Fact #116823
When:
Short story:
Black Sabbath release their second single, Paranoid, in the UK.
Full article:
Ozzy Osbourne (vocalist, Black Sabbath) : It’s my anthem. Every time I play it onstage they all love it. The Kinks have got You Really Got Me and I’ve got Paranoid. The song was an accident. The Paranoid album was going to be called War Pigs - the sleeve had been printed. We had three and a half minutes to finish the album. Tony came up with the riff for Paranoid, Geezer gave me the lyric, and that was that then. As a co-writer, you can sit there for months and come up with Jack shit and then somebody will spark something and in, like, half a minute you’ll write an album.
Ozzy Osbourne : We started Paranoid at Regent Sound and then we moved to this magnificent 16-track, Island Studios. That's where we wrote the song Paranoid.
Tony Iommi (guitarist, Black Sabbath) : Paranoid, the actual track, I did when everybody went for a lunch break. I just sat in the studio and came up with this idea.
Bill Ward (drummer, Black Sabbath) : He was just playing it on his own in the studio. Geezer plugged in his bass, I sat behind my drum kit, we automatically grooved with him and Ozzy started singing. We didn't say a word to each other; we just came in the room and started playing. I think it was about 1:30 in the afternoon; Tony had the riffs, and by 2:00 we had Paranoid exactly as you hear it on the record.
Geezer Butler (bassist, Black Sabbath) : I wrote the lyrics and Ozzy just read them as he was singing it.
Rodger Bain (producer) : It had a very strong beat, a powerful riff. I remember pressing the talkback and saying words to the effect of, ‘That's pretty good. What is that?’ and sort of getting disbelief. They said, ‘You're joking’. I said, ‘No, that's really good, that's a really strong riff.’ They said, ‘We're just pissing around. We just made it up.’ I said, ‘Well, that's great - let's do it!’”
Ozzy Osbourne : I remember going home with the tapes and I said to my then-wife, 'I think we've written a single.' She said, 'But you don't write singles.' I said, 'I know, but this has been driving me nuts on the train all the way back.'
Bill Ward : I thought, 'This is a bit of a pop song’. I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to it.
Joe Smith (executive, Warner Brothers) : We were looking for a single, and they were hard to get. There was still resistance in Top 40 radio to playing any single by one of these bands. If somebody's going to take a shot, Paranoid was the record to take a shot with. Also, it was a great title for a single at the time.
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Ozzy Osbourne : We started Paranoid at Regent Sound and then we moved to this magnificent 16-track, Island Studios. That's where we wrote the song Paranoid.
Tony Iommi (guitarist, Black Sabbath) : Paranoid, the actual track, I did when everybody went for a lunch break. I just sat in the studio and came up with this idea.
Bill Ward (drummer, Black Sabbath) : He was just playing it on his own in the studio. Geezer plugged in his bass, I sat behind my drum kit, we automatically grooved with him and Ozzy started singing. We didn't say a word to each other; we just came in the room and started playing. I think it was about 1:30 in the afternoon; Tony had the riffs, and by 2:00 we had Paranoid exactly as you hear it on the record.
Geezer Butler (bassist, Black Sabbath) : I wrote the lyrics and Ozzy just read them as he was singing it.
Rodger Bain (producer) : It had a very strong beat, a powerful riff. I remember pressing the talkback and saying words to the effect of, ‘That's pretty good. What is that?’ and sort of getting disbelief. They said, ‘You're joking’. I said, ‘No, that's really good, that's a really strong riff.’ They said, ‘We're just pissing around. We just made it up.’ I said, ‘Well, that's great - let's do it!’”
Ozzy Osbourne : I remember going home with the tapes and I said to my then-wife, 'I think we've written a single.' She said, 'But you don't write singles.' I said, 'I know, but this has been driving me nuts on the train all the way back.'
Bill Ward : I thought, 'This is a bit of a pop song’. I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to it.
Joe Smith (executive, Warner Brothers) : We were looking for a single, and they were hard to get. There was still resistance in Top 40 radio to playing any single by one of these bands. If somebody's going to take a shot, Paranoid was the record to take a shot with. Also, it was a great title for a single at the time.