“Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin

"Good Times Bad Times" kicks off Led Zeppelin's 1969 debut album, and as an opening statement it's a knockout: pure muscle that tells you this is not your big brother's blues band. It was their first American single and made the Billboard Hot 100. All four members share the writing credit; it began life under the title "A Man I Know".

John Paul Jones worked out the riff on a Hammond organ and later called it the hardest he ever wrote, and one of the hardest to play. Jimmy Page, producing, played a Telecaster Jeff Beck had given him through a Tone Bender into a Supro amp, and sent his solo through a Leslie speaker so it spins and swirls. Robert Plant's vocals are mostly double-tracked, and John Bonham rattles off rapid triplets on a single bass drum, a trick that won the praise of Jimi Hendrix.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.