Turn Me On, Dead Man

"Boogie With Stu" on Physical Graffiti is credited to "John Bonham/John Paul Jones/Jimmy Page/Robert Plant/Ian Stewart/Mrs. Valens". "Mrs. Valens" refers to the mother of 1950s singer Ritchie Valens, of "La Bamba" fame. Ritchie Valens wrote and recorded the song "Ooh My Head" in the late-1950s. Charles M. Young asked Jimmy Page why Ritchie Valens's mother was credited on the song.

PAGE: Yeah. Let's put it this way. "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys had a credit for Chuck Berry, didn't it? I think that answers the question. It does in my book anyway.
YOUNG: It was from "Ooh My Head," right?
PAGE: Yeah. Some of the lyrics from that. Yeah. It appears. In print. Mrs. Valens.
YOUNG: So she got her little piece of Physical Graffiti?
PAGE: That was the idea right from the outset. We'd heard she'd been ripped off in the past. You should ask Robert these things, because I didn't write the words, did I? [1]

At first glance giving Ritchie Valens's mother credit as one of the songwriters seems like a generous thing to do. But if Jimmy Page isn't comfortable answering this question, perhaps it's because the only differences between "Boogie With Stu" and "Ooh My Head" are superficial changes to the lyrics and the instrumentation and studio effects Led Zeppelin and Ian Stewart used in their performance. "Boogie With Stu" is simply a retitled performance of "Ooh, My Head". In a Guitar World interview, Page described it this way,

"Curiously enough, the one time we did try to do the right thing, it blew up in our faces. When we were up at Headley Grange recording Physical Graffiti, Ian Stewart [the Rolling Stones' unofficial keyboard player] came by and we started to jam. The jam turned into "Boogie With Stu," which was obviously a variation on "Ooh My Head" by the late Ritchie Valens, which itself was actually a variation of Little Richard's "Ooh My Soul." What we tried to do was give Ritchie's mother credit, because we heard she never received any royalties form any of her son's hits, and Robert did lean on that lyric a bit. So what happens? They tried to sue us for all of the song! We had to say bugger off. [laughs]" [2]

So much for fairness. Page's arrogance reveals just what an afterthought crediting "Mrs. Valens" was—couldn't they at least have made some effort to find out what her name was? Having said that, Page is right about one thing, though: Ritchie Valens's "Ooh My Head" is itself largely a copy of Little Richard's song "Ooh My Soul". Little Richard recorded "Ooh My Soul" in 1957, two years before Valens recorded "Ooh My Head." The similarities between these songs strongly suggest that Valens had heard Little Richard's tune, which had peaked at #31 on the pop chart and #15 on the R&B chart. Led Zeppelin certainly wasn't the first group to lift the work of another artist without giving proper credit.

Recommended Listening

		Ritchie Valens - Rockin' All Night: The Best of Ritchie Valens
		LittleRichard - The Georgia Peach

Compilations of Original Versions

"Ooh My Head" by Ritchie Valens is included on Led Astray.