Edit: fixed timestamped url 1:50 mark, missedthe & before “t=”

Six-six-six, the number of the beast

Hell and fire was spawned to be released

Timestamped: https://youtu.be/WxnN05vOuSM&t=110

This song was the band’s second single from their 1982 album. It was influenced by the 1978 horror movie Damien: Omen II, which is about the 13-year-old Antichrist. It is one of Iron Maiden’s most famous and one of heavy metal’s most recognizable songs.

Basically, this song is about a dream. It’s not about devil worship. — Steve Harris

The song starts with a quote from the Bible, read by British actor Barry Clayton; the first lines from Revelations 12:12 and the last three from Revelations 13:8. The band wanted the horror film actor Vincent Price to read this intro, but he wanted more money than they were willing to pay.

During the recording of the album, there were rumors floating about that supernatural occurrences had been going on in the studio, such as lights flipping on and off, strange noises and visions of Satan, that culminated in a car accident their producer Martin Birch was involved, the bill of which was 666 GBP. This was used as evidence that Satan and the Antichrist had a hand in making this. Many preachers and enemies of rock music were led to believe Maiden were Satanists because of the song’s title. Steve Harris replied: “They completely got the wrong end of the stick. They obviously hadn’t read the lyrics. They just wanted to believe all that rubbish about us being Satanists.”

Bruce Dickinson’s high-pitched scream at the end of the intro was a result of producer Martin Birch forcing the band to replay the intro several times. Dickinson became so fed up with the constant repeats that he emitted the scream out of frustration, and it fit so well that the band decided to keep it.

https://genius.com/Iron-maiden-the-number-of-the-beast-lyrics