Peace Sells (4:46)

“Peace Sells” is from the album Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?, written by Dave Mustaine. VH1 has ranked it as #11 on their list of the 40 greatest metal songs of all time.

The opening bassline was also used as the theme for MTV News. Accotding to the Peace Sells Songfacts, Dave Mustaine never received any royalties from MTV for their use of the song. Lyrically, it deals with disillusion, Cold War politics, and military combat, all recurring themes in Megadeth songs. It also deals with negative stereotypes about “metalheads”, all of which Mustaine claims are untrue.

A music video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KDO_yCYcuU) was also produced for the song, which features a teenage boy, wearing a Slayer t-shirt, watching a montage of a live Megadeth performance and war footage on his living room television set. The boy’s father, played by Jello Biafra, states “I want to watch the news!,” and changes the television channel to a news station using the remote control. His son, replying with “This is the news!,” changes it back to the Megadeth performance using the TV set’s channel knob. This part of the video was parodied by comedian Brian Posehn in his Metal by Numbers video.

The song was also featured in the popular games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, True Crime: Streets of LA, and is a playable track on Rock Band 2.