A total of twenty-two musicians have at one time been members of Black Sabbath. Originally formed as a heavy blues rock band named Earth, the band began incorporating occult- and horror-inspired lyrics with tuned-down guitars, changing their name to Black Sabbath and achieving multiple platinum records in the 1970s. Despite an association with occult and horror themes, Black Sabbath also composed songs dealing with social and political issues such as drugs and war.
Black Sabbath are cited, along with Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, as pioneers of heavy metal.The band helped define the genre with releases such as quadruple-platinum Paranoid, released in 1970.They were ranked by MTV as the "Greatest Metal Band" of all time, and placed second in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, behind Led Zeppelin. Rolling Stone has posited the band as 'the heavy-metal kings of the '70s'.
They have sold over 15 million records in the United States alone and more than 100 million records worldwide
Vocalist Ozzy Osbourne's heavy alcohol and cocaine usage led to his being fired from the band on 27 April 1979, but Osbourne began a very successful solo career, selling more than 100 million albums. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio. After a few albums with Dio's vocals and his songwriting collaborations, Black Sabbath endured a revolving line-up in the 1980s and 1990s that included vocalists Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen and Tony Martin. In 1992, Iommi and Butler rejoined Dio and drummer Vinny Appice to record Dehumanizer.
The original line-up reunited with Osbourne in 1997 and released a live album, Reunion. The 1979–1982 and 1991–1992 line-up featuring Iommi, Butler, Dio, and Appice reformed in 2006 under the moniker Heaven & Hell until Dio's death on 16 May 2010.
Allmusic's William Ruhlmann said: Black Sabbath has been so influential in the development of heavy metal rock music as to be a defining force in the style. The group took the blues-rock sound of late '60s acts like Cream, Blue Cheer, and Vanilla Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating the bass, and emphasising screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full of lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies. If their predecessors clearly came out of an electrified blues tradition, Black Sabbath took that tradition in a new direction, and in so doing helped give birth to a musical style that continued to attract millions of fans decades later.
Paranoid" is featured on their second album Paranoid (1970). It is the first single from the album, while the B-side is the song "The Wizard". It reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. Also, the song topped the German Singles Chart.
"Paranoid" is consistently ranked as one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time. It is typically associated with both Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath due to its popularity. After Osbourne left the band in 1979 to pursue a solo career, he continued to perform this track normally at the end of the set. Various different live versions have been recorded with Osbourne. This is due to the changes in band lineup since the original Blizzard of Ozz in 1980. Popular live versions featuring various guitarists including Randy Rhoads, Brad Gillis, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde were all recorded and later released.
It was ranked #34 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 11 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. Rolling Stone ranked it number 250 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and called the song, "a two-minute blast of protopunk". In 2009, it was named the 4th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.
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