The Number of the Beast (4:47)

Cover of The Number of the Beast

From The Number of the Beast and 50 other releases

“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.

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Send ‘The Number of the Beast’ Ringtone to Cell

Woe to you, oh earth and sea
For the Devil sends the beast with wrath
Because he knows the time is short
Let him who hath understanding

MetroLyrics Full lyrics at MetroLyrics

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  • nopuppet

    rest in peace, clive!

    28 Apr 2:47am Reply
  • Metality

    v Cha. So entry level.

    7 Apr 6:08pm Reply
  • Sharp-Ton

    When I was a noob rocker I used to listen it often.

    30 Mar 2:09am Reply
  • peps69100

    29 juni in germany yea!!

    27 Mar 4:44pm Reply
  • MetalRock1989

    Greatest metal song of all time.

    22 Mar 1:35pm Reply
  • REKENEPERKUFE

    Clive Burr will always be in our memory, Up the Irons

    17 Mar 9:22pm Reply
  • srdjstuka

    I loved it at age eleven. Still loving it at age forty-two.

    11 Mar 1:28pm Reply
  • HaohmaruOfWind

    \m/

    10 Mar 9:06am Reply
  • Haohmaru69

    \m/

    7 Mar 1:26pm Reply
  • BigDaddy555666

    Album doesn't quite do it for me, but this is still a classic track

    2 Mar 1:27pm Reply
  • OceanGypsy666

    6...........66 in my dreams it's always there! \m/

    1 Mar 7:22pm Reply
  • Luzeryus

    \m/

    25 Feb 12:31pm Reply
  • XxMusicxAlivexX

    pretty good song:)

    24 Feb 4:25pm Reply
  • ManiacDancer

    A never dying classic

    20 Feb 2:00am Reply
  • rocklass

    Hell ........yeeeeeeah.

    15 Feb 3:16am Reply
  • kernschaly

    is guad a in Bayern

    8 Feb 10:58pm Reply
  • charger3320

    \m/

    16 Jan 6:22pm Reply
  • vegan2012

    777

    14 Jan 10:54am Reply
  • misterrsk

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    12 Jan 10:42am Reply
  • Gorgo_Mutt

    I would write out the guitare solo sounds...but I would look derp in the end... \M/ \M/

    8 Jan 7:44pm Reply
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