1973 Hard Rock Ballad From One of the 'Greatest Albums of All Time' Is Still a Moving Masterpiece 53 Years Later

There are epic songs and then there are...epic songs, and any Led Zeppelin fan worth their salt will tell you that "The Rain Song" falls into the latter category. Originally released on the iconic 1973 album Houses of the Holy, the dreamy track clocks in at over seven minutes long - and while it might be a powerful ballad, please don't call it a power ballad. It's much more than that.

As famed producer Rick Rubin once said, per American Songwriter, "I don't even know what kind of music ["The Rain Song"] is. It defies classification. There's such tasteful, beautiful detail in the guitar and a triumphant feel when the drums come in - it's sad and moody and strong, all at the same time. I could listen to this song all day. That would be a good day."

And to think, "The Rain Song" might never have existed without George Harrison, who presented Led Zeppelin with a musical challenge.

Jimmy Page recounted the story to music journalist Brad Tolinski for the book Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page:

"George was talking to Bonzo [John Bonham] one evening and said, 'The problem with you guys is that you never do ballads.' I said, 'I'll give him a ballad,' and I wrote 'Rain Song,' which appears on Houses of the Holy. In fact, you'll notice I even quote 'Something' in the song's first two chords."

Decades later, fans are still indebted to Harrison's suggestion. And they're not the only ones. When Rolling Stone ranked Houses of the Holy #278 on 2020's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list, the honor paid special attention to "The Rain Song" for "featuring one of Robert Plant's most amazing vocals" - an assessment Plant himself agreed with in a 2005 interview.

"I'd say that on ‘Rain Song,' I sounded best. I'd reached a point where I knew that to get good, I couldn't repeat myself," he said. "The high falsetto screams had become quite a kind of calling card. Nowadays, I learn new techniques on my trips to Mali and southern Morocco. I know about restraint and power and using my voice to insinuate."

It seems Plant's appreciation for "The Rain Song" grew over the years, as he cited "The Ocean" as his best vocal in a 1980 interview with Tony Bacon.

"‘The Rain Song' was - well, it's fodder for sarcasm now," Plant said at the time. "Because, surely, you can't look at all this too seriously. But looking at it now as some sweet little thing, which it was in its directness and its sincerity - it was a nice little vocal. But it's very hard to sing it as the springtime of my loving at 39 in my manager's kitchen."

Little did Plant know at the time that he'd still be singing "The Rain Song" in concert decades later.

Related: Legendary Rocker, 77, Stuns Fans Performing '70s Classic: 'He Still Sounds Incredible'

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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 9:41 PM.