“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” by Black Sabbath

"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" throws open Black Sabbath's 1973 album of the same name, and it very nearly didn't happen. Tony Iommi, the man who wrote most of their music, had hit a wall of writer's block, and the band went to lengths to shake it loose, even moving into Clearwell Castle, a pile with a reputation for ghosts. The riff that finally came has been called the one that saved Black Sabbath.

It's Iommi's guitar leading a stampede, Geezer Butler's bass right on its heels, Bill Ward pounding drums and even bongos, and Ozzy Osbourne wailing over the top. The band wrote it together and produced it themselves, with Mike Butcher engineering and Wil Malone helping with the arrangement. That crushing coda has kept guitarists in awe: in 2008 Slash of Guns N' Roses rated it the heaviest thing he'd ever heard, and Mastodon's Brent Hinds called the closing riff unbeatable.

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