The acoustic material developed from a songwriting session between Plant and Page at Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in Wales, which influenced the musical direction.

The album was one of the most anticipated of 1970, and its shipping date was held up by the intricate inner sleeve design based around a volvelle, with numerous images visible through holes in the outer cover.

[3] Following an exhausting concert tour of North America that spring, lead singer Robert Plant recommended to guitarist and producer Jimmy Page that they should retreat to Bron-Yr-Aur, an 18th-century cottage in Snowdonia, Wales, on a hilltop overlooking the Dyfi Valley, three miles (4.8 km) north of the market town Machynlleth.

[3][4] This remote setting had no running water or electric power, which encouraged a slight change of musical direction for the band towards an emphasis on acoustic arrangements.

[3][5] Page later explained that the tranquillity of Bron-Yr-Aur stood in sharp contrast to the continual touring of 1969, affecting the overall tone of the songwriting and dominance of acoustic guitars.

[6] His playing was influenced by folk guitarists Davey Graham and Bert Jansch, who regularly used alternative guitar tunings.

[9] A press statement from manager Peter Grant said the group were recording a non-album track to be released as a single, but this was ultimately abandoned.

Further sessions took place towards the end of the year, in between touring, before the decision was made to stop working and take a break at Bron-Yr-Aur.

The rural atmosphere gave a relaxed feel to the sessions, and the band found it to be a more enjoyable environment in which to develop songs than a studio in the city.

Mixing took place at Ardent Studios, Memphis, in August 1970, partway through the group's sixth American concert tour.

[13] Led Zeppelin III marked a change in focus for the band, from late 1960s hard rock to a more acoustic-based sound.

[14] These styles had been present to a lesser degree on the band's first two releases, such as "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and "Ramble On", from the first and second albums, respectively.

It was the opening song for the band's appearance at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music and at subsequent gigs for the next two years.

[14] It was included in the 2003 movie School of Rock, after Jack Black made a short video with fans asking for permission for its use.

The introduction was used to open live versions of "Black Dog" (from Led Zeppelin IV) and Bonham's drum solo on the 1977 US tour.

[27] The pair had gone for a walk and, on their return, sat down by a ravine with a tape recorder, where Page started to play the tune, to which Plant improvised a verse.

[16] Six other songs that were recorded during the Led Zeppelin III sessions were released at a later date: "Poor Tom" was released on Coda; "Bron-Yr-Aur" was included on the 1975 double album Physical Graffiti; "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" was released as the B-side to the 1970 "Immigrant Song" single, and on the 1972 sampler album The New Age of Atlantic,[24] later appearing on the first box set in 1990 and then Coda (Deluxe Edition) in 2015, along with "St. Tristan's Sword"; and both "Jennings Farm Blues" and "Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind" later appeared on the 2014 deluxe edition of the album.

[31] The cover and interior gatefold art consisted of a surreal collection of seemingly random images on a white background, many of them connected thematically with flight or aviation.

[14] In the run-up to release, the group bought a full-page advertisement in Melody Maker magazine at the end of September, which simply said, "Thank you for making us the world's number one band.

[47] Although the band's expanding musical boundaries were greeted warmly by some, detractors attacked the heavier tracks as being mindless noise.

In a review for Rolling Stone, critic Lester Bangs praised "That's the Way" as "beautiful and genuinely moving", while characterising the band's heavier songs as crude and little differentiated from each other.

[48] Others criticised the acoustic material for imitating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which Page disputed, as the group had featured a similar style on both of their previous albums.

It's amazing to realize that Robert Plant's vocals can convey that same overbearing power when Page plays acoustic, as he does to great effect on several cuts here.

[69] In Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote of highlights in the bonus disc: "'Jennings Farm Blues', an electric run at the folk gallop 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp', shows Zeppelin exploring options, and the medley 'Keys to the Highway/Trouble in Mind', by Page and Plant, feels like a deep-blues breath before the next rush forward.