10 Most Underrated Led Zeppelin Songs

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For Led Zeppelin fans, there are pretty much no underrated Led Zeppelin songs. The band only released original material over the span of about one decade. From 1969, to 1979 they delivered eight studio albums (we don’t count Coda as a studio album) that their hardcore fans devoured and listened to every day. They still do. Of course, I can only really speak for myself as a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but all I know is that I still constantly play their music because it brings me great joy and stirs up a lot of memories. I know I’m not alone in that, so finding ten underrated songs from Led Zeppelin’s catalog for fans like myself and other hardcore followers is probably pretty impossible.

However, there are many people out there, especially younger listeners, who might not be as familiar with their deeper tracks. They’ve heard the hits, of course, like “Kashmir,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Rock and Roll,” “Black Dog,” and “Whole Lotta Love,” but there are a lot of deeper album tracks they may not have discovered yet. There’s also some rare material—songs that weren’t released on any of the studio albums—that we’ll present here. In the end, at least for us, it’s always a joy to write about Led Zeppelin, and we will continue to do so because this is classic rock history, baby.

# 10 – “The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair” – BBC Sessions

We wanted to start with something really special—perhaps even a Led Zeppelin song that many fans have never heard before. This is a rare one, originally released on The BBC Sessions CD in 1997. If you don’t have The BBC Sessions in your collection, you’re missing out on some truly great Led Zeppelin performances. This is the only album that this song appeared on. It was originally recorded on June 16, 1969, for Chris Grant’s Tasty Pop Sundae show. This is early Led Zeppelin, but listen to that riff Jimmy Page wrote—it’s incredible. This is a great piece of music inspired, of course, by the 1929 blues song “The Girl I Love She Got Long Curly Hair.”

# 9 – Sugar Mama – Coda Deluxe

After the passing of John Bonham in 1980 and the band calling it quits, the only new music we got from Led Zeppelin was in the form of an outtakes album called Coda. Of course, many Led Zeppelin fans were initially disappointed with the album after celebrating a decade of wonderful music from the band. However, over time, we’ve come to appreciate Coda a lot more. In 2014, Jimmy Page helped put together the Led Zeppelin Deluxe Editions of their entire catalog, and one of the standout releases was the deluxe edition of Coda, which featured some great material, including the fabulous track “Sugar Mama.”

“Sugar Mama” is actually an old blues tune that Led Zeppelin pretty much rewrote themselves, as they did with many blues songs. Anyone who was a collector of Led Zeppelin bootlegs could easily find this track, but it was officially released on Coda in 2015 as part of the deluxe edition.

# 8 – Out on the Tiles – Led Zeppelin III

We didn’t want this list to focus solely on outtakes or unreleased deluxe edition Led Zeppelin songs. Instead, we wanted to highlight some genuinely underrated tracks that were officially released during their 1970s output. One that stands out pretty well is “Out on the Tiles,” which was released on Led Zeppelin III. This song was written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Bonham. Quite often, the band would use a snippet of this track to open up “Black Dog” during live performances.

“Out on the Tiles” has a fantastic riff, and we truly believe it’s one of the most underrated Led Zeppelin songs. In fact, there’s a lot of material on Led Zeppelin III that tends to be a bit overlooked.

# 7 – Royal Orleans – Presence

I have always loved the Presence album. Maybe it’s because I saw the tour that promoted this album in 1977. However, for whatever reason—except perhaps “Achilles Last Stand”—this is an album filled with songs that never really became Led Zeppelin classics. I think this album is often overlooked by classic rock radio and maybe even in discussions about Led Zeppelin albums. One of the killer tracks is “Royal Orleans,” which closes out side one. It was also the B-side of the single “Candy Store Rock,” which was the only single released from the album. Led Zeppelin didn’t release many singles from their records, but they did with this one.

