Plant said that “Ten Years Gone” was inspired by “a lady I really dearly loved” giving him an ultimatum during his pre-Led Zep years. “Right. It’s me or your fans,” she said, upset that Plant’s musical pursuits were taking precedence over their relationship. She was right; it was true and the two parted ways. But thank you dear lady (or “vixen” according to the last verse) for doing the lord’s work, i.e. breaking up with Robert and inspiring him and Jimmy Page to create the painfully wistful, yet-rocking-in-the-most-gorgeous-way-imaginable “Ten Years Gone.”
Singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka’s stunning cover was part of MOJO Magazine’s 2015 tribute album, Physical Graffiti Redrawn. And there it remains to this day, living on a long-forgotten free CD, glued to the cover of an old magazine, languishing on YouTube and not available on any major streaming service (a travesty). Kiwanuka’s “TYG” is extra haunting, even more defeated…and absolutely perfect in every way. – Hope Silverman
27. Joshua Redman – The Ocean
If your musical calling is jazz, the chances of you looking out to a sea of faces in an arena or at a massive festival are somewhat reduced. Most of your nights will be in clubs with a few hundred at most. But Joshua Redman has imagination and an amazing range of techniques to use his tenor saxophone to recreate the sound of voice and guitar, whilst his rhythm section does a great job of keeping him on track as he tries to do the very, very difficult (it can’t be impossible—he carried it off!). Exceptional visualization and delivery from Redman and his team. – Mike Tobyn
26. Blind Melon – Out on the Tiles
“Out on the Tiles” originated from a tune that John Bonham hummed to himself frequently. The song is fun–simple lyrics (in the best way possible) and a real humdinger of a riff. In the hands of Blind Melon, they play up that sense of fun. Their take almost instantly gets your head nodding and your fingers drumming along. (Maybe it’s because the tribute CD this song appears on came out in the ’90s, but I always imagine listening to this in my car.) If anything, Shannon Hoon’s vocals are even more celebratory than Plant’s in the original. This is a fun Friday night of a song, regardless of who is singing the tune. – Luke Poling
25. Devil in a Woodpile – Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Taking a Led Zeppelin song, or any rock song for that matter, and countrifying it is a pretty classic cover song move. That doesn’t necessarily mean it shouldn’t be attempted, but it does mean the bar is a little higher to reach greatness. In this case, Chicago’s Devil in a Woodpile take one of Led Zeppelin’s most country/bluegrass sounding songs and go deeper into the backwoods. The guitar has a looseness to it, a ringing quality, somehow acoustic-ier. The upright bass adds a jug band feel and the vocals are salt-of-the-earth folksy. Maybe the most interesting choice is the percussion: taking a song with rootsy handclaps and replacing them with drums played with brushes seems counterintuitive, but rather than a jazzy feel it sounds more like a washboard. Each component in this cover does its part well and the band sounds even better than the sum of its parts. – Mike Misch
24. Alabama Shakes – How Many More Times
“How Many More Times” is one of the two multi-part epics on Zeppelin’s debut album that helped make this kind of ambition central to the sound of early heavy metal. Like much of Zeppelin’s music, it’s still blues-based, relying, as so much of their oeuvre does, on appropriations of blues tropes. Southern blues rock band Alabama Shakes lean into the blues side in their cover rather than the metal side, though they still play it hard. It was a regular in their shows for a long time and lead singer Brittany Howard goes full wild blues woman, though how carried away she gets depends on the show. “How Many More Times” has this little quirk where Robert Plant sings about himself in the third person; Howard flips it to sing about herself and a generic male object of affection. The live recordings online range from tight to kind of unhinged, but they’re always played with passion and energy, giving a new generation the sense of what it might have been like to hear this song live during the decade Zeppelin existed. – Riley Haas
23. Michael Bluestein – Ten Years Gone
Led Zeppelin dealt with myriad musical forms–folk ballad, reggae, rockabilly, funk, and various blues idioms–but jazz was never in the mix. There is not a single track in the LZ catalog that you can describe as “jazzy.” Maybe that says something about why jazz artists, for the most part, look past Zeppelin. Whatever the reason, it’s their loss–but also ours, as LZ fans.
So I’m grateful for jazz pianist Michael Bluestein’s instrumental version of “Ten Years Gone.” The song itself is hardly a deep cut (after “Kashmir” it’s the most-streamed track on Physical Graffiti) but you don’t hear it much in the wild, and covers of it in any genre are few in number. Bluestein and his trio recorded his version in 2002. The trio doesn’t go hardcore jazz in this interpretation. Theirs is a lighter jazz, a lush gorgeous music that would not be out of place in a five-star hotel lounge. They don’t stretch out like Brad Mehldau or reinvent material in the style of the Bad Plus. Following the Page/Plant original in terms of structure, Bluestein simply breathes new life into “Ten Years Gone” by playing it straight with his lyrical pianism. – Tom McDonald
22. Chris Thomas King – Hey Hey What Can I Do
Chris Thomas King is perhaps best known for his work in O Brother Where Art Thou?, both for his playing and for his playing Tommy Johnson. He has a most extensive discography, where he’s much respected for his work at keeping the blues a living breathing 21st century form of art rather than a musty museum exhibit. His cover of “Hey Hey What Can I Do,” the only non-album track Led Zeppelin issued in their lifetime, sees King pulling the song from its folky roots, and his singing and playing may have you join George Clooney’s Everett character in believing he did indeed sell his soul to the devil. – Patrick Robbins
21. Corinne Bailey Rae – Since I’ve Been Loving You
Blues, jazz, and rock all share significant musical DNA, and it is often hard to tell where the border is among them, which is why genre assignment is so subjective. Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You” is blues, or more likely, blues-rock, and was an original composition unlike a couple of other songs from Led Zeppelin III, which are derived from older blues songs. It became a staple of their live shows (and since they played it every night at Madison Square Garden in 1977, I heard it performed live). The song was released by Corinne Bailey Rae as the B-side of her first hit single (“Put Your Records On”) in 2006, and it is a sultry, jazzy version that highlights her gorgeous voice and phrasing—in fact, it is almost unrecognizable from the original. Interestingly, introducing the song live at a concert in London, Rae says that the song is in her set to show how much she still loves rock music, despite the fact that her version bears little resemblance to rock music. – Jordan Becker
The list continues on Page 3.
Great List. I definitely think The Dynamics cover of Whole Lotta Love should be on here somewhere
I got to see Heart play a few Led Zeppelin songs at a high school dance back in ’75. They have been the best Led Zep cover band for over 50 years!
The New Picadilliys’ cover of “Rock and Roll” should be on this list too. They remake it even more than Jerry Lee did.
My personal favorite:
https://youtu.be/pTkg9Q4ogpQ?si=RbJBk5IusGfNkOjO
A top ten for us too, Kevin!
Yes.