The Number of the Beast, which opens side two and was the second single from the album after Run to the Hills, is barely five minutes in length, but it’s everything contained within those five minutes - including one of the all-time great blood-curdling screams and a blistering solo section in the middle featuring the massive talents of guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith - that make this song our top choice. “666” will forever be linked to heavy metal thanks, in large part, to this song. Harris claims to have been inspired to write the lyrics after watching the movie Damien: Omen II, which is certainly believable when you consider the song’s dark imagery and the repeated proclamation in the chorus that three sixes in a row are the mark of the devil. Written by bassist Steve Harris, The Number of the Beast is the title track from Iron Maiden’s third album and first with vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who replaced original singer Paul Di’Anno in 1981. Those seven words, and the rest of the spoken intro that follows - which is a combination of passages from Revelation 12:12 and Revelation 13:18 - were provided by British actor Barry Clayton (who died in 2011) after famous horror movie legend Vincent Price turned down the band’s offer to handle the speaking role.Īnd while it’s undeniably one of the most powerful song intros in rock history, it’s the track itself that stands tall as the quintessential Iron Maiden song - the one that has every right to be deemed the best of the best or, in this case, the best of the beast. We identify them as being synonymous with metal. Those seven words mean everything to us, because they not only signify that something spectacular is about to happen every time we hear them, but because we identify them as being synonymous with Iron Maiden. Those words continually transport us to the cavernous halls of Madison Square Garden, the Philadelphia Spectrum or the Hollywood Sportatorium, where we would thrust our collective fists toward the rafters as soon as 'Woe” - uttered in that distinct baritone voice - came blaring over the P.A.

The biblical-sounding phrase takes us back to our teenage bedrooms, where we would spend hours surrounded by nightmare-inducing album covers, crumpled piles of denim and leather, sharp objects, stereo gear from Emerson, Sanyo and Technics and more than likely a faint haze of smoke. To a true Iron Maiden fan, the very mention of those seven words elicits a tremendously visceral response within us.

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