“Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden

"Run to the Hills" kicked off The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden's third studio album, in 1982, and it was the first single to put Bruce Dickinson's voice out in front of the band. Steve Harris is the only credited writer, though Dickinson pitched in on it; his contract with his old band Samson kept his name off the credits.

It gallops. Clive Burr's drums charge like a cavalry, Harris drives his bass right up through the middle, and Dave Murray and Adrian Smith twist their guitars around each other before Dickinson lets rip on a chorus that sounds like an air-raid siren with a great set of lungs. Martin Birch produced and engineered, and the sound is sharp, clean and relentless.

It remains one of the band's best-loved songs. VH1 put it at No. 27 on its list of the 40 greatest metal songs and at No. 14 among the greatest hard rock songs, and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 10 on its 100 greatest heavy metal songs. A live take from Live After Death came out as a single in 1985, and when the original was reissued in 2002, every penny it earned went to former drummer Clive Burr's MS Trust Fund.

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