Never Say Die!

Never Say Die! is the eighth studio album by British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in September 1978. It is the last Sabbath studio album with Ozzy Osbourne as the band’s lead singer.



Album information
Before this album was recorded, Ozzy Osbourne quit the band and was briefly replaced by former Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Dave Walker. Some songs were written with Walker, and the new group even performed an early version of “Junior’s Eyes” with different lyrics on the BBC programme, Look Hear. Osbourne eventually rejoined the band, refusing to sing any of the songs written with Walker. These particular songs were rewritten, including “Junior’s Eyes” (rewritten to be about the then-recent death of Ozzy’s father). All four band members sing on “A Hard Road”.

The album was recorded at Sounds Interchange Studios in Toronto, as were parts of Technical Ecstasy.

The sleeve was another by Hipgnosis and the US and UK releases differed slightly in the faint images seen in the sky. The inner-bag featured graphics in keeping with the sleeve and credits, but no lyrics.

In the UK the title-track, released well-ahead of the album and the band’s first UK picture-sleeve single, reached #21 in the chart and gave the band its first Top Of The Pops appearances since 1970.