Rhino #1s: Led Zeppelin II

The release of Led Zeppelin’s 1969 self-titled debut album may been a significant turning point in the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal (that’s what the All Music Guide says, anyway), but it was the band’s second album – the appropriately-titled Led Zeppelin II – that truly signaled their arrival as a force to be reckoned with on the charts.

44 years ago today, Led Zeppelin II climbed to the #1 position on the UK Albums Chart, making it the first – but in no way the last – of their albums to achieve such a feat. It also spent seven weeks at #1 in the States, knocking the Beatles’ Abbey Road out of the top spot...and if beating the Beatles doesn’t scream, “We’ve arrived,” then what does?