Essential Ozzy Osbourne Songs

Originally Posted 10-30-2014 

GLO's late night rocker Andy Savage here, this time with a countdown of the Top Ten songs from the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne! Enjoy.

10. "Back On Earth" (from The Ozzman Cometh)
The first time I can really recall listening to an Ozzy Osbourne album was actually his greatest hits album titled The Ozzman Cometh. I'm sure I heard him on the radio before then, I just didn't actively listen or seek out his music. The track that grabbed me the most was the final song of the album, "Back On Earth", which I loved the percussion. Man! Those drums are killer. The lyrics are also powerful as well, as they talk about crossing over into the afterlife. Whether you believe in that or not, I felt it could've been a good choice for a song to be played during the ending credits to a horror movie.

9. "Mama, I'm Coming Home" (from No More Tears)
No More Tears is easily Ozzy at his creative peak and he got by with a little help from his friends: Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez (later of Alice in Chains fame), and Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead. The song is a great ballad about his wife Sharon, though it could really be about any man and his lady. It's a great ballad and I dig the guitar work.

8. "Diary Of A Madman" (from Diary Of A Madman)
I suppose I'm a sucker for these "epic" heavy metal songs. I just love how begins softly with acoustic guitar and strings, then the song slowly builds up to the blazing guitar from Randy Rhoads, and finally into a haunting choir at the end. It's much like something that would be heard in a horror movie's climax, like The Omen or The Exorcist, and it conjures up images of demons dancing around a fire in my head. Yet another reference to Ozzy songs used in movies, though the only one that comes to my mind was "Walk On Water" used in Beavis And Butt-Head Do America.

7. "Mr. Crowley" (from Blizzard Of Ozz)
More horror movie-conjuring with this song. The intro instantly hooked me with that kooky organ, and I think it would've been a cool song to use as an opener for an Ozzy setlist. Fill the stage with smoke, shine some eerie green lighting, have a ghoulish guy play that on the organ, and boom! Ozzy and the band emerge and melt faces with heavy metal.

6. "You Can't Kill Rock And Roll" (from Diary Of A Madman)
I feel like the genesis for this song could've been how heavy metal was "attacked" in the 1980's when kids committed suicide due to what they believed were backwards messages and then instances like community groups urging kids to burn their metal records. Ozzy's really not a bad guy, he's just a guy trying to make a living by recording rock and roll, it's his "religion" after all. The song is also a great anthem for youth, such as kids who are misunderstood and bullied. I didn't have many places to turn to, so I escaped into music and television, too. Not to get all "back to school" special, though.

5. "I Just Want You" (from Ozzmosis)
Heavy metal isn't always satanic or evil, even "The Prince Of Darkness" has a soft spot, which he reveals with another love song. Whenever I get another significant other, I'd like to steal that line for a love letter: "each night when the day is through, I don't ask much, I just want you."

4. "Bark At The Moon" (from Bark At The Moon)
Jake E. Lee doesn't seem to get enough love. But dig that screaming guitar! I almost wonder if maybe he was sort of forced into copying Randy Rhoads style because that's what Ozzy's fans expected at the time. I think he found his niche later with the blues-infused metal band, Badlands, but that's another story for another day. The guitar screams in this song and I find myself howling when listening to this song.

3. "Shot In The Dark" (from The Ultimate Sin)
If Jake E. Lee didn't get enough love already, for years this album was ignored when they reissued Ozzy's back catalog. This song was even replaced on reissues of Ozzy's Live & Loud album and the reissue of The Ozzman Cometh. Legal issues aside, this song is killer.

2. "See You On The Other Side" (from Ozzmosis)
Another ballad from Ozzy, which seems to combine themes from previous songs on this list, since he took a love song and combined it with imagery of the afterlife, and spun it into a break-up song. Brilliant. I've always thought the thumping bass stood out the most in this song, and it's no wonder why that is, since Geezer Butler returned for this album.

1. "No More Tears" (from No More Tears)
This is my all-time favorite Ozzy album and there isn't a good enough adjective to describe the title track- bombastic? Nah. Blazing? Nope. I guess the best I can do is calling it "furious". There's Mike Inez's rumbling bass and Zakk Wylde's signature ripping guitar, which he pretty much seems to have copied for every song following this one. But hey, if it works, why change it? I mentioned before that I'm a sucker for "epic" metal songs, and this is right up there with Black Sabbath's "Heaven & Hell" in my upper echelon of metal.