In July 1968, The Yardbirds were done. Years of mismanagement and bad deals would eventually burn the band out right at the time they were finally making money. Keith Relf and Jim McCarty would leave to form Renaissance, Chris Dreja, would become a photographer, and only Jimmy Page, was left with the name of the band and a series of dates still to be fulfilled if he wanted them.
Page, who at that point was new to being in a rock band, since up until he joined The Yardbirds was one of the most sought after sessions musicians in England, didn’t want to stop the momentum generated by the band’s new success. Quickly he would call on fellow sessions musician John Paul Jones to play bass, and looked to hire local singer Terry Reid to join, but Reid would decline, and instead recommend unknown singer Robert Plant. Plant in turn would recommend his friend and drummer John Bonham and the New Yardbirds were formed.
One problem however, the former members of the band did not want Page to continue to use the name and forced Jimmy to give it up and find a new one, and thus Led Zeppelin came to be. At the dates the band would perform some of the old Yardbirds songs as well as new songs created during their rehearsals, like "Communication Breakdown", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "You Shook Me", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" a cover of the Joan Baez song, "How Many More Times," and the popular "Dazed And Confused", which was a favorite of Yardbirds fans when the band covered the song during their tour with The Jake Holmes Trio, who was opening for the band.
When the mini tour was done, the band had a new name and a recording contract, and immediately went into the studio to work on their debut album. From, September 25 1968 to mid-October, Led Zeppelin I was recorded at a surprisingly brisk pace under the mixing and production of Glyn Johns. Upon release on January 12, 1969, the album would become a great success and go on to be one of the most influential albums of all time. Just about every song on the album has been performed or covered by bands and other artists throughout the years, and the songs still get radio airplay to this day. The heavy blues and rock fusion personified Hard Rock going into the 70’s and helped lay the foundation of what Heavy Metal would become after Black Sabbath breathed it into existence in the same year.
There are few careers that span the length and hold the influence like that of Led Zeppelin and Zeppelin I is the benchmark by which that career came to be.