15 The Best Songs Of Iron Maiden

Running Free is probably the best song of Iron Maiden from their early years. It is the third track on their debut album.

The track was released on February 8, 1980, in the 7" 45 rpm vinyl record format, still in the early days. Harris and Paul Di’Anno wrote the lyrics referring to LA with traditional rock music.

It peaked at No. 34 during its original release on UK Singles. 

Iron Maiden released Pachendale on September 8, 2003. It was the eighth song in their 13th studio album, "Dance of Death."

The track depicts the Battle of Passchendaele, which took place during the First World War.

Dickinson continues to introduce the song with a passage from Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth" during live performances.

The song's heavy take on patriotism, war, and tragedy, makes it one of the best songs of the band.

Run To The Hills was the first single with Bruce Dickinson as the vocalist for the band. However, Harris solely wrote the lyrics.

However, he could not be credited due to his contract agreement with his former band, Samson.

The song is the first track from Iron Maiden's third album. "The Number of the Beast."

It still remains one of their most popular songs and live performances. VH1 ranked it No. 27 on their list of the 40 Greatest Metal Songs and No. 14 on their list of the Greatest Hard Rock Songs.

1984's Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is the group's second longest song after 2015's "Empire of the Clouds." The song is 13 minutes and 45 seconds long.

It is the musical re-telling of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem of the same name and includes two passages. Released on September 3, 1984, the song was written in a short amount of time.

Meanwhile, it still remains one of the favorites of the band to play live even today.

Iron Maiden released Wasted Years as their first song from their sixth studio album, "Somewhere in Time." The music piece was made without synthesizers.

However, the rest of the songs in the collection have them.

The lyrics deal with homesickness, the negative aspects of the band's nearly year-long previous tour, and personal problems, making it both the group's and their fans' favorite.

It had peaked at No.18 in the UK Singles Charts. The song's B-side is "Reach Out," which was sung by Adrian Smith.

The 2015 remastered version of this song has more than 125 million streams on Spotify.

2 Minutes to Midnight was written by Smith and Dickinson. Martin Birch produced it. The song's B-sides are "Rainbow's Gold" and "Mission from "Arry."

"The Trooper" preceded it by release date, while "Aces High" was released after.

The track peaked at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and later at No. 25 on Billboard Top Album Tracks.

The Evil That Men Do is one of the top Iron Maiden songs on their seventh album, "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son." It debuted at No. 6 in the UK charts.

However, it rose to No. 5 quickly. The trio, Smith, Harris, and Dickinson, wrote the lyrics, retelling William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2, "The Forum."

Its music video was filmed at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, during their 1988 tour.

Fear of the Dark is the title song of the band's ninth studio album of the same name. It was written by Harris, talking about a man afraid of the dark.

Later, Dickinson confirmed that Harris was the one who used to be afraid of the dark. Hence, the emotional weight of the song touched many hearts, inspiring many musicians to cover it later.

It has been the subject of cover songs many times in the music industry. Meanwhile, it also received a nomination at the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance with Vocal, though it could not bag the win.

The Wicker Man is the first single and opening track of Iron Maiden's 12th album, "Brave New World." It was inspired by the 1973 movie of the same name.

Smith, Dickinson, and Harris again did the lyrics, showcasing their teamwork. The song peaked at No.1 in the UK Rock & Metal and No. 9 in the UK Singles.

It also inspired Dickinson to release another single, "Wicker Man," in his solo career later. Meanwhile, The Wicker Man was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award in the category of Best Metal Performance, per IMDb.

1984's Powerslave was released as one of the three songs on its album Side Two. The album 'Powerslave" remains one of the popular creations of the band to date.

The song tells about an Egyptian Pharaoh during his final moments who realizes that he was a human just like everyone. In short, Powerslave is a dramatic realization of life and teachings that can be implied to every human.

Hence, the song remains a powerful message from the musical group and is one of the top songs in our list.

The album "Powerslave" gave another big hit, Aces High, to its fans in 1984. The track remains a hit among metal fans due to its take on another war story.

Aces High's lyrics deal with the viewpoint of a British RAF pilot fighting during the Battle of Britain in 1940. The war was the first to be fought with aircraft, depicting the high in the song title.

With the team's take on such powerful vision and strong lyrics of such heavy matters like wars, Iron Maiden stands tall as a pioneer in the metal rock genre.

While Caught Somewhere in Time has no official video release yet, the Maiden fandom is thankful for such a masterpiece.

One of the many songs in the album "Somewhere in Time," it deals with space and time.

"Wasted Years," "Deja-Vu," and "Stranger in a Strange Land" are some of the songs that sit beside it in the same theme of the album.

Iron Maiden proved their creativity and inventiveness as they covered several matters in their music career.

The Number of the Beast is among the best on the Iron Maiden song list. It was the second single of the band's third album of the same name, released in 1982.

Due to the hit song and the album as a whole, the band has often been nicknamed "The Beast.'

It remains one of the most popular songs by the group and has a long legacy. It ranked at No. 7 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs and has been covered by many artists so far.

Its 2015 remastered version has accumulated over 204 million streams on Spotify.

The Tropper is one of the best Iron Maiden songs out there for a metal music lover. The Guardian called the song's currency to be raw power.

It was inspired by Lord Tennyson’s poem "The Charge Of The Light Brigade," where a cavalryman charges toward his demise during the Battle Of Balaclava in the Crimean War.

The song title does justice to the theme of their music and lyrics, hence, the wide success of naming the group the best in the musical scenario for decades.

Its 2015 remastered version has more than 357 million Spotify streams so far.

Hallowed Be Thy Name was ranked 16th on the 2023 Rolling Stone list of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time." It is undoubtedly their greatest song.

The publication lauded the song's theme, where the protagonist, a prisoner, is in his final moments before being taken to the gallows. His feelings of panic, anxiety, and sorrow while contemplating his life have been showcased in the best way possible.

Thus, the reason why the song has topped off all the lists. "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is the final track on "The Number of the Beast." It is considered to be the band's signature song to date.

With this masterpiece, our list of Iron Maiden's best 15 songs comes to a conclusion.

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