The “American Idol” rock night was the place where Adam Lambert, an eyeliner-loving L.A. stage veteran, performed the 1970 Led Zeppelin song “Whole Lotta Love”. The young singer rocked the stage with his incredible cover , rising to the expectance and making the audience immediately fall in love witht him. It was a bald decision to sing a tune that came in #75 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in 2004 but Lambert made it work.
“Whole Lota Love” was Led Zeppelin first hit single when it sold one million copies in US and was certified Gold on 13 April 1970. Q magazine placed the song at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks and it was placed 11 on a similar list by Rolling Stone. In 2009 it was named the third greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. It is also the last track the band ever played as whole. Part of their live repertoire, it saw its first official release on the LP Led Zeppelin II on 22 October 1969. The tune was based on a 1962 song recorded by Muddy Waters “You Need Love” by peer Willie Dixon and some of the lyrics of Led Zeppelin’s track were borrowed from Dixon’s song, a favorite of Plant’s.
Zeppelin’s version incorporates lyric quotes from a few other songs Dixon wrote such as Howlin’Wolf’s “Back Door Man” and “Shake For Me” and was also inspired by 1966’s “You Need Loving” from the British rock group the Small Faces. Although Zeppelin respected all of these bands, Dixon didn’t get the credit for writing the original lyrics.
All of these were to be settled in 1985 when Dixon sued Zeppelin , claiming the band borrowed too much from his “You Need Love”, and Zeppelin was forced to reach to an agreement with the famous writer. Dixon use the money he gained from winning the trial to provide musical instruments for schools. The tune, a symbolic rock track was the theme song for British countdown show “Top of the Pops” in the 1970s and 80s and since then has been covered by several artists such as Tina Turner, Ben Harper, Prince, Slash, Leona Lewis and a couple of others.
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