{"id":324949,"date":"2025-12-19T16:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324949\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T16:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:43:10","slug":"the-classic-songs-jimmy-page-played-as-a-session-guitarist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324949\/","title":{"rendered":"The classic songs Jimmy Page played as a session guitarist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jimmy<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Fri 19 December 2025 14:30, UK <\/p>\n

The debate over who the greatest rock and roll guitarist of all time is has waged on since the dawn of rock and roll itself, and it will likely continue to be discussed and dissected for many years to come. Whatever the truth of that debate, though, when it comes to sheer impact and influence, Jimmy Page<\/a> is inarguably up there. <\/p>\n

Everybody with even a passing knowledge of rock will be all too aware of Page\u2019s groundbreaking influence during the days of Led Zeppelin. Formed from the ashes of The Yardbirds, Zeppelin completely transformed the sound and style of rock forever, paving the way for the future of hard rock, metal, and arguably arena rock too. <\/p>\n

Throughout the entirety of their discography, the group rarely put a foot wrong, and that stunning discography rightly earned Page a seat among the all-time greatest guitar heroes. <\/p>\n

When you take a step back, though, Page\u2019s 12-year stint living the hedonistic lifestyle of Led Zeppelin\u2019s guitar god barely scratches the surface of his expansive influence on rock. After all, it isn\u2019t as though Page struck upon the musical mastery of that hard rock outfit on his first try; the band\u2019s 1969 debut was, in many ways, indebted to the guitarist\u2019s previous experience, stretching right back to the early 1960s, before the colourful Carnaby Street explosion had transformed the era. <\/p>\n

Before Led Zeppelin, and even before The Yardbirds, Page earned his crust as one of the most prolific and sought-after session guitarists in Britain; an axeman for hire embracing an unimaginable wealth of different projects without prejudice. From pop smashes to obscure muzak records<\/a> and future garage rock classics, Page\u2019s session days gave him an invaluable education in the wide spectrum of sounds filling up the hit parade, even if he often went uncredited for his work. <\/p>\n

\"Jimmy<\/a>Jimmy Page demonstrates his talents years after leaving session work behind. (Credits: Far Out \/ Dana Wullenwaber)<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything Jimmy Page wanted to do for Immediate, we let him. He was a lovely fella,\u201d Tony Calder of Immediate Records<\/a>, where Page\u2019s skills were in regular demand, once said of the young session artist. That relationship with Immediate also allowed Page to rub shoulders with the hippest and most happening stars of British rock, including The Rolling Stones \u2013 whose manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, founded Immediate \u2013 along with label mates Nico and Vashti Bunyan, among various others. <\/p>\n

Outside of Immediate, though, Page wasn\u2019t always given the credit or creative freedom he was due. You would, for instance, have no idea that it was the future Led Zeppelin guitarist backing Petula Clark on \u2018Downtown\u2019 or Shirley Bassey\u2019s legendary Bond theme \u2018Goldfinger\u2019 \u2013 the word \u2018underutilised\u2019 certainly comes to mind. Still, such is the thankless life of a session musician.<\/p>\n

Given the often uncredited nature of Page\u2019s session work, it is tricky to say with any certainty just how many recordings he played on, but the figure is likely in the hundreds. <\/p>\n

Some performances, however, have certainly risen to the top over the years, and we have compiled some notable highlights into a handy playlist, stretching from Van Morrison\u2019s garage blues masterpiece \u2018Baby Please Don\u2019t Go\u2019 to obscure Who B-sides and virtually every highlight from Donovan\u2019s early years. <\/p>\n

Most of these efforts, it must be said, bear no identifiable relation to Page\u2019s later style of playing; he was rarely hired to put his own spin on things, after all, just to play whatever was put in front of him. On a select few tracks, though, you can certainly make out the kind of quality that he\u2019d later expand upon with The Yardbirds and, later, Led Zeppelin. <\/p>\n

Either way, this broad selection of disparate session recordings makes up the early years of one of the greatest guitar heroes to ever grace the airwaves. <\/p>\n

Jimmy Page\u2019s classic session performances: Jet Harris and Tony Meehan \u2013 \u2018Diamonds\u2019Shirley Bassey \u2013 \u2018Goldfinger\u2019Nashville Teens \u2013 \u2018Tobacco Road\u2019Dave Berry \u2013 \u2018The Crying Game\u2019Brenda Lee \u2013 \u2018What\u2019d I Say\u2019The Rolling Stones \u2013 \u2018Heart of Stone\u2019Them \u2013 \u2018Baby, Please Don\u2019t Go\u2019Them \u2013 \u2018Here Comes The Night\u2019Petula Clark \u2013 \u2018Downtown\u2019Lulu and The Luvvers \u2013 \u2018Surprise, Surprise\u2019 The Kinks \u2013 \u2018I\u2019m A Lover, Not A Fighter\u2019Vashti Bunyan \u2013 \u2018Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind\u2019Nico \u2013 \u2018The Last Mile\u2019The Who \u2013 \u2018I Can\u2019t Explain\u2019The Who \u2013 \u2018Bald Headed Woman\u2019The Manish Boys \u2013 \u2018I Pity The Fool\u2019Marianne Faithfull \u2013 \u2018In My Time of Sorrow\u2019Donovan \u2013 \u2018Sunshine Superman\u2019Donovan \u2013 \u2018Season of the WitchDonovan \u2013 \u2018Hurdy Gurdy Man\u2019 Donovan \u2013 \u2018Teen Angel\u2019 Donovan \u2013 \u2018The Trip\u2019The Fleur De Lys \u2013 \u2019Circles\u2019Jeff Beck \u2013 \u2018Beck\u2019s Bolero\u2019Johnny Hallyday \u2013 \u2018A Tout Casser\u2019Joe Cocker \u2013 \u2018With a Little Help From My Friends\u2019<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Fri 19 December 2025 14:30, UK The debate over who the greatest rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,23795,127686,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-324949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jimmy-page","10":"tag-led-zeppelim","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}