BBC Sessions (Led Zeppelin album)

BBC Sessions
Line drawings of Led Zeppelin
Live album by
Led Zeppelin
Released17 November 1997 (1997-11-17)
RecordedMarch & June 1969, 1 April 1971,
London, England, UK
Genre
Length149:23
197:37 (2016 reissue)
LabelAtlantic
ProducerJimmy Page
CompilerJimmy Page
Led Zeppelin chronology
The Complete Studio Recordings
(1993) 		BBC Sessions
(1997) 		The Best of Led Zeppelin
(1999/2000)

BBC Sessions is a compilation album featuring studio sessions and a live concert recorded by English rock group Led Zeppelin for the BBC. It was released on 17 November 1997, by Atlantic Records.[1] Disc one consists of material from four different 1969 BBC sessions. Disc two contains most of the 1 April 1971 concert from the Paris Theatre in London.[2] Disc three was only included in a limited run of album releases and features rare interviews from 1969, 1976/1977, and 1990.

Countless bootlegs of these recordings circulated for years before the official release. This release was widely welcomed by Led Zeppelin fans as it was the first live release since The Song Remains the Same in 1976. Others have criticized the decision to edit some of the songs and drop others that were recorded for the BBC. Most notable are one session from 1969 which included the unreleased song "Sunshine Woman", and about seven minutes of the "Whole Lotta Love" medley from 1971.[3] The album was re-released in September 2016 as The Complete BBC Sessions with further BBC recordings, including the "Sunshine Woman" session.

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Blender[5]
Robert Christgau(neither)[6]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[7]
Pitchfork8.9/10[8]
Uncut[9]
  1. ^ "BPI".
  2. ^ Lewis, Dave (2003). "Led Zeppelin at the BBC". Led Zeppelin: The 'Tight but Loose' Files': Celebration II (1st ed.). London: Omnibus Press. p. 8. ISBN 1-84449-056-4.
  3. ^ Lewis, Dave (2004). "BBC Sessions". Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music (1st ed.). London: Omnibus Press. p. 76. ISBN 1-84449-141-2.
  4. ^ BBC Sessions at AllMusic
  5. ^ [1] Archived November 22, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: CG: led zeppelin". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  7. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  8. ^ [2] Archived February 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Huxley, Peter (December 1997). "Airwave To Heaven". Uncut. No. 7. p. 95.