Led Zeppelin III Recording and Release History

Led Zeppelin III was released on October 6, 1970, displaying the band's shift toward a more folk and acoustic sound. The original UK edition was issued in October 1970 on the orange and plum Atlantic label, distributed by Polydor. The cover was designed by Zacron, a former Kings Collage of Art student Jimmy Page met in the early 1960s. In 2014, the album was remastered by Jimmy Page and re-released as a deluxe edition.

Led Zeppelin was the first band to record at the new Island Studio 2 in London during the production of their third album. Several tracks from the sessions were held for subsequent releases: the acoustic instrumental Bron-Yr-Aur was removed from the album and later included on Physical Graffiti, while Down By The Seaside, The Rover, and Poor Tom were also worked on during the sessions and issued on later albums.

Friends was conceived by Jimmy Page in early 1970 on the balcony of his boathouse home in Pangbourne, and was re-recorded in India with the Bombay Orchestra in 1972. Page discovered Gallows Pole on Fred Gerlach's 1962 album 12 String Guitar. That’s The Way was originally titled The Boy Next Door, which Robert Plant performed at the Bath Festival on June 28, 1970. Immigrant Song was planned as a UK single before being shelved, and a cover by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Karen O of Yeah Yeahs was later used in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack.