Led Zeppelin III

Much of the acoustic material was written at Bron-Yr-Aur, a cottage in Wales with no running water or electricity, after the demanding 1970 touring. Recording used Olympic Studios, Headley Grange with the Rolling Stones' mobile studio, and Island, and the album was mixed at Ardent in Memphis in August 1970. Andy Johns engineered and mixed, and Terry Manning mixed and mastered.

Bron-Yr-Aur is an 18th-century cottage in Snowdonia above the Dyfi Valley, three miles north of Machynlleth, where Plant had holidayed with his family. Page's acoustic playing was influenced by Davey Graham and Bert Jansch. The first sessions were at Olympic in November 1969, and the band then rehearsed at Headley Grange. Recording ran from May to June 1970 at Headley Grange and Olympic, with more at Island in Notting Hill the next month, and the mixing at Ardent came part-way through the sixth American tour. Plant wrote every lyric except Tangerine, and Page said the band had 16 tracks to choose from. Immigrant Song is about the Viking invasions and was inspired by a short tour of Iceland in June 1970. Friends is in a C6 tuning with a string arrangement by Jones. Since I've Been Loving You is a C minor blues on which Jones played Hammond organ and bass pedals together. Out on the Tiles was mostly written by Bonham, and Bron-Y-Aur Stomp began as an electric track called Jennings Farm Blues, with Bonham playing spoons. Hats Off to (Roy) Harper is based on a Bukka White blues, with the arrangement credited to "Charles Obscure", a band in-joke.

Reaction was mixed at release. Lester Bangs called That's the Way beautiful and genuinely moving, AllMusic gave it five stars, and Q ranked it ninth in its 2004 list of the 50 best British albums. It was number one in the UK from 7 November 1970, and in the US it entered at number 3 before reaching number one.

The volvelle in Zacron's sleeve, a rotating card disc seen through holes in the cover, held up production for two months. Advance orders in the US alone were close to a million, and a full-page Melody Maker advertisement thanked buyers for making them the world's number one band. In the US it entered at number 3 on 24 October and reached number one the following week, and it was certified 2x Platinum in 1990 and 6x Platinum in 1999. Page said the poor press hurt him enough that he gave no interviews for 18 months, and that it was one reason the next album carried no written information. Robert Christgau gave it an A-minus. Outtakes from the sessions include Poor Tom, Hey Hey What Can I Do (the B-side of Immigrant Song), and Jennings Farm Blues and Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind, which appeared on the 2014 deluxe edition.