Today In Rock: March 3rd, 2024 – Black Sabbath Song Generates One Billion Streams
On this day… Black Sabbath joined Spotify’s “Billions Club” with “Paranoid.” It was the title track from the band’s second studio album.
It was the first single from the album and was widely regarded as one of the greatest Heavy Metal songs of all time.
The song “Paranoid” was written as an afterthought,” remembered bassist Geezer Butler. “We basically needed a 3-minute filler for the album, and Tony (Iommi) came up with the riff. I quickly did the lyrics, and Ozzy (Osbourne) was reading them as he was singing.”
Originally, the band wanted to call the album “War Pigs: after the song of the same name but the record company persuaded them to use “Paranoid” instead because it was less offensive.
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