The name Jimmy Page is synonymous in the music industry. The Englishman achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the band Led Zeppelin. However, long before the rock band kicked off Page was making his mark on the music scene as a musician and was one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Britain.
Jimmy Page made immeasurable impact on the sound of popular music through the thousands of recording sessions he sat in on as an anonymous face inrecording studios around London in the early 1960s. While the full scale of Page’s session discography may never be known, he was a true renaissance man who had little trouble handling any style that came his way, but there is more than enough evidence to prove the significance of this future musical icon.
While still a student at Sutton Art College James Patrick ‘Jimmy’ Page was receiving offers for his remarkable talent in recording studios. His first studio job was for Jet Harris and fellow ex-Shadows drummer Tony Meehan for the recording of ‘Diamonds’ in 1963, which went straight to number one. Almost overnight Jimmy Page was heavily in demand in the musical world.
There was only one other English guitarist who had a solid reputation in the early-’60s and that was Big Jim Sullivan. In an interview with Dave Schulps, senior editor of Trouser Press, in 1977, Page said that anyone who was looking for a guitarist in the ’60s would either go to Sullivan or him. He secured work with record producer Shel Talmy and worked on songs for the Who and the Kinks. Among the many memorable songs Page worked on in the early-’60s, it was the title track for the third James Bond movie, Goldfinger, written by John Barry that really stands outs for me. Bassey’s incredible rendition of the song and the lush instrumentation of the arrangement allows for Page’s acoustic guitar work to really drive the song forward.
One of the first memorable guitar riffs credited to Jimmy Page was on The Nashville Teens’ biggest selling hit ‘Tobacco Road’ in 1964. Despite what their name suggests they were from Page’s home county of Surrey and their manager-producer was Mickie Most, a future manager of The Yardbirds. He brought in Jimmy Page to supply the tracks signature string bending riff.
His studio sessions in 1964 also included Marianne Faithfull’s ‘As Tears Go By’, the Rolling Stones’ ‘Heart of Stone’, Them and Van Morrison’s ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’, ‘Mystic Eyes’ and ‘Here Comes The Night’, Dave Berry’s ‘The Crying Game’, Brenda Lee’s ‘Is It True’ and Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’, which became a worldwide hit and gave Jimmy Page a taste of what it was like to sit atop the United States charts. With the influx of brass and orchestral arrangements being introduced into recordings, Jimmy Page was looking to leave studio work, but not before the doors of opportunity had fully opened.
The Yardbirds were a blue-rock/psych-pop band in the ’60s. When they formed in ’63 the core line-up was Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja and Paul Samwell-Smith. Top Topham joined them as lead guitarist, but was replaced by Eric Clapton. They scored their first major hit ‘For Your Love’ in March/April 1965 when the song reached the top of the charts in the UK and Canada, as well as being a top 10 hit in the United States. However, Clapton had other ideas for his musical talents and abruptly left the band. Clapton is said to have recommended Jimmy Page to The Yardbirds on his departure, and Page is said to have declined the offer out of loyalty to his friend and in turn recommended his friend Jeff Beck. As a thank you, Beck gave his friend Page the now famous 1959 Telecaster.
The natural prowess of successful lead guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page helped make The Yardbirds one of the most innovative rock groups of the ’60s, though it should be noted that the trio never played in the original group at the same time. When The Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith quit the band in 1966 nobody expected Jimmy Page to replace him, and especially not as a bass player but soon he was joint lead guitarist. Audiences went wild for the new combination, but the New Musical Express complained that the “outrageous cacophony” completely drowned out singer Keith Relf’s voice.
In between The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page re-entered the studios to help out Joe Cocker with his debut album With A Little Help From My Friends. The guitarist contributed to most of the tracks on the album, but it’s the cover of The Beatles title song that really stands out. His vibrato guitar riff at the start proceeds to match the snarling of Cocker throughout the song. It was another number one for Page and the first of two for Cocker.
In 1968, Jimmy Page recruited bassist John Paul Jones, vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham to form the iconic Led Zeppelin. By late-1970, their first two bluesy hard rock albums and the folk inspired third had won Led Zeppelin a huge audience. Their fourth album in 1971, Led Zeppelin IV, is widely regarded as their finest album, containing the epic ‘Stairway To Heaven’, written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and heralded the golden age of Led Zeppelin. If American FM radio play, sheet music sales, and magazine polls are any guide, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ is the most popular song ever recorded.
Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 following the death of Bonham. Page says he found it difficult to even touch a guitar, so heavy was his grief. However, he continued to collaborate and complete individual work. It was during this period he also started his philanthropic work.
In 2005, Jimmy Page was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his charity work with poor Brazilian children, while the following year Led Zeppelin was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. In December 2011, Page, Plant and Jones received the annual Kennedy Center Honors from then-president Barrack Obama, in recognition of Led Zeppelin’s profound influence on American culture. He continues to produce, record and perform.