This is going to be an opinion piece on all things Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin is probably my favorite band of all time. I’ve had debates with friends about what their best album is, I figured I would make a power ranking of them. I decided to not just stop at album power ranking and instead include a list of power rankings of songs within albums, album art power rankings, and artist symbol power rankings. This ranking is based on the standard edition of each, it does not account for the deluxe editions.

Kicking it off, here are my power rankings for the main Led Zeppelin studio Albums:

1. Led Zeppelin IV
2. Led Zeppelin I
3. Houses of the Holy
4. Physical Graffiti
5. In Through the Out Door
6. Led Zeppelin III
7. Led Zeppelin II
8. Presence
9. CODA

1. Led Zeppelin IV

To me, Led Zeppelin IV is easily their best put together album, and possibly one of the best albums of all time. The album has the best display of the bands ability to span multiple genres, from harder rock with Black Dog and Rock and Roll, to folkier sound with Battle of Evermore and Going to California, to immensely epic songs like When the Levee Breaks and of course their magnum opus, Stairway to Heaven.

My song power rankings for Led Zeppelin 4 are:

1. Going to California
2. Stairway to Heaven
3. When the Levee Breaks
4. The Battle of Evermore
5. Black Dog
6. Misty Mountain Hop
7. Rock and Roll
8. Four Sticks

Going to California is up there as one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs overall. The combination of mandolin and guitar is just so perfect along with lyrics that hit home since I am from California.

The album art for LZIV also goes hard. It has such a mystique to it that really adds to the character of the album. It’s suiting that one of their best covers belongs to their best album musically as well.

2. Led Zeppelin I

The next album on my power ranking list is Led Zeppelin I, their debut album. Honestly I’m not sure I could name a better debut album for a band. LZI is full of bangers.

My song power rankings for Led Zeppelin I are:

1. Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
2. How Many More Times
3. Your Time is Gonna Come
4. Dazed and Confused
5. Good Times Bad Times
6. I Can’t Quit You Baby
7. Black Mountain Side
8. You Shook Me
9. Communication Breakdown

This album really established who Led Zeppelin would be. Mean, heavy rock riffs, songs about love, great guitar solos, and blazing their own path. This album showed their disregard for what the record labels wanted (shorter songs that were made to be catchy on the radio) with many songs being over 6 minutes long. They even lied on the original LP saying that How Many More Times was 3:30 when it was actually over 8 minutes to encourage it being played on the radio. This album laid the foundation to show off some of the best musical artists in their respective fields.

3. Houses of the Holy

Houses of the Holy comes in at number 3 on the list. This is arguably Led Zeppelin’s most cohesive album.

My song power rankings for Houses of the Holy are:

1. The Rain Song
2. No Quarter
3. Over the Hills and Far Away
4. The Ocean
5. D’yer Mak’er
6. The Song Remains the Same
7. The Crunge
8. Dancing Days

The Rain Song might be one of my favorite songs of all time in general. The main chord progression is so unique (and also super fun to play on acoustic guitar, has a fun tuning). Such an emotional song. No Quarter is another great song, such a unique sound for the time. The concept of “No Quarter” refers to showing no mercy to enemies and refusing to spare lives of the surrendered, not offering quartering to the prisoners. Pretty incredible song.

4. Physical Graffiti

Physical Graffiti is somewhat of a mash up album. Led Zeppelin wrote songs for a new album, had crossed over the threshold to include on one LP, so they went back and added previously unreleased songs to it. While this album may not be as cohesive as others, it ranks high on my list of LZ albums because it has so many good songs, many of which might be a little underrated in my opinion.

My song power rankings for Physical Graffiti are:

1. Kashmir
2. In the Light
3. In My Time of Dying
4. Houses of the Holy
5. Trampled Under Foot
6. Boogie With Stu
7. Ten Years Gone
8. The Rover
9. Custard Pie
10. Black Country Woman
11. Down by the Seaside
12. Bron Yr Aur
13. Night Flight
14. The Wanton Song
15. Sick Again

This was definitely one of the hardest albums to add song rankings for, partly because it has the most songs but also because they are all pretty good. The top three songs on my list are all very epic songs. Kashmir is my number 1 from the album. I think I heard this song a lot growing up so I’ve always liked it. It was (and still is) my dad’s ringtone for as long as I can remember. In the Light has such amazing use of synthesizer before it was really popularized in the 80s. It is a very underrated song from Led Zeppelin in my opinion. In My Time of Dying is another super long song that just goes hard. Not much else to say. Another song I want to highlight is Boogie with Stu. Boogie with Stu is a fun little jam song that was written with Ian Stewart who was a sound engineer for Led Zeppelin. He was also the piano player for the Rolling Stones. I don’t think many would rank it very high on their list but to me it’s a very fun lighthearted song and I always enjoy listening to it.

5. In Through the Out Door

In Through the Out Door is number 5 on my Led Zeppelin album rankings. To me, this album is pretty underrated in general. I typically see it fall to the bottom 2-3 albums of LZ’s discography. It’s got some great songs in it. This albums comes at a time when it is obvious that Jimmy Page is less at the helm of song writing, which could definitely be seen as a negative but I find it to be a unique part of their discography that I enjoy. It is very much towards the end of Led Zeppelin’s run, but I almost see it as a “terminal lucidity” event where they have one last push.

