Bark at the Moon
| Bark at the Moon | ||||
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| Studio album by Ozzy Osbourne | ||||
| Released | 15 November 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1983 | |||
| Studio | Ridge Farm Studios, Rusper, England | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal, glam metal, hard rock | |||
| Length | 39:31 | |||
| Label |
Epic CBS Associated (US) |
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| Producer | Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Daisley, Max Norman | |||
| Ozzy Osbourne chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Bark at the Moon | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Metal Storm |   |
| Martin Popoff | |
Bark at the Moon is the third studio album by British heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, originally released on 15 November 1983. The album features former Mickey Ratt and Rough Cutt guitarist Jake E. Lee, who replaced guitarist Randy Rhoads who had been killed a year earlier in a plane crash. The album peaked at number 19 on the Billboard album chart and within several weeks of release was certified Gold for over 500,000 sales in the United States. To date, it has sold over 3,000,000 copies in the US. In the UK, it was the third of four Osbourne albums to attain Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in January 1984. The album was remastered on CD in 1995 and again (with a different mix) in 2002. This is the first album to feature guitarist Jake E. Lee and the only one to feature drummer Tommy Aldridge.
Bark at the Moon is the only Ozzy Osbourne album on which the songwriting is credited entirely to Osbourne. However, guitarist Jake E. Lee maintains that he composed a significant amount of the album’s music but was cheated out of his writing and publishing claims by Osbourne’s wife and manager Sharon. Lee claims that after he had composed the songs and completed recording his parts in the studio, he was presented with a contract which stated that he would have no claim to any writing or publishing relating to the album. The contract also stated that Lee could not mention this publicly. Lee claims he signed the contract because he had no legal representation and because Sharon threatened to fire him and have another guitarist re-record his parts if he refused.
Osbourne himself admitted several years later in the liner notes to The Ozzman Cometh that Lee had been involved in the album's writing to at least some degree, stating that the album's title track was in fact co-written by the guitarist. Osbourne's bassist at the time, Bob Daisley, has mirrored Lee's account of the album's production, stating that he co-wrote most of the music with Lee and wrote the vast majority of the lyrics. Daisley has stated that he accepted a buyout from Osbourne in exchange for writing credit. Osbourne's former drummer Lee Kerslake, who also played with Daisley in Uriah Heep after leaving Osbourne's band, stated that Daisley had been hired by Sharon Osbourne to write the Bark at the Moon album for "$50–60,000 or whatever it is. He was offered the chance to write with Ozzy. Words, music – write the album."
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Wikipedia