The song originated in 1970 when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were spending time at Bron-Yr-Aur , a remote cottage in Wales , following Led Zeppelin 's fifth American concert tour . According to Page , he wrote the music " over a long period , the first part coming at Bron-Yr-Aur one night " . Page always kept a cassette recorder around , and the idea for " Stairway " came together from bits of taped music : The first attempts at lyrics , written by Robert Plant next to an evening log fire at Headley Grange , were partly spontaneously improvised and Page claimed , " a huge percentage of the lyrics were written there and then " . Jimmy Page was strumming the chords and Robert Plant had a pencil and paper . The complete studio recording was released on '' Led Zeppelin IV '' in November 1971 . The band 's record label , Atlantic Records was keen to issue this track as a single , but the band 's manager Peter Grant refused requests to do so in both 1972 and 1973 . This led many people to buy the fourth album as if it were the single . In the US , Atlantic issued " Stairway to Heaven " as a 7 " promotional single in 1972
fifth American concert tour
Led Zeppelin North American Tour Spring 1970
Stairway to Heaven