Stairway to Heaven
by Led Zeppelin
- 82
- BPM
- A minor
- Key
- 8A
- Camelot
- 34
- Danceability
- 58
- Acousticness
Atlantic Records wanted "Stairway to Heaven" out as a single, and Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, refused in 1972 and again in 1973. So many people bought the fourth album as if it were the single. The song became the most-requested track on FM radio in the United States without ever being sold as one there. It reached number 37 on the UK Singles Chart only in November 2007, through download sales tied to the Mothership release.
Jimmy Page began the music in 1970 at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, after the band's fifth American tour. He kept a cassette recorder around, and the song came together from bits of taped music. Robert Plant wrote the first lyrics beside a log fire at Headley Grange, partly improvised while Page strummed chords. Recording started in December 1970 at Island Records' new studios on Basing Street in London. Plant finished the words during the 1971 sessions for the album, in Hampshire, and Page went back to Island to record his guitar solo.
The song has three sections, each faster and louder than the last. It starts with acoustic guitar and recorders, brings in electric instruments, and ends as a hard rock arrangement. The last thing heard is one a cappella line: "And she's buying a stairway to heaven."
Stairway to Heaven runs at 82 BPM, the tempo of boom-bap hip-hop, reggae and slow R&B. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.93 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 732 ms. It is in A minor, Camelot 8A, which shares its notes with C major and mixes cleanly with D minor and E minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.