Editing Led Zeppelin II (section)

==Legacy and reappraisal==
{{Album reviews
| title = Retrospective professional ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{Cite web 
|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/led-zeppelin-ii-mw0000190649 |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine|title=''Led Zeppelin II'': Review|website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=11 June 2023}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.blender.com/guide/back-catalogue/52612/led-zeppelin-ii.html |title=Review |magazine=[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]] |access-date=3 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090819225839/http://www.blender.com/guide/back-catalogue/52612/led-zeppelin-ii.html |archive-date=19 August 2009}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
| rev3score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|year=2006|publisher=MUZE|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|page=141|isbn=0195313739|edition=4th|volume=5|title-link=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''
| rev4score = A+<ref>{{cite web |author=Tom Sinclair |url=http://www.ew.com/article/2003/06/20/recordsled-zeppelin |title=Entertainment Weekly Review |publisher=Ew.com |date=20 June 2003 |access-date=1 January 2012 |archive-date=5 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205135710/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,458337,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[MusicHound|MusicHound Rock]]''
| rev5score = 4.5/5<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Graff|editor-first1=Gary|editor-last2=Durchholz|editor-first2=Daniel|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Farmington Hills, MI|year=1999|isbn=1-57859-061-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578590612/page/662 662]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578590612/page/662}}</ref>
| rev6 = ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
| rev6score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.q4music.com/nav?page=q4music.review.redirect&fixture_review=124582&resource=124582&fixture_artist=144739 |title=Q (magazine)&#124;Q Review |publisher=Q4music.com |access-date=1 January 2012 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223425/http://www.q4music.com/nav?page=q4music.review.redirect&fixture_review=124582&resource=124582&fixture_artist=144739 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| rev7 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev7score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{sfn|Brackett|Hoard|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lRgtYCC6OUwC&pg=PA479 479]}}
| rev8 = ''[[Tom Hull – on the Web]]''
| rev8score = B+<ref>{{cite web|last=Hull|first=Tom|date=n.d.|url=http://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/get_gl.php?n=Led+Zeppelin|title=Grade List: Led Zeppelin|website=Tom Hull – on the Web|access-date=18 July 2020|archive-date=18 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718153558/http://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/get_gl.php?n=Led+Zeppelin|url-status=live}}</ref>
}}
''Led Zeppelin II'' has since been regarded as the quintessential hard rock and heavy metal album.{{sfn|Rosen|1996|p=1967}} [[AllMusic]] editor [[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]] said it "provided the blueprint for all the heavy metal bands that followed it".<ref name="allmusicguide" /> While crediting the band for essentially inventing metal, [[Tom Hull (critic)|Tom Hull]] said that, after the first album had declared their musical ambition, "the second honed it down to a singular entity, a sound", with subsequent albums expanding on it in "sophisticated, subtler, often quite intelligent" ways, but still indebted to "the basic dumbness" of ''II'' – "dumb not in the sense of stupid but of non-speaking. Lyrics are there of course, but as an integral part of the music, a music better appropriated tactilely, through incoherent sensation, than intellectually, literarily."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Hull|first=Tom|date=April 1975|url=http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/arch/rekord4.php|title=The Rekord Report: L'Objet Rèpris|magazine=Overdose|access-date=June 26, 2020|via=tomhull.com|archive-date=19 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919121206/http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/arch/rekord4.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

