Houses of the Holy
(Released 3/28/73)
Before we get to the indelible opening riff of “The Ocean,” John Bonham counts off: “We’ve done four already, but now we’re steady. And then they went: 1… 2… 3… 4!”
I grew up thinking it was a reference to the fact that “Houses of the Holy” was Zeppelin’s fifth album. As it turns out, Bonzo was referring to how many takes of the song they’d unsuccessfully run through up until that point.
Album sales (U.S.) – 11 million
Chart position – 1
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