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Paranoid 1970
Album · by Black Sabbath ↗ View artist

Paranoid

When you encounter Paranoid, the second work by Black Sabbath, you are faced with an album that was conceived at full speed. Just a few months after their first album proved to be a commercial success, the band went back into the studio. The recording was completed in just a few days, around June 1970, at Regent Sound Studios and Island Studios, in London. The sound that defined this work was built on the fly, many of the ideas arose from live improvisations, as happened with War Pigs, which was born from a jam during the song Warning. Even the track that gives the album its title, Paranoid, was written almost as a last-minute addition: Tony Iommi came up with the riff and the rest was put together in a matter of minutes, with Geezer Butler writing the lyrics almost instantly.

Year
1970
Songs
8
Duration
41 min 48 seg

8 song|s

Song list

# Title Available ⏱
01

War Pigs

coming soon

7:56
02

Paranoid

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2:49
03

Planet Caravan

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4:26
04

Iron Man

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5:55
05

Electric Funeral

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4:50
06

Hand of Doom

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7:08
07

Rat Salad

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2:30
08

Fairies Wear Boots

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6:14

About the album

Paranoid, according to DoReSol

This album hides some of Black Sabbath's most recognizable pieces. Iron Man, War Pigs, and Paranoid itself are songs that have been etched into history. In fact, Paranoid was the band's only track to reach the top 20 in the UK, peaking at number four. The impact of this album is undeniable; it is considered one of the pillars of heavy metal, defining its sound and style. Although critics at the time were not always kind, appreciation grew over time, and today it is recognized as a fundamental work.

The story of Paranoid also has to do with how music was generated at that time. A large part of the compositions were conceived during six weeks of intense performances in a club in Zurich, Switzerland, in late 1969. There, the band played long sets, which gave them space to experiment and develop ideas. The album, released in the UK in September 1970 and in the United States in January 1971, became Black Sabbath's best-selling, exceeding four million copies in the US alone, and this despite having almost no radio airplay.