Led Zeppelin's debut album got its release on this day in 1969, leading to January 13 of that year being a very big day for the sale of replacement speaker systems. The album was recorded the previous fall in just a few sessions at Olympic Studios in London in a combined total of under 40 hours at a total cost of just a few thousand dollars. Jimmy Page served as producer with Glyn Johns handling the engineering.
Johns had already engineered eight Rolling Stones albums and worked in the studio with Procol Harum, the Easybeats, Small Faces, the Steve Miller Band, Spooky Tooth, The Move and Traffic. He would go on to become one of the most prolific engineers and producers in history, compiling credits for his work with the Beatles, Joe Cocker, Humble Pie, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Delane & Bonnie & Friends, Leon Russsell, The Band, Bob Dylan, Boz Scaggs, the Who, the Eagles, Neil Young, Paul McCartney and Wings, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, The Clash, Joe Satriani, Stephen Stills and dozens more. He was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 2012.
This day was also a date for a number of other RHOF inductions.
Those and other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 12 include...
1941 Long John Baldry is born.
1951 Larry Hoppen of Orleans is born.
1960 Inxs front man Michael Hutchence is born.
1965 Rob Zombie is born.
1965 Hullabaloo debuts on NBC.
1968 The Bealtes film division becomes Apple.
1968 Kinks release Live At Kelvin Hall.
1977 Keith Richards fined $1,275 on cocaine possession charge.
1977 The Police rehearse together for the first time.
1984 Motley Crue opens its first US tour in New York City.
1990 Bob Dylan does a tour warm-up concert set at New Haven, CT club Toad's Place.
1992 Doors, Cream, Van Morrison, Sly & The Family Stone gain entry to Rock Hall Of Fame.
1993 Cream reunites for Rock Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in LA. Van Morrison becomes the first living inductee to refuse to appear at the ceremony. Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Sly and the Family Stone are also inducted.
1995 Rock Hall Of Fame inducts Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Allman Brothers Band, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa.
1996 AC/DC opens Ballbreaker tour in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1996 Sammy Hagar jams with 999 guitarists at opening of Hard Rock Café in Hollywood.
1998 Tommy Lee of Motley Crue given 2 years probation and ordered to have anger management sessions after pleading no contest to charge of assaulting a photographer.
1998 Rock Hall Of Fame inducts Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Santana, Mamas and the Papas.
1999 Elton John sues his former accountants over allegations of financial mismanagement.
2017 Bruce Springsteen performs surprise free set for out going White House staff and First Family on the week Obama leaves office.
2023 Bachman Turner Overdrive drummer Randy Bachman dies at 69 of undisclosed cause...
