The Number of the Beast

Harris wrote the song after a nightmare he had following a late night viewing of the film Damien: Omen II. The poem Tam o' Shanter by Robert Burns also influenced it. It opens with a spoken passage quoting the Book of Revelation, read by the actor Barry Clayton. The band first wanted Vincent Price, but the cost put them off. Dickinson said Clayton sounded a bit like Price.

The scream at the end of the intro came out of Dickinson's frustration with Birch, who made him sing the introduction over and over. Dickinson said Birch told him to sing as though summing up his whole life in the first two lines. Odd things were said to happen in the studio, with equipment failing at random. Birch crashed his car into a van carrying nuns, and the repair bill came to 666 pounds.

The single reached number 18 in the UK in 1982. A re-release in 2005 with live versions recorded in 2002 reached number 3. The video, filmed in March 1982 at Newcastle City Hall and directed by David Mallet, shows a giant Eddie appearing on stage for the first time near the end. In 2026 it was used in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, where the director said the writer Alex Garland chose the song and wrote it into the script.