My song power rankings for In Through the Out Door are:

1. Fool in the Rain
2. All of My Love
3. In the Evening
4. I’m Gonna Crawl
5. Carouselambra
6. South Bound Saurez
7. Hot Dog

Fool in the Rain has one of the best drum lines/rhythms of all of Led Zeppelin’s work. It is one of my favorite songs of theirs. All of My Love and In the Evening are great songs too. Hot Dog is the worst song on the album, but it’s still a fun song it’s just a little to unserious for me. This album was released in 1979, it features some early use of the synthesizer and I think Led Zeppelin did it pretty well.

6. Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin III and Led Zeppelin II have a similar era feel to me. LZI comes out as Led Zeppelin’s debut, really showing off all of their abilities, just an absolutely awesome album. Then come LZII and LZIII where it is obvious they are being influenced by major record labels to produce music for the radio. Then LZIV comes out and really shows off their abilities. LZII and LZIII are by no means my favorite albums of theirs and in my opinion, LZIII just barely beats out LZII in the album rankings.

My song power rankings for In Led Zeppelin III are:

1. Since I’ve Been Loving You
2. Gallows Pole
3. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
4. Tangerine
5. Immigrant Song
6. That’s the Way
7. Out on the Tiles
8. Celebration Day
9. Friends
10. Hat Off to (Roy) Harper

Since I’ve Been Loving You is a fantastic song. I love the vibe of some of the more acoustic songs from LZIII, it almost feels like a segue into aspects of LZIV where they really put together a great sound.

7. Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin II fell to number 7 on my power ranking of Led Zeppelin albums. It definitely has some good songs on it but in my opinion it is not the best put together album, and there are some songs I really don’t like.

My song power rankings for Led Zeppelin II are:

1. Ramble On
2. Whole Lotta Love
3. Heartbreaker
4. Moby Dick
5. Bring it on Home
6. Thank You
7. The Lemon Song
8. What it is and What it Should Never Be
9. Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)

To me, this album really just lacks epic songs. It feels like Led Zeppelin really conformed to the record labels desire to make songs for the radio. Ramble On and Whole Lot of Love I do enjoy, and in general I like Led Zeppelin enough that I’ll listen to pretty much all of their music. HOWEVER, there is one song that without a doubt, I will ALWAYS skip. That song is Living Loving Maid. To me, it is easily one of their worst songs, I absolutely despise it.

8. Presence

Presence falls to the second to last place of my Led Zeppelin album power rankings. It is getting towards the end of Led Zeppelin’s hay day which is painfully obvious in the quality of this album.

My song power rankings for Presence are:

1. Achilles Last Stand
2. Nobody’s Fault but Mine
3. Tea for One
4. For Your Life
5. Hots on Nowhere
6. Candy Store Rock
7. Royal Orleans

Achilles Last Stand and Nobody’s Fault but Mine are fantastic songs, but then after that it drops off pretty quickly. Tea for One is pretty decent and I still will occasionally listen to other songs from the album but it is definitely not my first choice.

9. CODA

This is easily Led Zeppelin’s worst album and I don’t find it particularly close. It was released as Led Zeppelin’s final studio album as a mash up of rejected songs, released after drummer John Bonham’s death. There isn’t a whole lot redeeming about this album. I will say, the deluxe version elevates this album a lot with bangers such as “Hey Hey, What Can I do?” and other live versions and mixes of popular songs. But this list is for the regular versions of the album so alas this album falls to the bottom of the list.

My song power rankings for CODA are:

1. Bonzo’s Montreux
2. I Can’t Quit You Baby
3. Walter’s Walk
4. Darlene
5. Poor Tom
6. Ozone Baby
7. Wearing and Tearing
8. We’re Gonna Groove

The number 1 song on this album is a drum solo and the number 2 is a repeat from Led Zeppelin I. This album is basically rejected filler songs from other albums, which means they really are bottom of the barrel. No real reason to revisit this album in my opinion. Again, the deluxe edition does have some cool live songs and mixes of other songs but the regular edition is not good.

Album Art Power Rankings

My album art power rankings are fairly similar to my actual album power rankings. This is not intentional but just worked out that way, there are some differences but it is pretty close. Purely based on feel and completely apart from the music. Here is the album art rankings.

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Symbol Ranking

The last part I’d like to add is my ranking of the Led Zeppelin symbols. The symbols were picked by each member for the release of Led Zeppelin IV in lieu of a real name. The album technically did not have a name, and was given the name Led Zeppelin IV since that is how the previous three albums were named.

The symbols are:

• Top Left: Jimmy Page – “Zoso”
• Top Right: John Paul Jones – Circle Intersecting Three Vesicae Piscis
• Bottom Left: John Bonham – Three Interlocking Borromean Rings
• Bottom Right: Robert Plant – Feather in Circle

My Rankings are:

1. Jimmy Page’s Zoso
2. Robert Plant’s Feather in Circle
3. John Paul Jones’ Circle Intersecting Three Vesicae Piscis
4. John Bonham’s Three Interlocking Borromean Rings