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Originally released on 22 March 1982 in the United Kingdom by EMI Records
The recording and mixing of the album had to be completed in only five weeks.
This is the first to feature vocalist Bruce Dickinson and their last with drummer Clive Burr. It is Iron Maiden's only album to include songwriting credits for Clive Burr, and was the band's first album to feature writing by guitarist Adrian Smith.[1] In addition, the release saw Steve Harris adopt a different approach to writing, which would cater more for new vocalist Bruce Dickinson. The album's producer Martin Birch remarked, "I simply didn't think [former vocalist Paul Di'Anno] was capable of handling lead vocals on some of the quite complicated directions I knew Steve wanted to explore ... When Bruce joined, it opened up the possibilities for the new album tremendously."
______ Songs
"Total Eclipse" As they had written too much material, they had to choose between "Total Eclipse" and "Gangland" for the "Run to the Hills" B-side, with the understanding that the other song would appear on the album.[6] Several band-members have since expressed regret over the decision, with Steve Harris commenting, "We just chose the wrong track as the B-side. I think if 'Total Eclipse' had been on the album instead of 'Gangland' it would have been far better."[6] On top of this, Harris has stated that the record's opening track, "Invaders", was not good enough, commenting that it "could have been replaced with something a bit better, only we didn't have anything else to replace it with at the time. We had just enough time to do what we did, and that was it."
"The Number Of The Beast" While the title track was considered by many religious groups in the United States as evidence that Iron Maiden were a Satanic band, the song was in fact inspired by a nightmare bassist Steve Harris had, triggered by watching the film Damien: Omen II late at night. In addition, Harris has stated that the lyrics were also influenced by Robert Burns' Tam o' Shanter. The track opens with a spoken introduction from the Book of Revelation, read by actor Barry Clayton. According to Dickinson, the band originally approached Vincent Price to record the passage, but were unwilling to pay Price's fee of £25,000. Although the liner notes state that the passage is from Revelations 13:18, the first line comes from 12:12.
"Children of the Damned" is based on the films Village of the Damned and Children of the Damned, which in turn were adapted from the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. On his last radio show for BBC Radio 6, during a segment in tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio, Dickinson mentioned that Children of the Damned was inspired by Black Sabbath's "Children of the Sea".
"The Prisoner" was inspired by the British TV show of the same name, and features dialogue from its title sequence. The band's manager, Rod Smallwood, had to telephone Patrick McGoohan to ask permission to use the audio clips for the song and was extremely hesitant during his conversation with whom Smallwood himself describes as "a real bona fide superstar actor". McGoohan was reported to have said "What did you say the name was? A rock band, you say? Do it." Iron Maiden later made another song based on the series, "Back in the Village" from 1984's Powerslave.
"22 Acacia Avenue" is the second song in the "Charlotte the Harlot" saga, which was originally written by Adrian Smith several years earlier, while playing in his old band, Urchin. According to Smith, Steve Harris remembered hearing the song at an Urchin concert in a local park, and modified it for The Number of the Beast album.
______ Artwork
Like all of Iron Maiden's album artwork during the 1980s and early 90s, it was painted by Derek Riggs. The cover was originally created for the song "Purgatory", but manager Rod Smallwood deemed it of too high a calibre for a single release and decided to save it for The Number of the Beast. The original 1982 artwork includes a blue sky in the background; a mistake by the printers of the cover, this was corrected to black when the album was remastered for compact disc in 1998.
The album attracted controversy, particularly in the United States, due to the lyrics of the title track and the cover art depicting Eddie controlling Satan like a puppet, while Satan is also controlling a smaller Eddie. Smallwood explains that the concept was to ask "who's the really evil one here? Who's manipulating who?" According to Riggs, this was inspired by a Doctor Strange comic book, "which had some big villain with Doctor Strange dangling on some strings like a puppet – it was something I read as a child back in the 1960s, I think," while the images of hell were "taken from my knowledge of medieval European Christian art which was full of such scenes".
______ Press
Music press reports told stories of unexplained phenomena occurring during the sessions at Battery Studios, such as lights turning on and off of their own accord and the recording gear mysteriously breaking down. These odd occurrences climaxed when Birch was involved in a car accident with a mini-bus transporting a group of nuns, after which he was presented with a repair bill for £666.
The album was strongly opposed by social conservatives – especially in the United States, where Iron Maiden were accused of being Satanists. Public burnings of the band's catalogue were organised, although some religious groups smashed the records with hammers, for fear of inhaling fumes from burning vinyl. The Beast on the Road tour was subject to numerous boycotts and demonstrations: venues were sometimes surrounded by activists who handed out leaflets and, in one case, a 25-foot cross was carried in protest. Harris has stated, "It was mad. They completely got the wrong end of the stick. They obviously hadn't read the lyrics. They just wanted to believe all that rubbish about us being Satanists."
______ Success
The Number of the Beast was met with critical and commercial success, and became the band's first album to top the UK Albums Chart and reach the top 40 of the US Billboard 200.
Q magazine placed the album at No. 100 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever" in 2000; in 2001 named it one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time"; and in 2006 placed it at No. 40 in its "40 Best Albums of the '80s" list. IGN and Metal Rules placed it third and second, respectively, in their lists of the Top Heavy Metal Albums, and Guitar World ranked it at No. 17 on their list of "100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time". Classic Rock placed it at No. 15 in their list of the "100 Greatest British Rock Albums", describing it as "the most important metal album of the decade", and it was voted No. 1 in HMV's list of "The Best British Albums of the Past 60 Years" in 2012. The Number of the Beast is one of two Iron Maiden records listed in Robert Dimery's book, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (1980's Iron Maiden being the other). In 2017, it was ranked 4th on Rolling Stone' list of "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".
In 2001, the BBC made a documentary about The Number of the Beast as part of the Classic Albums series, which was released on DVD in the same year. Since a few decades band's third studio album is considered one of the albums of all time (Top 3, Top 5) in heavy music.
The New York Times reported in 2010 that 14 million copies have been sold and by December 2021 it had sold almost 20 million copies worldwide. It was the band's first record to top the UK charts, entering at No.1 on 10 April, maintaining the top position for a further week, and remaining in the Top 75 for a total of 31 weeks.
It was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 4 October 1983 (eventually going platinum in 1986). The album reached No.11 in Germany and was certified gold ten years later. It received a 3x platinum award in Canada for sales exceeding 300,000 units.
______ Reissues
1995 The album was reissued with a bonus CD containing two songs ("Total Eclipse", and a live version of "Remember Tomorrow") that had been the B-sides of the album's two singles. The US version of the 1995 reissue incorrectly gives Paul Di'Anno a songwriting credit for "Total Eclipse"; the song had actually been written by Harris, Murray, and Burr.
1998 The album was remastered, issued by EMI and Sanctuary/Columbia in the US as an enhanced CD version, which included photos, band history and the music videos for the songs "The Number of the Beast" and "Run to the Hills", in addition to "Total Eclipse", which was restored to the album's track listing (having been excluded from the original edition due to space constraints). This version mistakenly lists the track lengths for "22 Acacia Avenue" and "The Number of the Beast" as 4:49 and 3:50; they are in fact 6:38 and 4:51, respectively.
2022 (UK, Europe) and March 25th (USA) the band will release a new cassette version of the album for the fortieth anniversary of the album's original release.
