Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (song)

"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
Single by Black Sabbath
from the album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
B-side	Changes
Released	December 1, 1973 (UK) January 1974 (U.S.)
Recorded	1973
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	5:45
Label	Castle (UK) Warner Bros. (U.S.)
Writer(s)	Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward
Producer	Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath singles chronology
"Changes" (1973) "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (1973) "Sabbra Cadabra" (1974)

"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" is a song by British heavy metal band Black Sabbath. It is the title track of the band's fifth album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It was released on the album in 1973. The song is the opening track on the album.

The main riff in the song has been recognized as "the riff that saved Black Sabbath" because Tony Iommi was suffering from writer's block at the time.^{[citation needed]} The band's music was based around his writing, and they resorted to drastic measures (including renting out the supposedly haunted Clearwell Castle to live in) to inspire him.^{[citation needed]}

The song has been dropped from Black Sabbath's sets. It was rarely played live in the '70s, and when the band reunited they only performed the first half in completion, with Ozzy dropping out of the song and not singing the final two verses. By the year 2000, it was dropped from their set entirely, until it emerged a few years later when the band played the riff a few times as an introduction to "Paranoid".

"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was covered by Bruce Dickinson with Godspeed for the 1994 tribute album Nativity in Black. It was also covered by Anthrax and their version originally appeared on the band's I'm the Man EP. The song was also covered and recorded by The Cardigans in 1994 for their album Emmerdale, and by the Austrian blackened death metal group Belphegor for their debut album the Last Supper. The song was also covered by the Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth.