Iron Maiden Biography and Top 10 Songs
The song Charlotte the Harlot probably made me listen to Iron Maiden more than just hearing them on the radio because (and I know this is bad) when I was in school, there was a girl I knew who was called Charlotte and she used to do it. call her Charlotte the Whore for knowing the song. This was really when I was a little boy of about 8 years old and I actually ended up having her as a girlfriend when I was about 14, so it all worked out in the end.
Iron Maiden is an English heavy metal group formed in London in 1975 by Steve Harris and has had many members over the years (too many to list). The most prominent members are Dave Murray, Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Nicko McBrain, Dennis Stratton and the current line-up is: Bruce Dickinson (lead vocals), Dave Murray (guitar), Adrian Smith (guitar, backing vocals), Janick Gers (guitar), Steve Harris (bass, backing vocals) and Nicko McBrain (drums). This lineup has been constant since 1999.
Maiden is one of the most successful heavy metal bands and has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. The name Iron Maiden was taken from an old torture device of the same name and the band formed on Christmas Day 1975. The group went through many band changes during their early years of performance and it wasn’t until they signed with EMI on December 1979 they began to seriously record their work. The self-titled debut album Iron Maiden was released in 1980 and rose to # 4 in its first week on the charts. The same year, Iron Maiden toured the UK and opened for Kiss and Judas Priest, helping to publicize them.
Bruce Dickinson joined the band shortly after the release of the second album (Killers) and went straight to another UK tour. The Number Of The Beast was released in 1982 and was Iron Maiden’s first number one album in the UK and they went on to go on a massive world tour that included Canada, the US, Australia, Japan, Germany and the UK. There was controversy in the US when a group of Christian activists held a record burning of Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne albums as they claimed they were Satanic. Shortly after the tour saw the release of the third album Piece Of Mind, which was a huge success.
Iron Maiden then went on another big tour called the World Slavery Tour and it consisted of 193 shows over 13 months and this is recorded as one of the biggest tours in music history. The following years saw Iron Maiden change the way they made their music and the inspiration behind it. In 1986 Somewhere In Time was released and was based on the ideals of time travel and was the first album to contain synthesized guitar and bass sounds that were used to add layers and textures to their sound. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son was released in 1988 and was about a mythical boy with magical abilities and was also the first album to contain keyboards and reached # 1 on the UK chart.
No Prayer For The Dying was released in 1990 to great success and the song Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter was elevated to give Iron Maiden their first UK # 1 single. The song was recorded for the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. In 1992 Fear Of The Dark was released and it was the first album to be recorded specifically for CD and was much longer than previous LP releases.
Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in 1993 to pursue his own solo career, but still went on a farewell tour and recorded two live albums (A Real Dead One, which contained songs from 1975-1984 and A Real Live One, which contained songs from 1986-1992).
The next album to come was The X Factor and it was released in 1995, but it did not receive as much success as their previous albums. Best Of The Beast was released in 1996 and was the first compilation album and only contained one new song (Virus). Virtual XI was released in 1998 and was even less successful than The X Factor.
In 1999 Bruce Dickinson returned to the band and in 2000 they released the album Brave New World and brought Iron Maiden back to the charts and the minds of the British public. Maiden went on another massive world tour (over 100 dates) and ended at the Rock In Rio festival in Brazil in 2001. The band played for around 250,000 fans and the show was recorded and released as a live album (Rock In Rio). .
Iron maiden has released several albums since (Dance Of Death, Death On The Road and A Matter Of Life And Death) and they are still touring. Iron Maiden has influenced many bands and won the Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement in 2002 and was also inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk in 2005.
My top 10 Iron Maiden songs are:
01. Run to the hills
02. The number of the beast
03. Charlotte the Whore
04. Can I play with Madness?
05. Holy Smoke
06. Fear of the dark
07. Hooks in you
08. Running Free
09. The evil that men do
10. Sanctuary
