Robert Plant Trades Led Zeppelin Thunder for Doo-Wop in an Unexpected Duet With Jimmy Fallon

Robert Plant has spent much of his career delivering some of rock music’s most unmistakable vocals, but during a 2014 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Led Zeppelin legend showed just how easily he could leave hard rock behind for something completely different.

Instead of revisiting “Whole Lotta Love” or “Stairway to Heaven,” Plant joined Jimmy Fallon for an impromptu rendition of Gene Chandler’s 1962 doo-wop classic “Duke of Earl.”

There was no full backing band. Armed with an iPad, a microphone and their voices, Fallon and Plant gradually transformed themselves into a two-man vocal group.

Jimmy Fallon turns Robert Plant into a one-night doo-wop singer

Plant appeared on The Tonight Show while promoting his solo album lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar and launching a North American tour with the Sensational Space Shifters.

During their conversation, Fallon introduced an iPad looping setup that allowed them to record individual vocal parts and layer them on top of one another.

Fallon had previously used a similar idea with Billy Joel, but this time he had one of rock’s most celebrated singers sitting beside him.

The choice of song made the moment even more unexpected: “Duke of Earl,” Gene Chandler’s enduring 1962 hit.

Plant immediately played along with the experiment. As he handled the microphone and watched Fallon work with the technology, he joked that the setup looked like “one of them funny shops in Amsterdam.”

From there, the pair began building the performance one voice at a time.

Two voices become an entire backing group

The charm of the performance came from its simplicity.

Instead of relying on elaborate production, Fallon recorded short vocal phrases from himself and Plant before using the looping app to repeat them. Each new layer added another piece of the arrangement until their voices effectively became their own backing singers.

Then Plant stepped into the lead.

It was a striking change of musical scenery for a singer forever associated with the enormous sound of Led Zeppelin. Yet the performance also reflected the curiosity that has characterized Plant’s post-Zeppelin career, during which he has repeatedly explored music far beyond conventional hard rock.

The result was playful rather than polished by design — two musicians enjoying an old song and discovering what they could create with little more than their voices and an iPad.

Nonesuch Records confirmed that Fallon used the looping setup to combine their vocals for the Gene Chandler number during Plant’s September 2014 appearance.

Plant was in New York for a very different musical chapter

The lighthearted “Duke of Earl” performance came during an important period in Plant’s solo career.

His album lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar had been released on September 9, 2014, through Nonesuch/Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Plant himself, the record contained 11 tracks, nine of them originals written with the Sensational Space Shifters.

The album reflected the increasingly wide musical territory Plant had been exploring outside Led Zeppelin, blending influences and instrumentation far removed from the straightforward expectations often placed on a veteran rock frontman.

Plant described the record as celebratory while emphasizing its combination of powerful, gritty sounds with African and trance influences.

His willingness to experiment made the Fallon performance feel surprisingly appropriate. “Duke of Earl” might have seemed like an unlikely choice for the former Led Zeppelin singer, but Plant had long resisted allowing his past to dictate every musical decision he made.

From an iPad duet to the Sensational Space Shifters

The doo-wop experiment was only one part of Plant’s Tonight Show appearance.

After sitting down with Fallon, he returned to more familiar territory by taking the stage with the Sensational Space Shifters.

The group performed “Rainbow,” the first single from lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, during the broadcast. They also delivered “Turn It Up” as a web-exclusive performance.

Plant and the band had launched their North American fall tour at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on September 25. Their itinerary then brought them to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for two performances on September 27 and 28 as part of Nonesuch Records’ 50th-anniversary celebrations.

The tour would continue through North America before concluding at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on October 7.

Another reminder that Robert Plant has never stood still

For fans accustomed to seeing Plant surrounded by the mythology of Led Zeppelin, his few minutes singing doo-wop with Fallon offered something refreshingly uncomplicated.

There was no attempt to recreate the grandeur of his former band or turn the moment into a serious musical statement. Instead, one of rock’s most recognizable voices happily became part of a homemade vocal group created on an iPad.

That willingness to step outside expectations was also reflected in the music Plant was making at the time. lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar went on to appear on numerous year-end lists, while Plant continued touring with the Sensational Space Shifters and pursuing the musical experimentation that had defined much of his solo work.

For one night, however, all that experimentation produced something wonderfully simple: Robert Plant, Jimmy Fallon, an iPad and a 1962 doo-wop classic.