Vocalist Paul Di'Anno, who wrote the song's lyrics, describes it as "a very autobiographical song, though of course I've never spent the night in an LA jail. The band also performed the song on the UK TV show Top of the Pops, refusing the usual tradition for artists to mime and thus becoming the first group to perform live on the show since The Who in 1972. " Running Free" was released as a single on 8 February 1980, reaching No. Steve Harris commented, "The prestige of doing so well in the UK had turned into a sort of word-of-mouth thing, and we'd turn up in places like Leiden, in Holland, places we'd never even heard of, and they'd have these massive banners waiting for us with 'Iron Maiden Go Over The Top' written on them and all this. The band undertook the Iron Maiden Tour in support of the album, during which they played their first concerts in mainland Europe, where they were surprised to discover how successful Iron Maiden had been outside the UK. The re-release also features a different cover a digital recreation by original artist Derek Riggs, with a portion of the original artwork instead being used on the disc itself. The track originally appeared on the Metal for Muthas compilation, but was re-recorded during the Iron Maiden sessions. The 1998 remastered album differs from the original with the addition of the song "Sanctuary", which had then been released only as a single in the UK in May 1980, although it did also appear in the later US version of Iron Maiden, which was issued in August 1980. when he was soloing on one of the heavier songs, it wasn't with quite the same passion". Although Stratton stated that he was not "trying to push the band in a new direction", Harris commented that it "really pointed up the difference between Den and us", after which he began to notice that "Dennis was so much more into playing stuff like "Strange World" than he was "Iron Maiden" or "Prowler", because it was more slow, melodic . Suspicions were first raised during Iron Maiden 's recording, when Stratton added Wishbone Ash-esque harmony guitars and backing vocals reminiscent of Queen to "Phantom of the Opera", of which the rest of the band immediately disapproved and had removed. This was also the only studio album with guitarist Dennis Stratton, who, having been brought in as a last-minute placement, was dismissed due to "musical differences" after the band's European tour in support of Kiss. ĭi'Anno (left) and Harris (right) performing in 1980. Although AllMusic stated that this style was "clearly drawing from elements of punk rock", Harris stated that the band despised everything about punk. The group criticised the quality of the production, although many fans still preferred the raw quality of the sound recording. After these efforts, the band decided not to dismiss Malone as Harris described that they could "bypass him and to the engineer". Guy Edwards, the first, was dismissed as the band were unhappy with the "muddy" quality in his production, while Andy Scott was also dismissed after insisting Harris play his bass with a pick rather than his fingers. Before the sessions with Malone, the band made two attempts in December 1979 with two different producers while still a four-piece.
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Recording took place at Kingsway Studios, west London in January 1980, with the band taking time out from the 1980 Metal for Muthas Tour to complete the final mixes at Morgan Studios, northwest London in February. This is the band's only album produced by Wil Malone (credited as Will Malone), whom Iron Maiden have since claimed lacked interest in the project and effectively left them to produce most of the album themselves, which, according to bassist Steve Harris, was completed in just 13 days. It is the band's only album to feature guitarist Dennis Stratton.Īlthough Iron Maiden have since criticised the quality of the album's production, the release was met with critical and commercial success, peaking at number four on the UK Albums Chart and helping the band achieve prominence in mainland Europe. However, 2014 vinyl reissues, 2015 digital releases and 2018 CD reissues use the original track listing across the globe. In 1998, along with the rest of the band's pre-1995 releases, Iron Maiden was remastered with "Sanctuary" added in all territories. The North American version included the song " Sanctuary", released in the UK as a non-album single. Iron Maiden is the debut studio album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 14 April 1980 by EMI Records in the UK and Harvest and Capitol Records in the US.