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Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' Gets Smoking DJs' Approval

'Stairway to Heaven,' one of rock's most enduring tracks and the bane of anyone having to man the tills at guitars shops around the world, may owe its place in history thanks to its cigarette-break-friendly length.

Led Zeppelin's most famous song became the rock radio staple it did because, the band's biographer claims, it was the perfect length for a DJ to take a crafty fag break.

"The song became successful by accident," Charles R. Cross told the New York Post. "[I] had 100 DJs swear to me that they only played the song because they needed a long break to go and smoke a cigarette. If it had been a minute shorter, you couldn't have smoked a full cigarette. If it had been a minute longer, it would have been too long."

'Stairway to Heaven' was never released as a single -- Led Zeppelin didn't do singles -- but nonetheless became one of US radio's most broadcast songs.

But the song is something of an albatross for Led Zeppelin, Cross told the paper it could possibly be one of the reasons the band's oft-rumoured reunion has stalled. While Jimmy Page still loves playing the song's foot-on-monitor guitar solo, singer Robert Plant, apparently, can't stand his band's biggest hit.

"Page's love of the tune seemed to go in inverse proportion to Plant's hate," Cross said.

Stairway. Denied.

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mark

I've always loved Stairway, and I've never spent much time listening to the radio.

I stumbled onto this site. Is this an Onion type site?

December 28 2009 at 12:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dave howard

i think songs like these became popular less having to do with smoking and more to do with having to visit the little DJ's room with a four week old copy of Billboard and the urge to nerf one out the backportal, if you now what I mean...

November 17 2009 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MrPete

Such rubbish. Smoking in the 70's was omnipresent, EVERYWHERE.

STH was NO accident.

November 17 2009 at 10:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
whosyerdaddy

shouldn't that be Page's love is directly proportional to Plant's hate. I mean if Page loves the song a lot then inversely proportional would be someone who hates the song only a little.

jus' sayin'

November 16 2009 at 10:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aelfheld

Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

November 16 2009 at 3:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
cdarrellryz

Actually, Led Zeppelin did have a few singles! Well, at least one that I know of. My aunt, back in her days, had a 45 (single) of the Immigrant Song. She gave me that and lots of records that seem pretty rare. The "B" side of that single was Hey, Hey, What Can I Do? That song was never on any album until after the fact. Just letting you know.

November 16 2009 at 12:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply