“Whole Lotta Love” is Led Zeppelin’s most sexually explicit song — “love” can be replaced by both “sex” and “penis” in different sections. The track was largely inspired by Willie Dixon’s blues track “You Need Love,” recorded by Muddy Waters. A 1972 lawsuit saw Dixon sue the band for copyright infr...
[Intro: Laughter]
[Verse 1]
You need cooling
Baby, I'm not fooling
I'm gonna send you back to schooling
Way down inside
Honey, you need it
I'm gonna give you my love
I'm gonna give you my love, oh
[Chorus]
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
[Verse 2]
You've been learning
Baby, I been learning
All them good times
Baby, baby, I've been yearning
Way, way down inside
Honey, you need it
I'm gonna give you my love
I'm gonna give you my love, oh
[Chorus]
Whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
[Instrumental Break]
[Interlude]
Ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah ah ah ah ah
Love
Love
[Instrumental Break]
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 3]
You've been cooling
Baby, I've been drooling
All the good times, baby
I've been misusing
Way, way down inside
I'm gonna give you my love
I'm gonna give you every inch of my love
I'm gonna give you my love
Yeah, alright, let's go
[Chorus]
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
[Outro]
Way down inside
Woman
You need
Love
My, my, my, my
My, my, my, my, oh
Shake for me, girl
I wanna be your backdoor man
Hey, oh
Hey, oh
Hey, oh
Ooh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Ooh, my, my baby
Keep it cooling, baby
Keep it cooling, baby
Keep it cooling, baby
Ah, keep it cooling, baby
Ah, ah, ah
Whole Lotta Love was written by Robert Plant & Jimmy Page & John Bonham & Willie Dixon & John Paul Jones.
Whole Lotta Love was produced by Jimmy Page.
Led Zeppelin released Whole Lotta Love on Wed Oct 22 1969.
Guitarist Jimmy Page told Guitar World Magazine:
I had [the riff in the middle of the song] worked out already before entering the studio. I had rehearsed it. And then all of that other stuff, sonic wave sound and all that, I built it up in the studio, and put effects on it and things, treatments....
Kramer has been quoted as saying the following about the outro:
Zep II was mixed over a two day period in New York, and at one point there was bleed-through of a previously recorded vocal in the recording of ‘Whole Lotta Love.’ It was the middle part where Robert [Plant vocalist] screams ‘Wo-man, y...
Jimmy performed the song with Leona Lewis at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. He told Uncut:
I’d be very sincere if I said that doing the Olympics with Leona Lewis was phenomenal. She’s really plucky, she’s superb, and she sang ‘Whole Lotta Love’ brilliantly. In actually fact we managed to do t...
Rolling Stone ranked it as Led Zeppelin’s best song, saying:
Led Zeppelin’s defining song – obscene, brutish and utterly awesome. ‘Way down inside,’ squeals Robert Plant, ‘I’m gonna give you every inch of my love’ – adding, ‘I wanna be your backdoor man!’ just for extra romance. His post-verbal sin...