“Children of the Sea” by Black Sabbath

"Children of the Sea" is where Black Sabbath's second life begins. It's on Heaven and Hell, the band's ninth studio album, from April 1980, but it was the first thing they wrote after Ozzy Osbourne's exit in 1979. Ronnie James Dio met Tony Iommi that year and came over to the guitarist's Los Angeles house to jam; Iommi had a riff with nothing to hang on it, and Dio took it to a corner and came back with words.

Dio wrote the melody and lyrics and Iommi most of the music, with Geezer Butler on bass, Bill Ward on drums, Geoff Nicholls on keyboards and Martin Birch producing. Iommi remembers that session as a turning point: with this singer the band could try things that had been out of reach with Osbourne. Iommi says he still has an early demo with Osbourne singing a different melody and lyrics.

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