Stairways to Heaven, Stairways to Hell (MP3s)

Here are 101 versions of the song that doesn't remain the same, depending on whether it's the the Australian music hall version, the Gilligan's Island version, the backwards version, the backwards splice-and-dice quarter note version, the glass harmonica version, the Doors version, the reggae version and on and on (all MP3s). Much of this came from former FMU DJ KBC's CD of the same name, which took much of it's content from this 1992 LP.

Dusty Cowshit   |   Hard-Ons   |   Little Roger & The Goosebumps   |   Rock Lobsters

Neil Pepper   |   SCTV   |   Glass Harp   |   Leonard Teale   |   Beatnix

Ludwig Von 88   |   Leif Norbergs   |   John Paul Young   |   Pardon Me Boys

Kalocin   |   Fargone Beauties   |   Richard Cheese   |   Robyne Dunn

Rolf Harris   |   GS Incorporated   |   Australian Doors Show 

Dixie Power Trio   |   Kate Ceberano & Ministry of Fun   |   Thomas Dimuzio

Sandra Kahn & Michael Turkic   |   Pat Boone   |   Tiny Tim & Brave Combo

Nashville Super Pickers   |   Congo Natty

Foo Fighters   |   Vienna Symphonic Orchestra   |   Dolly Parton

Nileppez Del   |   Dread Zeppelin   |   Leningrad Cowboys & The Red Army Chorus

Frank Zappa   |   Vegimite Reggae

UPDATE: Dutch artist Jeroen Offerman learned how to sing Stairway backwards. Here's a page about it from listener Neil's blog, with the full video. Thanks Mike and Neil!

UPDATE 2: Here's version number 39, an instrumental from Redd Kross. Thanks Arthur!

UPDATE 3: Here are a batch more versions I received since my original post. Click below the jump for 17 more Stairways:

Mitsuhiro Nishiwaki (Musicbox)   |   Nick Barker and The Reptiles   |   Splice of Life, Inc

Venetian Snares and Speedranch   |   Norelpref   |   Barry Crocker & The Doug Anthony Allstars

Etcetera Theater Company   |   Helen Jones   |   James Kochalka Superstar

Jodie Gillies   |   Judi Connell   |   London Symphony Orchestra

Far Corporation   |   Stanley Jordan   |   Sydney Philharmonia

Those Darn Accordians   |   Toys Went Berserk

Thanks to Norelpref, Eric, Lukas, Matt, Dan and Frank for this last batch!

Also, here is the Stairway Suite page, with MP3 samples of the song as if it were composed by six well known composers. Thanks to Dave B!

Will the number of Stairways we exceed the number of Tico Ticos? We're getting close...

UPDATE 4: Here are four more, bringing the grand total to 60. Thanks to: Lukas, Mark, John and Al!

Iron Maiden   |   Me First and The Gimme Gimmes

Milish   |   Rodrigo y Gabriela

UPDATE 5: We've done it! With the addition of these four versions, we've exceeded the number of versions of Tico Tico, and it's still rising. Will we reach 100 versions? Including in this batch is one by the National Cynical Network, which combined the first 50 or so covers for their version, and a mashup by DJ Earworm. Thanks Phineas, Earworm, Maarten and Noah!

National Cynical Network   |   DJ Earworm

Heavy Fuel   |   A Pretty Sunset

UPDATE 6: Alas, only two one new version to add today, plus a famous old andt-Stairway diatribe. But more are reportedly on the way. Thanks to Rich, Steven and Barrett! (Later, I realized I already linked Richard Cheese. This is a bad sign, when even I've lost track of what's up here...)

Die Zorros   |   Richard Cheese  |   Michael Mills (Spoken Diatribe)

UPDATE 6: Here's three more, courtesy of Eric and John:

Bellanova   |   Gregorian Masters of Chant   |   Guster

UPDATE 7: Our man in The Netherlands, Eric, has sent five four more: 

Vogelfrai   |   Not Moby   |  Final Fantasy X 

Unknown   |   Jose Padilla

UPDATE 8: Whoa - hit the jackpot today! Here are 14 more versions, including a Banjo version (Todd Taylor), a yodeling version (Mary Schneider), a string quartet and more. Thanks Eric (aka NaN), Carl and Theo!

Todd Taylor   |   Camper Van Beethoven   |   Mary Schneider, Yodeling Queen of Australia

Sisters of Mercy   |   White Skull   |   Sons of Ishmael   |   Whipper Snappers

Stereofeed String Quartet   |   Orchestra National De Jazz   |   Havanarama

Reverend Billy C Wirtz   |   Zakk Wylde   |    Johnny Bic

UPDATE 9: As we approach the 100 mark, I should announce now my intention to not turn Stairway To Heaven into my life's work - I'll be stopping additions when I reach 101 versions, although after  that point, I'll add new versions that are outstanding or unusual, and retire some of the more boring verrsions I've already posted. Here's seven more, thanks to Nan and Mr. You-Know-Who.

The Raleigh Ringers   |   The Sauerkraut Project   |   Steve Morse

The Lounge-O-Leers   |   Helloween   |   The Dick Twang Band (Dick's page)

The Symphonic Led Zeppelin

UPDATE 10: With these eight versions, we make it to a nice round 101 covers, and I hereby end this little project there. (I removed two other versions, one of which was a duplicate, and another which was a Zeppelin acoustic version!) I'm still open to receiving more versions and I may occasionally rotate dull versions out for new, unusual versions. But no more daily updates. Thanks to Diego, NaN and M-Slick da ninjA  for this final round, and thanks to everyone else who submitted versions in the last week!

