The Story Behind Black Sabbath’s Debut Album Cover

Taken at Mapledurham Watermill

The photo was shot by photographer Keith McMillan, at Mapledurham Watermill on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England.

The model was Louisa Livingstone, who later told Rolling Stone magazine it was “freezing cold” when photographer Keith Macmillan took the picture.

“I had to get up at about 4 o’clock in the morning,” she recalled.

“Keith was rushing around with dry ice, throwing it into the water.

“It didn’t seem to be working very well, so he ended up using a smoke machine…

“I’m sure he said it was for Black Sabbath, but I don’t know if that meant anything much to me at the time.”

This was the band’s debut album.

Black Sabbath was formed in Birmingham, United Kingdon in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. The band was named after a 1963 Italian horror film.

Their debut album, Black Sabbath, was released on Friday, February 13th, 1970 by Vertigo Records in the UK. It came out in the United States a few months later on Warner Brothers, on June 1st. The whole album was recorded in one twelve hour session.

While it was at first negatively reviewed critically, the album quickly became popular, hitting #23 on the US Billboard chart, and staying on the chart for more than a year, selling over one million copies in the process!

The first track, the 6+ minute self-titled “Black Sabbath” became massively influential in metal and rock. And their the self-titled debut became beloved as one of the greatest Heavy Metal albums of all time. In part because it may as well have spawned Heavy Metal as a genre.

Shop official Black Sabbath t-shirts and merch at Bluescentric.

Artists who played on “Black Sabbath” (1970)

Ozzy Osbourne – vocals, harmonica
Tony Iommi – guitars
Geezer Butler – bass
Bill Ward – drums