Black Sabbath - Paranoid

There are songs you listen to because you like them. Then there are songs that become part of your daily routine. For me, Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" falls into the second category.

Every morning my Echo Studio wakes me with Tony Iommi's unmistakable guitar riff. If I'm in a hurry I'll silence it before Ozzy Osbourne has a chance to sing a word. On a more relaxed morning I let the whole track play before getting out of bed. It's become such a habit that I can't imagine waking up to anything else.

Of course, "Paranoid" deserves its place in rock history. Released in 1970, it was written almost as an afterthought to pad out the album, yet it became Black Sabbath's signature song. Clocking in at under three minutes, it's one of the shortest songs they ever recorded, but it captures everything that made the band unique. Tony Iommi's unforgettable riff, Geezer Butler's driving bass, Bill Ward's energetic drumming and Ozzy's unmistakable voice combine to create a song that still sounds fresh more than fifty years later.

I've heard "Paranoid" literally thousands of times, yet I never tire of it. Perhaps that's because I rarely sit down and choose to play it. Instead, it arrives at exactly the same moment every day, announcing that it's time to stop sleeping and start living.

Not many songs can claim to have changed the history of heavy metal. Even fewer can claim to have got me out of bed every morning.