New York Times Best Seller

On this day in 1985, an unauthorized biography of Led Zeppelin peaked on the New York Times Best Seller List. The book was Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga.

The work of rock writer Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods was on the New York Times Best Seller list for nine weeks in all.

Led Zeppelin disavowed the book, questioning how much time Davis had spent observing everything firsthand, asserting he had been around for maybe a day or an hour. The band also assailed their former tour manager, Richard Cole, who had been the source of several delicious stories -- and received a handsome paycheck for doing so.

But perhaps most of all, John Paul Jones felt that the tales of sex and drug use in "Hammer of the Gods" lacked the context of a good sense of humor. He said in an interview with Lemon Squeezings in 2001:

"You see, the only trouble with that book, that stupid book, was that it got all its facts wrong. It got all the stories the wrong way around. Part of that, it wasn't funny. I mean, some of the stories were actually hilarious, but the way the book reads is, 'What a bunch of miserable bastards we are!'"