Release and Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| BBC Music | Favourable |
| Blender | |
| Robert Christgau | B |
| Entertainment Weekly | A+ |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | Unfavourable |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Yahoo! Music | Favourable |
The album was released on 22 October 1969 on Atlantic Records, with advance orders of 400,000 copies. The advertising campaign was built around the slogans 'Led Zeppelin - The Only Way to Fly' and 'Led Zeppelin II Now Flying'. Commercially, Led Zeppelin II was the band's first album to hit No. 1 in the US, knocking The Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) twice from the top spot, where it remained for seven weeks. By April 1970 it had registered three million American sales, whilst in Britain it enjoyed a 138 week residence on the LP chart, climbing to the top spot in February 1970.
The album also yielded Led Zeppelin's biggest hit with the track "Whole Lotta Love". This song reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970, after Atlantic went against the group's wishes by releasing a shorter version on 45. The single's B-side, "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)", also hit the Billboard chart, peaking at No. 65 in April 1970. The album helped establish Led Zeppelin as an international concert attraction, as for the next year, the group continued to tour relentlessly, initially performing in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums and eventually stadiums as their popularity grew.
In 1970 art director David Juniper was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package for Led Zeppelin II. On 10 November 1969, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and in 1990 it was certified 5x platinum reflecting shipping of five million copies. By 14 November 1999, Led Zeppelin II had shipped twelve million copies and was certified 12x platinum by the RIAA.
Read more about this topic: Led Zeppelin II
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