Which guest musician played on the most Led Zeppelin songs?
Led Zeppelin might have been formed from the remnants of another band by seasoned session musicians, but once the band became its own entity, its members kept it for themselves. Almost no other artist found their way onto a Zeppelin song outside of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones or John Bonham.
It isn’t hard to understand why. The virtuoso guitarist Page covered most bases when it came to instrumental harmony, and in Bonham, the group had one of the greatest ever to grace a drum kit. Jones was ever-reliable in the rhythm section and a useful foil for Page on various keyboards, while Zeppelin just wouldn’t be Zeppelin without Plant’s withering white-blue howl.
The four of them were all they ever needed, pretty much, except on a handful of standout occasions. The most famous of these occasions was the recording of the song ‘Kashmir’, when Page, who was producing the band’s sixth album Physical Graffiti, enlisted the help of professional orchestra players for a string-and-brass backing. The players remain uncredited to this day.
On the other hand, Sandy Denny, the lead singer of British folk group Fairport Convention, was credited for dueting with Robert Plant on ‘The Battle of Evermore’. Still, it’s another guest musician who pips her to the title of most appearances on Led Zeppelin recordings.
A rock and rolling stone?
Only one musician was featured on more than one Zeppelin song, aside from the band members themselves. That musician was actually a founding member of The Rolling Stones, pianist Ian Stewart.
Stewart offered his piano-playing services on the Led Zeppelin IV classic ‘Rock and Roll’. He skilfully mimics Little Richard’s keyboard part for his song ‘Keep A-Knockin’’, the melody and chord progression of which form the basis of Zeppelin’s song. In a set of interviews to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary in 2018, Jimmy Page recalled that Stewart was actually the inspiration behind the entire song.
“At Headley Grange,” Page said, referring to the stately home where the group was recording their fourth album, “In this sitting room there was this really old piano, a baby grand piano. I remember John Paul Jones had gone over to it and said, ‘Hold on, that’s unplayable.’”
A certain keyboardist who happened to be visiting the recording sessions had other ideas, though. As Page remembers it, Stewart popped in mid-session to say hi. “He goes over to this piano and starts rolling out this incredible stuff.” Page and his bandmates didn’t need a second invitation. “We just did the song around him playing really.”
In the same recording session, Stewart recorded the instrumental track ‘Boogie with Stu’ alongside the band. This song wouldn’t surface until four years later, on Physical Graffiti alongside Kashmir.
Led Zeppelin wasn’t the only artist apart from the Stones that Stewart recorded with. His reputation as a respected blues pianist got him gigs with Howlin’ Wolf, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, among others. His untimely death from heart failure in 1985, at the age of just 47, was mourned by many of the music world’s leading lights. And he’s rightly remembered today for the pure, unadulterated rhythm and blues he lent to every song he played on.
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