# 6 – Live Officially released version of “Whole Lotta Love” with “Boogie Chillun” “Let’s Have a Party” “Hello Mary Lou” “Going Down Slow”

How the West Was Won (Super Deluxe Box Set)

Of course, “Whole Lotta Love” is not an underrated Led Zeppelin song—it’s probably one of the most famous Led Zeppelin songs of all time, next to “Stairway to Heaven.” However, not a lot of people have heard the live version of “Whole Lotta Love” that includes a medley of four other rock songs. This 23-minute live version appeared on the triple CD set How the West Was Won in 2003. If you don’t have this live album, we highly recommend it. I think there are many hardcore Led Zeppelin fans who might have lost track of some of the more modern releases and may not have this one in their collection. Listen to the sound of Jimmy Page’s guitars and those heart-stopping drums of Bonham. Oh, baby!

# 5 – White Summer – BBC Sessions

This one is for the Jimmy Page fans. “White Summer” may be one of the most bootlegged Led Zeppelin live recordings of all time. There are bootlegs simply titled White Summer. However, Led Zeppelin fans finally got an official live version of this great Jimmy Page piece when it was released on The BBC Sessions. For the first six-plus minutes, it’s pretty much just a Jimmy Page guitar solo until Bonham and Jones jump in on the fun. It was originally recorded at the Playhouse Theatre on October 8, 1969.

# 4 – I’m Gonna Crawl – In Through The Out Door

In Through the out Door (Deluxe Edition)

And just like that, it was all over. “I’m Gonna Crawl” is the final Led Zeppelin song ever released while John Bonham was still alive. It was the closing track on their final album, In Through the Out Door. Perhaps that’s why we placed it on this list—out of sentiment. However, in actuality, this is a song that hasn’t received much airplay. It’s a lengthy track, clocking in at over ten minutes, and is a slow blues recording with orchestrated strings. It’s one of the most unusual songs in their catalog, but we’ve looked past all of that because it marks the end of the greatest rock band of all time.

# 3 – Friends – Led Zeppelin III

underrated Led Zeppelin songs list. I think you’re probably getting the point that we believe Led Zeppelin III is the band’s most underrated album. One of the reasons for that is because it was more of an acoustic-based album compared to the first two records and much of the rest of their catalog. Led Zeppelin III is also squeezed in between Led Zeppelin II and, of course, Led Zeppelin IV, which are probably the band’s two most popular albums, along with Physical Graffiti, which is our favorite.. For many Led Zeppelin fans, this was a wonderful record and one of the most beloved albums. However, there are many casual fans who have long overlooked this album, and that’s a shame because it’s truly great.

Of course, the album is fueled by one of the biggest hits of their career, “The Immigrant Song,” but there are many other classics here like “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” “Celebration Day,” “Tangerine,” and “Gallows Pole.” But perhaps the song that has gotten a bit lost in the shuffle is the second track on side one, “Friends,” which follows “The Immigrant Song.” This one is a real keeper for us, and we’re glad to include it on this list.

# 2 – “Travelling Riverside Blues”

Whenever we hear these next two songs on this list, we shake our heads wondering why neither of these tracks were ever released on one of Led Zeppelin’s original studio albums. “Traveling Riverside Blues” was originally written by Robert Johnson. It made its first official appearance on CD when Led Zeppelin included it on their Led Zeppelin box set, released in October of 1990. The version released on the box set was originally recorded on June 24, 1969. It would appear again on The BBC Sessions.

Of course, hardcore Led Zeppelin fans had already heard this tune, but it’s definitely one of their most underrated recordings, primarily because of its late release—years after the band had already broken up.

# 1 – Hey, Hey, What Can I Do

We close out our “10 Most Underrated Led Zeppelin Songs” list with one of the band’s most beloved tracks among Led Zeppelin collectors. This one was officially released, but not on a studio album—it was released as the B-side to “The Immigrant Song.” I’ve written about this song many times on the site, even dedicating an entire article to it, so I won’t repeat myself here. However, if you’ve never heard this one before, take a listen, and then ask yourself, why, oh why, was this not released on Led Zeppelin III?