Black Sabbath's Paranoid getting deluxe treatment

Black Sabbath's 1970 second album, Paranoid, will be reissued on September 29th as both a double-vinyl set and a deluxe three-CD package, according to a press release. The record, which was recorded in eight days, is Sabbath's best-selling effort and was their commercial breakthrough in the U.S. Containing some of the band's biggest songs, such as "Iron Man," "War Pigs" and the title track, Paranoid is considered one of heavy metal's most influential and all-time masterpieces. The CD set will contain the original album on one disc and a 1974 quadraphonic mix on the second, while a third CD will feature never-before-released early instrumental versions of six of the album's eight songs and two with alternate lyrics.

Paranoid has sold four million copies in the U.S. alone and was Sabbath's only album to ever reach Number One in their native country, the U.K.

Paranoid was followed by 1971's Master of Reality, also considered by many fans to be one of the group's finest efforts.

At their long-overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, Guitarist Tony Iommi and singer Ozzy Osbourne talked about the respect that Black Sabbath has earned in the music industry: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] (Iommi) "I think it's great. I think it's taken a few years. mind (you), because I think for a while, nobody took us seriously. But, you know, our friends in the music business and that obviously did. As we went on, the more we carried on, the more we proved, the more we stayed there, you know? And I think we got the respect from that." (Osbourne) "I never thought anybody liked us, and people on the Ozzfest would come to me and go, 'You were really one of our inspirations.' And I didn't really, I didn't believe it, you know?"

The original lineup of Black Sabbath has reunited several times in the last decade to either headline its own tour or Ozzfest, but there are no plans at the moment for the band to either record or tour.
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