The Number of the Beast (4:50)
2,193,717 plays (338,540 listeners)
“The Number of the Beast” is Iron Maiden’s seventh single and the second single from Iron Maiden’s 1982 album of the same name. The song is inspired by both a nightmare bandleader and bassist Steve Harris had after watching the movie Damien: Omen II, and the storyline of the poem Tam o’ Shanter. “The Number of The Beast” is one of Iron Maiden’s greatest hits, and is almost always performed during concert. It reached 18 in the UK charts. The track is known for its very long, high-pitched and guttural wail by Bruce Dickinson at the end of the intro. In the documentary on the album of the same name, as part of the Classic Albums series by the BBC, Dickinson said this was due to producer Martin Birch forcing Dickinson to sing the first four lines for several hours, over and over again. The frustration of this culminated in this wail, the pitch of which Dickinson has not managed to re-create live since the early days, which may possibly be an influence to the using of the death growl singing technique of later death metal and groove metal vocalists.
The band had asked the famous horror films actor Vincent Price to read the intro text. However, according to Dickinson, Price refused to do it for anything less than £25,000. They had heard of someone who read ghost stories at Capital Radio and got him to do it. The man was a theatre actor named Barry Clayton who had no interest in Maiden, but they asked him to put on a Vincent Price kind of voice.
The band had asked the famous horror films actor Vincent Price to read the intro text. However, according to Dickinson, Price refused to do it for anything less than £25,000. They had heard of someone who read ghost stories at Capital Radio and got him to do it. The man was a theatre actor named Barry Clayton who had no interest in Maiden, but they asked him to put on a Vincent Price kind of voice.
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The Number of the Beast
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Shouts
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julee2010 wrote:
My youth was awesome...Iron maiden rocked my days..every parent in the was running scared when Iron maiden put this out...
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peXotron wrote:
yeah christian hard core, come on!!!! :-P
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deiganblue wrote:
real rock'n'roll...fantastic
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LegasX wrote:
fuck satan, i hate him, christian metalcore ftw
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Dealey wrote:
666 or not, this song is beastly good!
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beast345 wrote:
Fucking awesome song
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nopuppet wrote:
this is track nr 6666 played on my site, haha
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davidthemugman wrote:
live version of this is great listen to flight 666 very nice oh and 665 the other side of the fence and the beast's other naber
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dave-boy wrote:
da, da, da, DAA, da, da, da, DAA
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DrowElf666 wrote:
You guy's are lucky hope they come back to DETROIT some day. >:)~~
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Cloudy-Now wrote:
A Masterpiece !
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Dragoon104 wrote:
Six Six Six The Number Of The Beast!!! :D
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Harpdog1976 wrote:
in numeralology 666 is the number of man, think of that shit!!!!
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rokulikesatan wrote:
Just got my Wacken Ticket Yesterday! This summer I'm gonna UP THE IRONS!
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i_disappear__ wrote:
666 the number of the beast ! Yeahh !!
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LuckyRockUser wrote:
i fucking saw them live fyi they are the greatest band ive seen ever way better than judas priest 666 forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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jerichz wrote:
i love maiden but this track is overrated, theyve done so much better
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misterBlonde84 wrote:
If someone ask me which is the best metal song ever, i'll ask this one! Up the Irons!
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TonyE99 wrote:
Six! Six! Six!
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Thouman9999 wrote:
if ur 555 then ill 666
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