“Killers” by Iron Maiden

"Killers" is the title track of Iron Maiden's second album, which EMI released in Britain in February 1981, and it's one of just two songs on the record that Steve Harris didn't write alone: he composed the music, and Paul Di'Anno wrote the words and sang them.

The band around them was in flux. Adrian Smith, new for this album, lines up beside Dave Murray on electric guitar, Harris plays bass and Clive Burr drums, and Di'Anno was fired before the next record. At the controls, producing and engineering, sat Martin Birch, working with Maiden for the first time. They had wanted him for their debut, but he was tied up making Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath; this time he took the job, and he stayed to produce their next eight albums, up to Fear of the Dark in 1992.

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