Dash Rip Rock (Stairway to Freebird)   |   Short Attention Span Stairway

Jana  |    Iron Horse   |   Ann Wilson

 

Del Pueblo Del Barrio   |   Jon Brion   |   M-Slick da ninjA

UPDATE 11: I've eliminated a few misspellings pointed out in the comments, and also deleted links to identical songs with different titles. As a result, we've fallen below 101 versions. If anyone has a version not here, e-mail me at ken at wfmu dot org and I'll add it, so we can get back to 101. (I'm counting the backwards Dutch version as one of the original 101 versions.)

UPDATE 12: We're back up to 101 versions. Thanks Delano and Jeff! The previous version by Heart was in fact Ann Wilson solo, this is Heart live from 1976.

Renato & Tribuzy   |   Heart

Comments

[Adam]

Oh man the memories. I've had the Australian CD of Stairways to Heaven since I was 16. The Doors version is incredible -- so is the Beatnix one.

[mike]

this will be fun. thanks for this.

[vjb2]

I can't believe you left out perhaps the greatest cover of "Stairway" ever recorded: Finnish unicorn-pompadoured, elfen-shoed superstars Leningrad Cowboys, backed by the Soviet Red Army Mens Choir, off their tandem album "Happy Together."

[vjb2]

Ah. Y'must've slipped it in there while I was typing. Sneaky bastids. Yes, only explanation.

[Michael]

Hey Ken,
didn't Irwin cut Stairway down to less than a minute?
Is that one here?

[Mere]

There has been much to love about the WFMU blog. But only now do I bow and grovel before thee. And quote Pratchett:

"and then go down to the docks and hire a troll and tell him to stand in the corner and if anyone else comes in and tries to play 'Pathway to Paradise', I think they said it's called.......he's to pull their head off."
"What about a warning?"
"That will be the warning."

[Dave B.]

Some small clips, I wish I had the whole thing: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/Stairway.html

The Led Zepplin song "Stairway to Heaven" is a rock classic for some critics. Whether or not you agree, its notoriety is assured by the thousands of would-be guitarists who can play the first dozen bars badly: it is to the guitar what "Chopsticks" is to the piano. But what if Jimmy Page & Robert Plant hadn't written it? What if it had been written for orchestra in the 19th or 20th centuries? For a publicity stunt, "The Stairway Suite" was commisioned by the University of New South Wales Orchestra and written by Joe Wolfe. The clips below are from the original performance by UNSWO, with Colin Piper conducting. Recording engineer: Emery Schubert.

[norelpref]

Last year I strung excerpts from different versions of SWTH into one file.

Stare weigh 2 heaven

[Neal Burgess]

Okay for the record, that's not the Mothers of Invention playing it. It's the Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life. Frank dropped the Mothers name in the 70's and toured under his own name for the remainder of his career. Most frequently he would refer to the backing band as the Rockin' Teenage Combo. And no, Frank did not do his best stuff in the late 60's.

[Listener Sharon]

God bless you Ken Freedman!!!!!!

After a week of IRS woes, income malfunction, dental misery, a 10 alarm fire in my nabe and continuous snotty adolescent daughter attitude I am sitting here with a beatific smile on my face.

[fishspawned]

i salute you

i am searching my old cassette tapes to find a STH version i had accidentally taped off of the radio in the 80s by this band called the Power Generation - a total 80s synth out. crossing my fingers i can find it. perhaps someone has it out there?

[Dagger]

o mi god!

[lou]

Lenigrad Cowboys is the coolest version, The hard-Ons is the funniest. The Dutch cat's backwards version is awesome.He reminded me a bit of Gary Oldman playing the role of a deaf rock and roller. Oh wait, he did that in Immortal Beloved...

[Lukas]

Here is another one, ingeniously fucked up by Venetian Snares and Speedranch, from their CD Making Orange Things: They call it Halfway Up The Stairway Of Mucus (MP3).

[Lukas]

OK, one more, found in the dusty corners of an external hard drive: Splice of Life Inc - Spliceway to Heaven (MP3).

[Rev. Marc Time]

Everyone knows that these guys stole "Stairway" from the main riff in Spirit's "Taurus" from the first Spirit LP.

[patrick]

amazing , funny
i'm collecting the covers of the most important rock song if you are more I take mail me please
thank !!!!!

[Gravedigger]

I have at least two more versions but don't know how to post them.
Frank Zappa and Boston Pops

[Al]

There is, I believe, a version by "Me First and the Gimme Gimmes" around. But I don't have it to supply you.

[dare]

Frank Zappa is the founder of the "Mothers of Invention"...

[A.I.]

A cabbage is a "vegetable"...

[Gravedigger]

The 911 and the Cayenne are different cars but they're both Porsche ;-)
Frank Zappa had another version different to the one with Mothers of Invention.

[Al]

Unless you're counting the original, which isn't listed for download, there are, at this time, only 55 versions, not 56.

[Penguin_Biker]

theres a great version of it by Millish http://millish.com/listen.html

[mediocre]

I have 10 different versions of Stairway by Zappa...seems like it was a regular on one of his tours