The heavy metal band Black Sabbath is known worldwide both for its vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and for its music, which are true anthems of world rock. Among the ranking of the band's best songs, many would place the song "Paranoid" from the album of the same name at the top, and due to its immense fame, this song recently became part of Spotify 's Billions Club .
The Billions Club is simply a playlist curated by the streaming platform Spotify . The list contains songs that have reached over one billion streams on the platform. This playlist, launched in 2020, features big names in world music such as Guns N' Roses , Aerosmith , Queen , and System Of A Down . After achieving this milestone, Spotify Billions Club plaque .
Click here to listen to the Billions Club playlist.
The playlist currently features over 500 titles, totaling more than 24 hours of diverse music, full of pop and many classic songs. You can also find tracks like "Basket Case" by Green Day, "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, "Californication" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Zombie" by The Cranberries, "Take On Me" by A-ha , among many others.
The band celebrated reaching two billion streams on the platform with a post on their social media account Twitter/X:
Paranoid and the success of Black Sabbath
album Paranoid is the band's second studio album, released in 1970 in the United Kingdom and 1971 in the United States. The album contains many of the group's greatest hits and is recognized as an influence on many bands. Paranoid Iron Man movie .
Full of criticism of the American military system and the Vietnam War, the album features the track "War Pigs," a true cry against all this violence. In turn, the track "Paranoid" is a plea for help from a troubled mind: "Can you help me? Occupy my brain?" The band, which was active until 2017, continues to please with its music and secure its place on the charts.
The song “Paranoid” also achieved other milestones besides the Billions Club . It reached the fourth position on the UK singles chart and the 61st position on the US Billboard Hot 100
The composition of the hit song “Paranoid”
In November 2003, during a BBC guitarist Tony Iommi commented on the creation of the initial riff for the song "Paranoid" (via Blabbermouth Paranoid album , the guys went out to get something to eat, and the producer said, 'We need another song. We don't have enough songs on the album. Can you put one together?' I said, 'Well, no.' We were only there for a few days, you know. And I said, 'Well, I don't know. I've never written a three-minute song.' Sabbath always wrote songs that were five or six minutes long. So I had this idea and waited until the others came back from the pub. And then I played the idea for them. And basically, we did it right there."
Regarding the success of the song, Iommi says: “The only thing for us at that time with Paranoid was attracting a different audience than we were used to.” He continues: “We saw a lot of girls screaming and things like that, which we weren’t used to at shows. And we were doing Top Of The Pops (a UK TV show) which was attracting a different audience than we expected, people who didn’t know us were coming to hear the band play. They’d only heard “Paranoid” on TV and thought, ‘Well, let’s see them.’ And, of course, they’d end up hearing “Iron Man” and all the rest and think, ‘Oh my God. What is all this?’”
Geezer Butler's vision of music
Guitar World magazine , bassist Geezer Butler commented on the recording of the album (via Blabbermouth ): “It was recorded live in the studio in about two or three days. The song 'Paranoid' was written as an afterthought. Basically, we needed a three-minute filler for the album, and Tony came up with the riff. I quickly wrote the lyrics, and Ozzy was reading them while singing.”
Regarding the inspiration for the lyrics, Butler comments: “It’s about depression, because I didn’t really know the difference between depression and paranoia. It’s a drug-related thing; when you’re smoking a joint, you become totally paranoid about people. You can’t relate to people. There’s that connection between the paranoia you feel when you smoke marijuana and the depression that comes afterward.”
In 2017, after a 49-year history as a band, the group ended their reunion tour, The End , which was the band's last, as guitarist Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma, preventing him from traveling for extended periods. The guitarist was undergoing cancer treatment during the recording and promotion of the tour for the album 13, the first studio album in 35 years with Iommi, Osbourne, and Butler playing together.
READ ALSO: “Black Sabbath” voted best metal song of all time by Rolling Stone
