On April 21, 1978, Led Zeppelin’s only guest vocalist throughout their entire discography died from complications that were a consequence of a strange habit her friends remembered as a “party trick.” The folk singer’s feature on Led Zeppelin IV was no small feat, considering the immense vocal prowess Robert Plant already brought to the band’s overall sound. She later recalled being hoarse by the end of the session trying to keep up with Plant.

Hoarseness aside, her contributions to the band’s 1971 album added greater dimension to their fourth untitled album, even garnering her her own Led Zeppelin symbol featured on the record

Led Zeppelin’s Only Guest Vocalist

Led Zeppelin’s fourth untitled album from 1971 opens with a straightforward rock ‘n’ roller, “Black Dog,” an energy that continues into the second track, “Rock and Roll.” But by the third track, the band brings things down into folk territory with “The Battle of Evermore.” The song is an acoustic guitar and mandolin-heavy track rife with Lord of the Rings references. Plant sings it as a duet with Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny, making it Led Zeppelin’s only guest vocalist feature. Each singer plays a different role in the story: Plant is the narrator, while Denny is the town crier.

In a 2019 episode of Digging Deep, the Robert Plant Podcast, the Led Zeppelin frontman described “The Battle of Evermore” as “an adventure in some dark place. Once upon a time, where the people are called together. There’s some kind of fanfare. You have two parts of the story. You have the impending sort of travesty on one hand, and on the other hand, you have this call to unity. I’d started to write it so that you had a section A that told the story of that. There would be a disaster. Then, I had a section B, which was the triumph and rallying. I tried to sing them both. It was a very insane idea.”