The Complete BBC Sessions

• Track Listing

In ’97, Zeppelin fans were thrilled to welcome a 2-CD set of the band’s 1969–71 BBC performances. Now, those fans are about to climb the stairway to hard-rock heaven all over again, as this new set brings you those previously released recordings PLUS eight previously unreleased BBC performances. Those rescued treasures are stellar live-in-the-studio renditions of "Communication Breakdown" (two versions), "What Is and What Should Never Be" (two versions), "Dazed and Confused," "You Shook Me," "I Can’t Quit You Baby" and the rare heavy-blues tune "Sunshine Woman" (the only recording of that song, featuring scorching solos on guitar, piano and harmonica). The telepathy and power of these performances make them absolutely essential, and it’s really something to hear the band grow over the years represented here. Among the other songs Plant, Page, Jones and Bonham dig into: "Travelling Riverside Blues," "Immigrant Song," "Black Dog," "Heartbreaker," "How Many More Times" and more rarities like "The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair" and "Somethin’ Else." You get the CDs as well as the 180-gram vinyl LPs if you get the super deluxe set, which adds a 48-page book packed with photos, BBC memorabilia and session details plus a high-quality print of the original album cover. What’s especially precious here are all the previously unheard, spontaneous, mind-blowing drum outbursts by the long-gone John Bonham, and the amazingly tight grooves he puts down with John Paul Jones. You know it: you need this! Atlantic.