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Stairway to Heaven
Lead vocals: Man
Taal: Engels
Stairway to Heaven is een nummer van de Britse rockband Led Zeppelin. Het werd in 1971 uitgebracht op het album Led Zeppelin IV. Het nummer is geschreven door gitarist Jimmy Page en zanger Robert Plant.
Het wordt geregeld genoemd als het beste rocknummer uit de 20e eeuw. Het nummer is een vaak aangehaald voorbeeld van het genre progressieve rock en wordt vaak op de radio aangevraagd. Tevens is het een veelgehoord nummer op begrafenissen. Van de bladmuziek van Stairway to Heaven zijn opmerkelijk veel exemplaren verkocht: 1,2 miljoen.
"Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released on 8 November 1971 on the band's untitled fourth studio album (commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV), by Atlantic Records. Composed by the band's guitarist Jimmy Page with lyrics written by lead singer Robert Plant, it is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock songs of all time.
The song has three sections, each one progressively increasing in tempo and volume. The song begins in a slow tempo with acoustic instruments (guitar and recorders) before introducing electric instruments. The final section is an uptempo hard rock arrangement, highlighted by Page's guitar solo and Plant's vocals, which ends with the plaintive a cappella line: "And she's buying a stairway to heaven".
"Stairway to Heaven" was voted number three in 2000 by VH1 on its list of the "100 Greatest Rock Songs", in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Stairway to Heaven" number 31 on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. It was the most-requested song on FM radio stations in the United States at the time, despite never having been commercially released as a single in the US. In November 2007, through download sales promoting Led Zeppelin's Mothership release, "Stairway to Heaven" reached number 37 on the UK Singles Chart.