Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut album in February 1970, and it made waves in the rock and roll world. The title track, “N.I.B.,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” and other cuts from the record announced them as the godfathers of heavy metal. Additionally, their debut reached No. 8 on the UK albums chart. However, singles from the album failed to chart. That would change later that year when they released the title track and lead single from their sophomore album, Paranoid.
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“Paranoid” peaked at No. 4 and gave Black Sabbath their first and only top 10 hit on the UK Singles chart. Decades later, it is one of the band’s signature songs and a certified metal classic. From its iconic opening riff to Ozzy Osbourne’s frantic vocal delivery and the thundering rhythm section, it is a timeless favorite among genre fans. However, some would be surprised to learn that the song was written in an afternoon as a throwaway filler track for the album that the band wanted to call War Pigs.
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Black Sabbath Made Metal History with a Filler Track
Months after releasing their debut album, Black Sabbath was back in the studio hard at work on a new record. They had written nearly enough songs for a new album while preparing their debut. However, they were a few minutes short of filling an LP.
Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and Ozzy Osbourne had left the studio to get lunch while Tony Iommi stayed behind. That’s when producer Rodger Bain approached Iommi with a request. “We need another song. We haven’t got enough songs on the album. Can you put one together?” he asked the guitarist. “Well, no,” he replied.
“We were only in there for a couple of days, you see. And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I’ve never written a three-minute song.’ Sabbath’s always five minutes or six minutes. So I came up with this idea and waited till the others came back from the pub. Then, I played them the idea,” Iommi recalled. “Basically, we’d done it there and then.”
“The song ‘Paranoid’ was written as an afterthought,” Butler recalled. “We basically needed a three-minute filler for the album, and Tony came up with the riff, I quickly did the lyrics, and Ozzy was reading them as he was singing.”
The guys in the band weren’t fans of the song. However, it was the shortest track on the album, so it became a single.
According to Songfacts, the band initially wanted to call their sophomore release War Pigs. However, the record label wanted the band to use a less offensive title. Due to the popularity of the single, they landed on Paranoid. They didn’t change the cover art, though. The album’s now-iconic cover features a man wielding a sword and shield.
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