<P> Upon release in 1982, the song caused controversy in the United States where its religious subject matter caused outrage amongst religious groups . In spite of this, it remains one of the band's more popular songs, reaching No. 18 in the UK singles charts, and has been performed on almost all of their concert tours . Additionally, the song has been covered numerous times and has appeared in several video games and films . </P> <P> According to the song's writer, bassist and band - founder Steve Harris, it was inspired by a nightmare he had after watching the film Damien: Omen II, in addition to the poem Tam o' Shanter by Robert Burns . </P> <P> The song opens with a spoken word passage, read by English actor Barry Clayton, which quotes Revelation 12: 12 and Revelation 13: 18 . According to lead vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, the band originally asked Vincent Price to read the intro, but decided to hire Clayton after Price refused to do it for anything less than £ 25,000 . </P> <P> The track is known for its very long, high - pitched and guttural wail at the end of the intro, which AllMusic describes as "the most blood - curdling Dickinson scream on record". In the Classic Albums documentary based on The Number of the Beast album, Dickinson states that it came about through frustration with producer Martin Birch, who forced him to sing the introduction repeatedly for hours on end . </P>

Who does the intro to number of the beast