Watch Black Sabbath play Paranoid in August 1970, before it hit the UK charts

(Image credit: BMG) Black Sabbath’s Paranoid is such a timeless classic heavy metal anthem that it's almost possible to forget that there was a time when it was box-fresh and startling to virgin ears. For instance, when Sabbath played the Jazz Bilzen festival in Belgium on August 21, 1970, their signature song had yet to break into the UK charts or European radio airwaves. This performance, with Ozzy Osbourne wailing about insanity and depression over Tony Iommi’s iconic riff, was shocking to audiences of stoned hippies who expected to hear Cat Stevens, The Kinks, and Dizzie Gillespie instead. The band recorded Paranoid in just 30 minutes to extend their second album, Paranoid. Initially, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler rejected Tony Iommi’s riff, calling it a Led Zeppelin rip-off. They later admitted they had misjudged it. Ozzy recalled his wife’s reaction when he realized they had created a hit single. Paranoid later became a UK number 4 hit on August 29, 1970, and its album reached number 1 in the UK the following month. The article also mentions Paul Brannigan, a music writer and former editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock, who has contributed to publications like Rolling Stone and Q.