The trailer for Greta Gerwig’s long-awaited Netflix movie Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew dropped earlier this week. Narnia fans were delighted to catch their first glimpse of child actors David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell as the characters Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, along with a peek of author C.S. Lewis’ mythical land and its magical inhabitants. But classic rock fans were barely able to process any of that once “Stairway to Heaven” began playing.
Simply put, “Stairway to Heaven” is one of the most difficult works in music history to license for on-screen use. There have been several notable attempts over the years, but Jimmy Page and Robert Plant control their own publishing, and they hold onto this particular song quite tight for more than 50 years.
In order to secure the rights for the trailer, Gerwig had to appeal directly to them. “I talked to them about a lot of the themes of the film,” Gerwig told Stephen Colbert at the New York premiere of the movie. “They saw the heart and the story and the drama in it…. It’s an epic song. It’s about the two paths of good and evil…. It is a spiritual quest and a spiritual journey. So to me, this was a song that made sense to introduce the film to the world.”
It’s unclear exactly why Page and Plant changed their tune after all these years of resistance. It’s possible they were genuinely wowed by Gerwig’s passion and vision for this project. It’s possible their views have softened now that Page is 82, Plant is 78, and they’ve proven their point about the uniqueness of “Stairway.” It’s possible they realized that many young people now learn about old music primarily through hit movies and TV shows, and saw this as a golden opportunity to create new fans. It’s possible they just love classic British fantasy novels (they did, after all, write several songs inspired by the work of Lewis’ friend and peer J.R.R. Tolkien back in the day). And it’s possible they were offered a massive pot of money they were simply unable to refuse.
This must be a bittersweet moment for all the television showrunners and feature film directors who have tried and failed over the years to get their hands on “Stairway to Heaven.” Here are five of the most memorable denials.
Wayne’s World
Midway through Wayne’s World, the title character wanders into a guitar store alongside girlfriend Cassandra, and comes across a 1964 white Fender Stratocaster that he dreams of owning one day. He removes it from a display case and plays a few notes of a song before a long-haired employe physically stops him and points to a sign on the wall that reads “No Stairway to Heaven.” “No Stairway,” Wayne says. “Denied.”
When the movie originally hit theaters in 1992, Mike Myers actually played the opening notes of the song in that scene. But when Zeppelin blocked them from using even that tiny snippet of the song for broadcast, video, or foreign releases, they dubbed in some generic hard rock chords that don’t bear even a faint resemblance to “Stairway to Heaven.” For a generation of children only faintly aware of Led Zeppelin, but intimately aware of every second of Wayne’s World thanks to countless repeat viewings, this was extraordinarily confusing.
The Simpsons
At the start of the classic season seven Simpsons episode “Bart Sells His Soul,” Bart Simpson passes out hymns to the congregants of the First Church of Springfield as they wander in for services. “Please rise for your opening hymn,” says Reverend Lovejoy. “‘In The Garden of Eden’ by I. Ron Butterfly.” The elderly organist then breaks into the 1968 psychedelic classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” which stretches out to 17 minutes.
Like the best jokes, there’s a lot of truth in this amazing segment. First off, Iron Butterfly did indeed originally title their song “In The Garden of Eden,” but they were so drunk when they first worked it out that the words came out as “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” And yes, the original version is actually slightly over 17 minutes long.
It’s one of the greatest musical jokes in Simpsons history, but it was originally supposed to be quite different since they wanted to use “Stairway to Heaven” instead. When they were denied, they turned to Iron Butterfly, who were much more amenable. “‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ by ‘I. Ron Butterfly’ ended up being so much funnier,” longtime Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein recently shared on X. “Sometimes budget concerns lead to extra creativity! Embrace that ethos.”
Almost Famous
Cameron Crowe has been tight with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant for decades, going all the way back to his days as a teenaged reporter at Rolling Stone. He even wrote their first cover story for the magazine. But when he turned that period of his life into the 2000 film Almost Famous, the band refused to let him use “Stairway to Heaven,” even though he’d already shot an extraordinary scene where William Miller (Patrick Fugit) plays the song to his mother (Frances McDormand) so she’ll understand the majesty of the rock music he loves so much. She patiently listens to the entire song, and then simply shrugs her shoulders. “What am I supposed to say?” she asks. “They sound like nice kids. Is it meant to elevate humanity? Sure. Let’s elevate humanity after we sell you drugs and sex.”
Crowe showed the scene to Page and Plant and then took them to a wine bar to talk it over. “They said, ‘Well, “Stairway to Heaven,” we gotta say no to, ’cause it’s just too much. We just don’t do anything with “Stairway to Heaven,'” Crowe recalled to Rolling Stone in 2020. “We’re like, ‘Whomp, whomp, whomp.’ And Page goes, ‘But I would like to give you an extra song that’s more of an acoustic busking vibe. We’ll give that to you free.’ He replaced ‘Stairway to Heaven’ with ‘Bron-Yr-Aur.’ He gave that to us for free, just to have that texture in the movie, which was amazing. And we ran through the streets afterward. The rest of that meeting was spent talking about how much we all loved Jeff Buckley. Officially the coolest night ever, or the un-coolest night ever. I don’t know. That was a huge kind of buoy to swim to, because without Led Zeppelin, it’s just not the same movie.”
Stranger Things
On the very last episode of Stranger Things, a bomb is rigged to the gates of the Upside Down, triggered by a vinyl record spinning to the very end. This was a unique challenge for music supervisor Nora Felder since she had to find an famous album with an LP side that began and finished with iconic songs and could serve as the soundtrack to the climax of the series.
“And I’m not going to say Led Zeppelin didn’t come up,” she told Variety. “I tried Led Zeppelin, but it didn’t work because I was thinking ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and it wasn’t a first [song on album side] and a last situation. And I thought maybe Pink Floyd with The Wall, but I can’t remember if the right song was an ending or not. I don’t know how many times I went through this: One song would work and the other one wouldn’t.”
She ultimately settled on Prince’s Purple Rain because the second side begins with “When Doves Cry” and ends with the title track. (In this case, unlike the previous ones, this wasn’t a a situation where Zeppelin actually denied the rights to the song. But it’s worth noting that Zeppelin IV could have worked, since the first side begins with “Black Dog” and ends with “Stairway to Heaven.” That’s a pretty great LP side. If a hardcore Stranger Things aficionado has time on their hands, we’d enjoy a fan edit of the final sequence using those songs.)
SCTV
It’s deeply unfortunate that more Americans aren’t aware of SCTV. The Canadian sketch comedy show not only introduced the world to John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Harold Ramis, and Martin Short, but it was genuinely hilarious. For proof, check out this mock commercial for a record featuring 30 different covers of “Stairway to Heaven” by Al Stewart, REO Speedwagon, Devo, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Luciano Pavarotti, Barry White, Dolly Parton, and Slim Whitman, among others. (Many years later, Dolly Parton actually did cover the song.)
The sketch features note-perfect imitations of many of these singers, and they even play the master recording of the song, claiming it’s the work of impressionist Rich Little. They somehow got away with this on Canadian television, but when it came time for the DVD release, this sketch was excised. Thankfully, it lives forever in the world of YouTube, at least until Page and Plant file a takedown notice. Enjoy it while you can.
Sharon at Back to the Beginning Oliver Halfin
