How Led Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’ Became a Blueprint for Double Albums

Double albums were definitely a thing before Led Zeppelin released Physical Graffiti in 1975. However, nobody had done it quite like the iconic hard rock band did with that particular release. Today, it’s nothing short of legendary.

The band got together to record Physical Graffiti at an old manor in England called Headley Grange. There, they put together one of the most famous rock music recordings of all time. Upon its release, it hit no. 1 on the Billboard Top Albums chart. It hit platinum status extremely fast as well, based solely on preorders at the time.

In an interview with USA Today from back in 2015, guitarist and producer Jimmy Page said that the album was intended to be very different from the double albums that came before it.

“We weren’t the only group, nor the first, to be doing a double album,” said Page. “But I really wanted to make sure by the time that this was ready to be delivered to the record company that this was going to be like the mother of all double albums because it wasn’t going to have padding of any description on it.”

Led Zeppelin Set The Stage For The Future of Double Albums

The double albums that came before Physical Graffiti were few and far between. Often, those predecessors were loaded with filler tracks. How else would one band be able to stuff enough music into what is basically two albums in one?

Led Zeppelin, however, changed the game. The album itself was pieced together and recorded over a number of years. It definitely didn’t start when the band shut themselves into Headley Grange in 1974. Rather, the album is a compilation of a number of songs that were recorded years before. It also contained reworked versions of songs that were previously left to collect dust.

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This is what made Physical Graffiti such a good album. It’s also what made it different from double albums from years past, and what inspired double albums that came after it. There isn’t much in the way of filler on Physical Graffiti. Rather, it’s a compilation of underrated works that had new life breathed into them for that particular release. 

It changed the standards; though few double albums since have matched the overall listening power and timelessness of Physical Graffiti.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives

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