BBC Sessions

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 11 November 1997, by Atlantic Records. This was the first release of new Led Zeppelin material in 15 years. LP’s 1 & 2 consists of material from four different 1969 BBC sessions. LP 3 & 4 contains most of the 1 April 1971 concert from the Paris Theater in London.

Countless bootlegs of these recordings circulated for years before the official release. This release was widely welcomed by Led Zeppelin fans as 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 7 minutes of the “Whole Lotta Love” medley from 1971.

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AMG)

Led Zeppelin’s BBC sessions were among the most popular bootleg items of the rock & roll era, appearing on a myriad of illegal records and CDs. They were all the more popular because of the lack of official Led Zeppelin live albums, especially since The Song Remains the Same failed to capture the essence of the band. For anyone who hadn’t heard the recordings, the mystique of Zeppelin’s BBC sessions was somewhat mystifying, but the official 1997 release of the double-disc BBC Sessions offered revelations for any fan who hadn’t yet heard this music.