David Juniper Signed Led Zeppelin II Album.

JUNIPER, David. [Led Zeppelin].

$1,600.00

Item Number: 134256

Burbank, CA: Atlantic Recording Corporation, 2014.

A fine example of Led Zeppelin’s greatest albums which earned album cover artist David Juniper a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package. Lengthily signed on the front panel by album cover artist David Juniper, “The music of Led Zeppelin I had blown me away and so on spec, I mocked up a fold-out design for the second album and took it [to] Led Zeppelin’s manager. David Juniper. Designer of the cover art for Led Zeppelin II.” David Juniper was was a classmate of Jimmy Page’s at Sutton Art College in Surrey. His clever design for Led Zeppelin II was based on a photograph of the Jagdstaffel 11 Division of the German Air Force during World War I, the Flying Circus led by the Red Baron. Juniper replaced four of the flyers’ heads with photos of the band members, added facial hair and sunglasses to some of the flyers’ faces or replaced some with the faces of other people. The blonde-haired woman is French actress Delphine Seyrig in her role as Marie-Magdalene in the film Mr. Freedom, a leftist anti-war satire by William Klein. In fine condition.

Led Zeppelin II was conceived during a busy period of Led Zeppelin's career from January through August 1969, when they completed four European and three American concert tours. The finished tracks reflect the band's evolving musical style of blues-derived material and their guitar riff-based sound and it has been described as the band's heaviest album, and even the quintessential heavy metal album. Led Zeppelin II was a commercial success, and was the band's first album to reach number one on charts in the UK and the US. The album's cover designer David Juniper was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in 1970. The album also yielded Led Zeppelin's biggest hit, "Whole Lotta Love". This song reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970, after Atlantic went against the group's wishes by releasing a shorter version on 45. The single's B-side, "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)", also hit the Billboard chart, peaking at No. 65 in April 1970. The album helped establish Led Zeppelin as an international concert attraction, and for the next year, the group continued to tour relentlessly, initially performing in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums and eventually stadiums as their popularity grew.