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Paranoid is a song by Black Sabbath that appears on the band's second album Paranoid.
Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler to Guitar World magazine, March 2004:
"A lot of the Paranoid album was written around the time of our first album, Black Sabbath. We recorded the whole thing in about 2 or 3 days, live in the studio. The song "Paranoid" was written as an afterthought. 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 was reading them as he was singing. .
Originally, the band had wanted to call the album War Pigs after the song of the same name, but the record company persuaded them to use "Paranoid" as it was deemed less offensive.
"Paranoid" was released as a single and received regular 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 there and #61 in the US.
Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne continued to play this song in concert during his career as a solo artist.
"Paranoid" was ranked #34 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs. 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. It is #1 in the book, "The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time".
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