Led Zeppelin’s third album was viewed as somewhat of a disappointment by many shortsighted observers when it was released in October 1970. And for years 'Led Zeppelin III' was the group’s only album to not reach platinum certification (but it eventually did).

But history has proven that ‘Led Zeppelin III’ is a pivotal record in their career, filled with daring new directions and deeper nuances that dug deeper than the band’s typical and by now well-established hard-rock crunch.

The album’s hardest rocking track – the urgent ‘Immigrant Song’ – kicks off the album, almost impatiently, so the band can then indulge its folk-music muse (see ‘Gallows Pole,’ ‘Bron-Y-Aur Stomp,’ etc.) and dabble in symphonic orchestration (‘Friends’) and lilting county (‘Tangerine’) before sliding into one of Zep's best-ever blues, the slow-burning ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You.’

While few of 'Led Zeppelin III''s individual songs lend themselves to easily digestible singles, they amount to another album-length tour de force.

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