The album was described as a "brilliant if heavy-handed blues-rock offensive", by popular music scholar Ronald Zalkind.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zalkind|first=Ronald|year=1980|title=Contemporary Music Almanac|url=https://archive.org/details/contemporarymusi00zalk|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/contemporarymusi00zalk/page/255 255]}}</ref> According to Robert Santelli's ''The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia'' (2001), Led Zeppelin "had already begun to move beyond its blues-rock influences, venturing into previously unexplored hard-rock territories".<ref>{{cite book|last=Santelli|first=Robert|year=2001|title=The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/bigbookofbluesbi00sant/page/290 290]|isbn=0141001453|url=https://archive.org/details/bigbookofbluesbi00sant/page/290}}</ref> Blues-derived songs like "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "The Lemon Song", "Moby Dick", and "Bring It On Home" have been seen as representing standards of the metal genre, where the guitar-based riff (rather than vocal [[Refrain|chorus]] or [[Verse-chorus form|verses]]) defines the song and provides the key hook.{{sfn|Lewis|1990|pp=47–48}} Such arrangements and emphasis were at the time atypical in popular music.<ref name="allmusicguide" /> Page's guitar solo in "Heartbreaker" was an influence on later renowned guitarists [[Eddie Van Halen]], as inspiration for his [[tapping|two-handed tapping]] technique, and [[Steve Vai]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://societyofrock.com/led-zeppelin-1979-heartbreaker-performance-is-giving-us-a-dose-of-70s-nostalgia/|title = Led Zeppelin 1979 'Heartbreaker' Performance is Giving Us a Dose of 70s Nostalgia| date=25 March 2021 }}</ref>

Since its initial critical reception, ''Led Zeppelin II'' has earned several accolades from music publications, being ranked on critics' "best album" lists. In 1989, ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' magazine ranked the album No. 5 on its list of ''The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time''.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line --> |title=The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-bxxO5B-xsC&pg=PA46|magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]|location=New York|page=46|date=April 1989|volume=5|number=1|access-date=January 22, 2024}}</ref> In 1990, ''[[CD Review]]'' ranked it sixth on their list of top 50 CDs for starting a "pop/rock" library; an accompanying blurb described the album as "white boy blues with a hard rock edge".<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[CD Review]]|page=42|title=Pop/Rock Library|year=1990|volume=6|issue=7–12}}</ref> In 2000, ''[[Q magazine|Q]]'' magazine placed ''Led Zeppelin II'' at number 37 in its list of the ''100 Greatest British Albums Ever''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080927033247/http://www.tower.com/led-zeppelin-ii-cd/wapi/106059568 Tower: Led Zeppelin II]. Tower.com. Retrieved 11 February 2009.</ref> In 2003, the album was ranked number 75 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine's list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 greatest albums of all time]],<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/led-zeppelin-ii-led-zeppelin-19691231|title=75) Led Zeppelin II|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=11 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218173858/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/led-zeppelin-ii-led-zeppelin-19691231|archive-date=18 December 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> 79 in a 2012 revised list,<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/led-zeppelin-led-zeppelin-ii-159313/| year=2012| title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time| publisher=[[Rolling Stone]]| access-date=September 23, 2019| archive-date=23 September 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923101237/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/led-zeppelin-led-zeppelin-ii-159313/| url-status=live}}</ref> and 123 in a 2020 revised list.<ref name="auto">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/led-zeppelin-led-zeppelin-ii-2-1063110/ |title=Led Zeppelin II ranked 123rd greatest album by Rolling Stone magazine|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=28 September 2020}}</ref> The album was also included in the book ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Robert Dimery|author2=Michael Lydon|title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition|date=7 February 2006|publisher=Universe|isbn=0-7893-1371-5}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|+Accolades for ''Led Zeppelin II''
! Publication
! Country
! Accolade
! Year
! style="text-align:center;"|Rank
|-
| [[Grammy Award]]
| United States
| "[[Grammy Award for Best Recording Package]]"<ref>{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/659946842.html?dids=659946842:659946842&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Feb+09%2C+1970&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Blood%2C+Sweat+and+Tears+Tops+Grammy+Nominations&pqatl=google | title=Grammy Award for Best Recording Package (David Juniper)&nbsp;– 11 March 1970 | access-date=10 February 2009 | publisher=Grammy | date=9 February 1970 | archive-date=19 October 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019131527/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/659946842.html?dids=659946842:659946842&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Feb+09,+1970&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Blood,+Sweat+and+Tears+Tops+Grammy+Nominations&pqatl=google | url-status=dead }}</ref>
