This hard-rocking track opens the predominantly acoustic "Led Zeppelin III" album. It was also released as a single in some countries (but, as usual for Led Zeppelin, not in the UK).
Blocked. It was a single in the US. It was one of four Zeppelin singles to crack the top 20. Whole Lotta Love peaked at #4. Immigrant Song hit #16. Black Dog #15. Finally, D'yer Mak'er made it to #20.
Led Zeppelin wouldn't release singles in the UK, despite being one of the biggest selling album bands of the 1970s, yet they had no objection to singles being released elsewhere. I think they should have released "Immigrant Song" as a UK single because the flipside ("Hey Hey What Can I Do") isn't on any of their albums. It was briefly available in the UK on a various artists compilation called "The New Age Of Atlantic" (released 1972 and deleted in 1974), but that didn't sell as well as any Led Zeppelin album and so the single imported from the US and other countries has long been sought after by Led Zeppelin fans. As it happens, I managed to get the US single on the same day that I bought the album, so I ended up with two copies of "Immigrant Song" in my collection - as an album track and as a single.
Here is the non-album B-side. Note that it's not as long as the video says. There's a long gap of silence at the end of this video.
