The Number of the Beast (4:50)
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Listening now: fiveballblues
“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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maty-metal wrote:
muy bueno
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Cortez667 wrote:
They are wrong, It is 667
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FastZombiesRule wrote:
LOL at below.
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Arthur-Engler wrote:
sex sex sex ! The number of my dick !!!
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METALMASTIL wrote:
_Poderosa cancion de la Dama de Hierro, fueron mi inspiracion en esto del HEAVY METAL_
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davidthemugman wrote:
666 that is the number and i have this on cassette and CD but the cassette is very worn
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misterBlonde84 wrote:
Up the irons!! \m/
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cleebuck wrote:
maiden is part of my wasted youth
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jamesisa wrote:
YEAH!!! IROOON MAIDEN!!!!!
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thatguy1056 wrote:
how did they get my number???
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wilczur223 wrote:
There is no better heavy metal track than this one...\m/
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ankursatriani wrote:
great band...great song :)
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kaspaz30 wrote:
yeahhh..great band..;)*
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desbini wrote:
SUPERMEGAAFFENTITTENGEIL!!!! ;-))))
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MaidenSlayer wrote:
Great vocal work. And band dynamics.
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hardrockman69 wrote:
I love the guitar sound on this one.
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David_J1973 wrote:
Still gives me chills 25 years later... awesome stuff.
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backinthethrash wrote:
epicki utwór
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LuKastein wrote:
999
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Stinterwein wrote:
up the irons! this song is part of my childhood!!!
Iron Maiden
The Number of the Beast
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