How quickly did Zeppelin ascend to being the most popular rock band in America?

[syncrolecyne]

I wasn’t really around in the heyday of Led Zeppelin. But it seemed like during the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were everywhere on rock radio. I had the sense that the popularity of Zeppelin-like hard rock bands at that time boosted them from one of several big bands of the 1970s (along with the Stones, the Who, KISS, and others) to the central band in the classic rock pantheon.

[Loach]

@aceplace57

I was a teenager in the mid seventies and never heard anybody claim Zeppelin was the most popular rock band.

Not even close. They were very rarely heard on the local rock stations. Other than Stairway which got played to death. I know they had their fans.

Around here Southern Rock was huge. Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers were the biggest rock bands.

CCR and The Who were very popular too.

Zeppelin was a good band but I didn’t even own one of their albums in high school. I bought all of CCR’s, and several albums by the other groups I mentioned.

Soft Rock was extremely popular too. I remember buying all three Croce Albums, five albums by Bread, and a couple Rod Stewart album’s.

I had a fairly large album collection in high school.

Rarely heard? You and I must live in very different places. Led Zeppelin is one of the groups that despite the fact that I never owned one album I know all of their songs from the radio. “Get the Led out” has been a daily radio staple for more than 30 years. The biggest complaint I heard was they were and are overplayed on rock stations.

[Declan]

@syncrolecyne

I wasn’t really around in the heyday of Led Zeppelin. But it seemed like during the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were everywhere on rock radio. I had the sense that the popularity of Zeppelin-like hard rock bands at that time boosted them from one of several big bands of the 1970s (along with the Stones, the Who, KISS, and others) to the central band in the classic rock pantheon.

Not really surprising, those DJ’s in the eighties, would have been the kids in the seventies.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Loach

Rarely heard? You and I must live in very different places. Led Zeppelin is one of the groups that despite the fact that I never owned one album I know all of their songs from the radio. “Get the Led out” has been a daily radio staple for more than 30 years. The biggest complaint I heard was they were and are overplayed on rock stations.

Thirty years ago was 1987, exactly the time syncrolecyne referred to. Everybody here agrees that they were huge by then.

[drad_dog]

@Loach

Rarely heard? You and I must live in very different places. Led Zeppelin is one of the groups that despite the fact that I never owned one album I know all of their songs from the radio. “Get the Led out” has been a daily radio staple for more than 30 years. The biggest complaint I heard was they were and are overplayed on rock stations.

Zep didn’t release singles. Back in the day, Alice Cooper, John Denver, and lots of others were more prominent on the radio.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

They didn’t release singles in the U.K. Their American label released singles from every album. “Whole Lotta Love” went top five. (it was backed with “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)” putting it into the discussion of best double-sided single of all time.) That helped establish the band and probably drove Led Zeppelin II to the number one spot the first album couldn’t achieve.