"Heaven and Hell" is the title track of

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

's ninth studio album. The music was written mainly by guitarist

Tony Iommi Anthony Frank Iommi () (born 19 February 1948) is a British musician. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader and primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. I ...

, but – as with almost all Sabbath albums – credit is given to the entire band. The

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

were written entirely by newcomer Ronnie James Dio. The song has been performed by several bands of which Iommi and Dio were members including

, Dio, and Heaven & Hell.

Details

Keyboardist

Geoff Nicholls Geoffrey James Nicholls (29 February 1944 – 28 January 2017) was a British guitarist and keyboardist, and longtime member of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath until 2004. Nicholls also played in the NWOBHM band Quartz before joining Black Sa ...

, who was a session keyboard player during the recording of the album, is said to have been responsible for this song's bassline. The bassline closely resembles that of "Mainline Riders" by

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

, of which Nicholls was a former member. Geezer Butler was not available during initial recording of the song in late 1979. Performed live by

, Dio and Heaven & Hell, the song was often stretched out with an extended guitar solo, audience participation, ad-libbed lyrics, or additional lyrics regarding angelic and demonic apparitions and personal judgment. Many later Sabbath lineups included this song in live sets, during which it was variously sung by

Ian Gillan Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is a British singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice. Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan ...

, Glenn Hughes,

Ray Gillen Raymond Arthur Gillen (May 12, 1959 – December 1, 1993) was an American rock singer. He is best known for his work with Badlands, in addition to his stint with Black Sabbath in the mid-1980s and recording most of the vocals on Phenomena's '' ...

, and Tony Martin. An official live recording, featuring Martin on vocals, featured on 1995's ''

Cross Purposes Live ''Cross Purposes Live'' is a boxed set released by the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath in March 1995. The set comprised a live album on CD and a VHS tape of a concert recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on Wednesday 13 April ...

''. Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford sang the song with Sabbath on 14 and 15 November 1992, when he filled in at two concerts. "Heaven and Hell" was ranked No. 11 in

Martin Popoff Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionall ...

's book ''

The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time ''The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time'' is a book by Martin Popoff who is the editor in chief and writer of the Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine as well as the senior editor of bravewords.com. He also wrote The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albu ...

''. Popoff compiled the book by asking thousands of fans, musicians, and journalists to nominated their favourite metal songs. Almost 18,000 individual votes were tallied and entered into a database from which the final rankings were derived. The song was named the 81st best hard rock song of all time by VH1. It was ranked the eighth best Black Sabbath song by Rock - Das Gesamtwerk der größten Rock-Acts im Check. In 2020, ''

Kerrang ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-of ...

'' ranked the song number three on their list of the 20 greatest Black Sabbath songs, and in 2021, ''

Louder Sound ''Classic Rock'' is a British magazine and website dedicated to rock music, owned and published by Future. It was launched in October 1998 and is based in London. The magazine publishes 13 editions a year, mainly covering rock bands from the 60, ...

'' ranked the song number two on their list of the 40 greatest Black Sabbath songs. The song's intro was used during ''

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was a benefit concert held on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992, at Wembley Stadium in London, United Kingdom for an audience of 72,000. The concert was produced for television by Ray Burdis, ...

'' to introduce

Lyrics

: In an interview for VH1's "Heavy: The Story of Metal", Dio stated that the song is about the ability of each human being to choose between doing good and doing evil; essentially, that each person has "heaven and hell" inside themselves.

References

{{authority control Black Sabbath songs 1980 songs Songs written by Tony Iommi Songs written by Geezer Butler Songs written by Bill Ward (musician) Songs written by Ronnie James Dio Song recordings produced by Martin Birch