Black Sabbath "Paranoid" Vertigo 6360 011 1Y/2Y UK early Press + inner g/f 1970

	£		36
	$		48

Black Sabbath "Paranoid" Vertigo 6360 011  No management credit Vinyl, LP housed in a Vertigo swirl inner sleeve and released in a gate-fold sleeve in 1970.
The vinyl has a couple of surface scuffs, but played through beautifully on my elderly stereo - no hop, stick or jump. It is housed in its original, Vertigo swirl inner sleeve, which, although a little creased is otherwise in good shape - no rips or writing. The gate-fold sleeve has some signs of wear front and back, but is generally in good condition, again, with no rips or writing. The spine is also a little worn and, while it is only partially legible, it is intact. Matrix / Runout  Side 1 : 6360011 1Y//1 420 1 2 1 5 Matrix / Runout  Side 2 : 6360011 2Y//1 420 1 1 2 1
"Paranoid" is Black Sabbath's second studio album, released in September 1970 through Vertigo Records in England and Warner Bros. Records in the US. The album contains several of the band's signature songs, including "Iron Man", "War Pigs" and the title track, which was the band's only Top 20 hit, reaching number 4 in the UK charts.
"Paranoid" was ranked number one in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". The album is often cited a key influence for the development of the heavy metal music genre as well as one of the earliest heavy metal albums. "Paranoid" was the band's only album to top the UK Albums Chart until the release of "13" in 2013.
"Paranoid" was originally titled "War Pigs", but the record company allegedly changed it out of fear of a backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War. Additionally, the band's label felt the title track was more marketable as a single. Ozzy Osbourne states in "I Am Ozzy" that the name change had nothing to do with the Vietnam War, and was entirely due to the record company deciding the album would be easier to sell if it was named after the single, which had already had significant success by the time the album was released, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. It was too late, however, to alter the artwork. Joe Smith, who was executive vice-president at Warner Bros. from 1970 to 1972, told Classic Albums that the rest of Warner Bros. didn't want anything to do with them: "We were in the midst of the war ourselves in this country and what their reasoning was not that important to me. I knew we weren't going to call it 'War Pigs'." Regarding the song "Paranoid", Smith recalls, "It was on an acetate. I remember playing it and turning the sound way up and shaking the whole building ... I said 'I think that's the breakthrough album. I don't understand it but that 'Paranoid' sounds like a great title for an album and a great title for a single.'" "That album title had nothing to do with the sleeve," Osbourne explained to Phil Alexander in 1998. "What the fuck does a bloke dressed as a pig with a sword in his hand got to do with being paranoid, I don't know, but they decided to change the album title without changing the artwork."
In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Steve Huey cited "Paranoid" as "one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time", which "defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history". Ben Mitchell from Blender said it was "the greatest metal album of all time". According to Rolling Stone's Joe Levy, "Sabbath ruled for bummed-out kids in the Seventies" and "nearly every heavy-metal and extreme rock band of the last three decades", including Metallica, Nirvana and Slipknot, "owes a debt of worship" to Iommi's "crushing" guitar riffs, Ward and Butler's "Visigoth rhythm section" and Osbourne's "agonized bray" on tracks such as "Paranoid", "Iron Man" and "War Pigs".
The album is currently ranked at No. 139 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. "Paranoid"'s chart success allowed the band to tour the US for the first time in October 1970, which spawned the release of the album's second single "Iron Man". Although it failed to reach the top 40, "Iron Man" remains one of Black Sabbath's most popular songs, as well as the band's highest charting US single.