“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath

"Paranoid" is the title track from Black Sabbath's second studio album, released in 1970, and it was the first single off it, with "The Wizard" on the flip. It's pure, bludgeoning momentum: Tony Iommi's riff chugging like a runaway locomotive, Geezer Butler's bass locked right on it, Bill Ward pounding drums and percussion, and Ozzy Osbourne's wail cutting through the racket.

All four share the music credit, Rodger Bain produced it, and Tom Allom and Brian Humphries engineered it.

It gave the band their first entry on both the UK singles chart, where it reached 4, and the Billboard Hot 100, where it made 61. Plenty of people count it among the greatest heavy metal songs ever recorded, and it's hard to argue with a riff that moves this fast and hits this hard.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.