10 Classic Songs That Were Recorded Incredibly Fast
8. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are not necessarily known to be the most radio friendly of bands. I mean, when half of your back catalog is either about death, destruction, or love songs to Satan, how the hell can you expect to cross over into the mainstream? Though they eventually found their way onto the charts with Paranoid, the actual single came about almost purely by accident.
As opposed to the more lengthy cuts on the record like Fairies Wear Boots and Iron Man, Paranoid was written because the band didn't have any more material to draw from. Going into the final mixing sessions, the band realized that they were one song short and were told to just go into the studio and jam out something to fill out the rest of the runtime. Strapping on his guitar, Tony Iommi began to play the intro of the song, after which everyone started to scramble to their instruments in an attempt to keep up with him.
It's not like the song is necessarily pop-friendly either, with Geezer Butler writing lyrics about his depressive state when he was a kid rather than anything too happy. Whether intending to or not, Paranoid ended up being the lynchpin for the rest of the record and is often what turns on the first potential metalheads to the heavier side of music.