Paranoid (song)

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"Paranoid"
Image:BlackSabbath Paranoid Single 1972.jpg
Single by Black Sabbath
from the album Paranoid
B-side "Rat Salad" (1972 release, shown, has "Snowblind" as B-Side. Other Versions include "The Wizard" as B-Side.)
Released July 17, 1970 (Version shown was released in 1972)
Format 7" (45RPM)
Genre Heavy Metal
Length 2:52
Label Vertigo Records
Writer Iommi, Ward, Butler, Osbourne

"Paranoid" is a song by Black Sabbath that appears on the band's breakthrough album Paranoid. Supposedly, the members of Black Sabbath put together this song in 15 minutes based on a solo by Tony Iommi. This song was only meant to be a "filler", but became one of Black Sabbath's most well known songs. The record company changed the album's name from War Pigs, as it was originally intended, to Paranoid out of fear of a backlash from supporters of the Vietnam War.

"Paranoid" is uncharacteristically fast and simple for a Black Sabbath song, and is one of the most-covered songs of all time. Unlike most of the band's songs, "Paranoid" was short enough (just under 3 minutes) to be released as a single, as well as to receive airplay on mainstream radio. The single, with "The Wizard " on the B-side, was released in the UK in July 1970 and it reached the number 4.

Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne has continued to play this song as a solo artist and did a version live with Randy Rhoads, which was released on the live album Tribute.

"Paranoid" was ranked #34 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs [1]. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 11 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. Rolling Stone ranked it #250 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Paranoid was ranked #10 in Martin Popoff book "The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs Of All Time". Popoff put together this book by requesting thousands of metal fans, musicians, and journalists to send in their favourite heavy metal songs. Almost 18,000 individual votes were tallied and entered into a database from which the final rankings were derived. [2].

[edit] In pop culture

  • "Paranoid" is heard playing in the Supernatural episode "Phantom Traveler" as Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester are coming out of a men's suit store, and continues as they impersonate Homeland Security agents.
  • "Soittakaa Paranoid!" ("Play Paranoid!") is the Finnish equivalent to requests for "Free Bird". Juho Juntunen, editor of Finnish rock magazine Soundi, used to humorously shout the phrase from the audience in various gigs. This manner spread widely and it's now common to hear someone shout "Soittakaa Paranoid!" in any gig in Finland, even if they do not know where the joke originated, or have never heard the song.
  • A cover version of "Paranoid" was also recorded by a Polish band Piersi. Even though the music is the same as in the original version, the lyrics have been completely altered - this version is a sarcastic anecdote about a young man racing on his motorcycle to meet up with his girlfriend, who lives in a nearby village, but suffering eventually a road accident. The cover version ends with an extract from another Black Sabbath song War Pigs (also with altered lyrics)

[edit] Cover versions

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "VH1 40 Greatest Metal Songs", 1-4 May 2006, VH1 Channel, reported by VH1.com; last accessed September 10, 2006.
  2. ^ "The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs Of All Time"[1].
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