| 1970
| Nominee
|-
| ''[[Guitarist (magazine)|Guitarist]]''
| United Kingdom
| "Top 50 Most Influential Guitar Albums of All Time Ever"<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/50.html#guitaral | title=Top 50 Most Influential Guitar Albums of All Time Ever&nbsp;– December 1994 | access-date=10 February 2009 | work=Guitarist | archive-date=18 July 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718181914/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/50.html#guitaral | url-status=usurped }}</ref>
| 1994
| 3
|-
|''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''
| United Kingdom
| "The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made"<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/mojo_p3.htm#albums| title=The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made&nbsp;– January 1996| access-date=10 February 2009| work=Mojo| archive-date=16 May 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516020830/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/mojo_p3.htm#albums| url-status=usurped}}</ref>
| 1996
| 41
|-
| Platendraaier
| The Netherlands – Dutch
| "Top 30 Albums of the 60s"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.platendraaier.nl/toplijsten/top-30-albums-van-de-jaren-60/|title=Top 30 albums van de jaren 60&nbsp;– October 2015|access-date=3 October 2015|work=Platendraaier|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911072905/https://www.platendraaier.nl/toplijsten/top-30-albums-van-de-jaren-60/|archive-date=11 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| 2015
| 11
|-
| The Guitar
| United States
| "Album of the Millennium"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/50.html#guitaralbum|title=Album of the Millennium&nbsp;– December 1999|access-date=10 February 2009|work=The Guitar|archive-date=18 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718181914/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/50.html#guitaralbum|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
| 1999
| 6
|-
|''[[Rolling Stone]]''
|United States
|"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"<ref name="auto"/>
|2020
|123
|-
|''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
| United Kingdom
| "100 Greatest Albums Ever"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage2.html#Jan%202003|title=100 Greatest Albums Ever&nbsp;– January 2003|access-date=10 February 2009|work=Q|archive-date=19 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019101341/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage2.html#Jan%202003|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
| 2003
| 37
|-
|''Rock Hard''
|[[Germany]]
|"The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time"<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Rensen|editor-first= Michael|title=Best of Rock & Metal – Die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten|language=de|year=2005|publisher=[[Rock Hard (magazine)|Rock Hard]]|isbn=3-89880-517-4|page=83}}</ref>
|2005
|318
|-
| Robert Dimery
| United States
| "[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]"<ref name="1001albums">{{cite news|first=Robert |last=Dimery |title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die|publisher=Universe |location= [[New York City|New York]], [[New York (state)|NY]] |isbn=0-7893-1371-5 |page=156 |date=7 February 2006}}</ref>
| 2006
| *
|-
| ''[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]]''
| United Kingdom
| "100 Greatest British Rock Album Ever"<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/classicrock2.htm | title=Classic Rock&nbsp;– 100 Greatest British Rock Album Ever&nbsp;– April 2006 | access-date=10 February 2009 | work=Classic Rock | archive-date=15 May 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515072650/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/classicrock2.htm | url-status=usurped }}</ref>
| 2006
| 8
|-
| [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]]
| United States
| "The Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time"<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rockhall.com/pressroom/definitive-200|title= The Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227224922/http://rockhall.com/pressroom/definitive-200 |archive-date=27 February 2009|access-date=10 February 2009|work=Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (United States)}}</ref>
| 2007
| 47
|-
| ''Q''
| United Kingdom
| "50 Years of Great British Music (1960s)"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage3.htm#50%20Years%20of%20Great%20British%20Music|title=50 Years of Great British Music&nbsp;– March 2008|access-date=10 February 2009|work=Q|archive-date=5 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605073408/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage3.htm#50%20Years%20of%20Great%20British%20Music|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
| 2008
| *
|}

{{small|(*) designates unordered lists.}}