Jimmy Page testifies like a rock star and tells court Stairway to Heaven is more similar to Chim Chim Cheree from Mary Poppins than song he is accused of stealing

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page told a court that the band's famous hit Stairway To Heaven is more similar to Chim Chim Cher-ee from Disney's Mary Poppins than the song he is accused of plagiarizing.

The Dick Van Dyke song was played to the federal court in Los Angeles, where Page is facing claims he copied the opening guitar riff on Stairway To Heaven from a track called Taurus by the American group Spirit.

A lawsuit has been filed by Michael Skidmore, the trustee of Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe - known as Randy California - who drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song.

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Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page (left, with Robery Plant) told a court that the band's famous hit Stairway To Heaven is more similar to Chim Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins than the song he is accused of plagiarizing

Mr Skidmore's lawyer Francis Malofiy asked Page whether he had previously said Chim Chim Cher-ee had 'inspired' him to write Stairway To Heaven.

Page replied: 'I didn't say that.

'I think I may have said the chord sequence is very similar because the chord sequence has been around forever.'

Asked whether there were similarities between the two songs, Page replied: 'Yes, a sequence.'

But Page was reluctant to compare the tempo of Stairway to Heaven and Taurus or their structure, thwarting the lawyer representing Wolfe's estate in the case against Led Zeppelin, Page and singer Robert Plant, as well as several music companies. 

'You want to step through it?' attorney Francis Malofiy asked as he tried to get Page to discuss the 'Taurus' sheet music.

Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant (left) and guitarist Jimmy Page are shown sitting in federal court for a hearing in a lawsuit involving their rock classic song 'Stairway to Heaven' in this courtroom sketch from Tuesday

Vehicles thought to carry Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page leave a Los Angeles federal court after testimony in a lawsuit involving their rock classic song Stairway To Heaven on Wednesday

'Not necessarily,' Page replied, sending a ripple of comic relief through the gallery during an otherwise dull day of testimony in the case.

Page, 72, had entered the courtroom carrying a guitar, but wrapped up testifying without playing a note. The closest he came was during a break when he briefly struck a jamming pose and played air guitar and laughed with Plant in the courtroom.

Jurors and a packed audience did get to hear the familiar opening chords of 'Stairway,' but they came not from Page, but from an expert who played an acoustic guitar and said he found it was strikingly similar to 'Taurus.'

Kevin Hanson, a guitar instructor and former member of Huffamoose, played passages from both songs on acoustic guitar and says they are virtually identical. When listening to videos of the two played simultaneously, he said there was nothing discordant about them.

'To my ear, they sound like they are one piece of music,' he said.

On cross-examination, however, Hanson, who doesn't have a college degree and is not a musicologist, said he can easily tell the two songs apart.

Page (left) of Led Zeppelin laid down the guitar parts for Stairway To Heaven, but it is now claimed that the notes in the song's opening bars were in fact written by Randy California, right

Another plaintiff expert, Alexander Stewart, a music professor at the University of Vermont, said he found five categories in which both songs had significant similarities, including a descending chord progression, notes lasting the same duration and a series of arpeggios and similar pairs of notes.

Stewart said the descending chord progression and other elements have been found in songs dating to the 1600s. But he testified that of more than 65 songs the defense has said have a similar construction, including 'My Funny Valentine,' the Beatles' 'Michelle,' and 'Chim Chim Cher-ee' from the movie 'Mary Poppins,' none contained all five elements shared by 'Taurus' and 'Stairway.'

'Not one of them came close,' Stewart said, though he acknowledged on cross-examination that the notes in both songs didn't all line up in the same places.

Page has previously told the court he had not heard Taurus until his son-in-law showed him a comparison with Stairway To Heaven on the internet a few years ago.

Giving evidence on the third day of the trial, the musician said he had 'no recollection' of meeting Wolfe or of 'interacting with him'.

He told the court he wrote the introduction of Stairway To Heaven on his own before his bandmate Robert Plant added lyrics at Headley Grange in Hampshire.

A previous interview Page gave in the 1970s, in which he said he wrote the song's intro in Bron Yr Aur in Wales was 'incorrect', he told the court.

The jury heard Led Zeppelin received 60 million dollars (about £42 million) after signing a publishing deal in 2008 and 10 million dollars (about £7 million) as part of a record deal with Rhino Entertainment in 2012.

Page, dressed in a dark three-piece suit, with his grey hair tied back in a ponytail, was joined in court by singer Plant as both men face a copyright infringement trial.

Plant and his bandmate John Paul Jones are expected to give evidence in the trial.  

Plant (left) and Page perform at the Live Aid concert at Philadelphia's J.F.K. Stadium in 1985