"Twilight Zone" is the fourth single by

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

, released on 2 March 1981 and is the lead single to the 1981 LP '' Killers''. The song did not appear in the original album in February, but was included in the U.S. release in June and the international 1998 remaster. At the time of its release, it was the band's second-most successful single, peaking at No. 31 in the UK Singles Chart. It is the band's first single to feature guitarist

Adrian Smith Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio. Smith grew up in London ...

. In the 1990 box set, '' The First Ten Years'', it is on the same CD and 12" vinyl as the previous single, "

Women in Uniform "Women in Uniform" is a 1978 song by the Australian band Skyhooks; it was written by the band's bass guitar player, Greg Macainsh. It was released in February 1978 as the lead single from their fourth studio album, '' Guilty Until Proven Insane ...

History

"Twilight Zone" was a non-album single in the UK, but it did appear on the US and Canadian versions of the ''Killers'' album and as a bonus track on the Japanese version, although mistakenly entitled "Details of Twilight Zone". This came about because the band also sent a

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explaining the song to their Japanese colleagues, headlined "Details of Twilight Zone", which they mistook to be the name of the song itself. It was released a month after the album, in the middle of the band's UK tour. The song was originally intended to be the B-side of Wrathchild, but the band felt it was so strong that it deserved to be the A-side instead. The single's other song, "Wrathchild", was also given 'A-side' status because, according to Steve Harris, "we had a live version of us doing 'Wrathchild' at the

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

, before Christmas, on video that we could use. We couldn't afford to pay for another video for 'Twilight Zone', so we did a double A-side, because we knew we were gonna be off touring a lot and, if by any chance they wanted us on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

'' again, at least we'd got a video for 'Wrathchild' we could give them." Like their two previous single covers, the artwork for "Twilight Zone" was subject to criticism in the press, where it was interpreted as "gratuitous sexism." The media were offended by what appeared to be the band's mascot,

Eddie Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...

, spying on a young girl in her bedroom.

Garry Bushell Garry Bushell (born 13 May 1955) is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author, musician and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Cockney Oi! bands GBX and the Gonads. He managed the New York C ...

points out that the critics were mistaken, as the song lyrics and picture on the girl's dressing table insinuate that Eddie is dead and contacting his lover ("Charlotte") from beyond the grave, thus making it the band's first love song.

Derek Riggs Derek Riggs (born 13 February 1958) is a contemporary British artist best known for creating the band Iron Maiden's mascot, " Eddie". Career Born in Portsmouth, England, Riggs is a self-taught artist, both in his traditional painting and in hi ...

painted the cover over the course of a weekend, on a CS-10 drawing board, on which he had difficulty painting; the girl was modeled after a friend of his. In an interview with eonmusic in 2020, Adrian Smith said that the song had been recorded "very quickly", stating that the tempo made the track "almost on the edge of being unplayable". Although uncredited as a writer, Smith also revealed that he had written the song's distinctive harmony section.

Track listing

;7" single

Personnel

Production credits are adapted from the 7 inch vinyl cover.

Iron Maiden

Paul Di'Anno Paul Andrews (born 17 May 1958), better known by his stage name Paul Di'Anno, is a British/Brazilian heavy metal singer who was the lead vocalist for Iron Maiden from 1978 to 1981. In his post-Maiden career, Di'Anno has issued numerous albu ...

– lead vocals * Dave Murray –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

– guitar * Steve Harris –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Clive Burr – drums

Production

– producer * Nigel Hewitt – engineer *

– cover illustration

Charts

Twilight Zone

Women in Uniform/Twilight Zone

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twilight Zone (Iron Maiden Song) 1981 singles 1981 songs Iron Maiden songs Songs written by Dave Murray (musician) Songs written by Steve Harris (musician)