| "Shot in the Dark" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Ozzy Osbourne | ||||
| from the album The Ultimate Sin | ||||
| B-side | "Crazy Train" | |||
| Released | 1986 | |||
| Format | 7" Vinyl (45RPM) | |||
| Recorded | 1986 | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 4:16 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Writer(s) | Ozzy Osbourne Phil Soussan |
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| Producer | Ron Nevison | |||
| Ozzy Osbourne singles chronology | ||||
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"Shot in the Dark" is a song from Ozzy Osbourne's 1986 album The Ultimate Sin and was written by then Ozzy Osbourne's bassist Phil Soussan. The song's lyrics were supposedly inspired by the movie Prizzi's Honor.
An earlier, much slower and different version was derived from the original when Soussan was in Wildlife two years earlier. However Osbourne had favored the original song, wanting to create a new version of it, and Soussan had to re-write the song including the lyrics. Osbourne then requested 50% ownership of the song as a condition of recording it.
The video features a girl traveling with her friends to an Osbourne concert, and eventually turns into part of a billboard advertising Osbourne. Dweezil Zappa can easily be seen playing a cameo part in the live crowd in the music video. This was one of Osbourne's biggest solo hits and was played live regularly up until 1992. There are rumors that Osbourne disliked the song for its very "un-Osbourne sound", however those rumors seem to have been spread by Osbourne's management to damage the claim for non-payment of royalties and lawsuit that was brought by Soussan and settled by Osbourne on two separate occasions once in 1989 and once in 1993. Still, Osbourne continued to play the song live regularly and it remains on the Osbourne's biggest hits, peaking at number 4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1]
While Osbourne felt that the song might have been too "pop" sounding for his later and heavier tours, he did perform it on June 15, 2010's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Since then he has performed the song several times in 2010 while promoting his new album Scream.
The song was omitted from the 2002 re-mastered re-release of The Ozzman Cometh and was replaced with Miracle Man. Just Say Ozzy and The Ultimate Sin were both omitted from Osbourne's catalog all together in 2002 when the remastered re-releases came out. Both contained the song as well.
Children of Bodom covered the song for the Japanese version of their album Follow the Reaper. Jeff Scott Soto covered the song with Bruce Kulick, Ricky Phillips, Pat Torpey & Derek Sherinian on the tribute album Bat Soup: A Tribute To Ozzy Osbourne
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