Over the Mountain is the first song on the Ozzy Osbourne album Diary of a Madman. This was the last album recorded with Randy Rhoads before his unfortunate death in 1982. It was released in 1981 and re-issued in 1995. There was also an altered version released in 2002 with some controversy (I’ll talk about this later).

This Over the Mountain cover is played by Aaron (enin27 on Youtube). He had to improvise on some parts because his guitar doesn’t have a wammy bar. This is one of my favorite Randy Rhoads solos.

The Controversy:

Back in 1986, Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake filed charges against Osbourne to win songwriting credits on Diary of a Madman. They eventually won those songwriting credits.

In 2002, there was an altered version of Diary of a Madman reissued. The original bass and drum tracks by Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake were replace by tracks from drummer Mike Bordin and bassist Robert Trujillo (Ozzy’s touring drummer and bassist during the 90s). Ozzy fans and critics felt the move was dishonest and resulted in a second-rate product. Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager, said in a press conference that “because of Daisley and Kerslake’s abusive and unjust behavior, Ozzy wanted to remove them from these recordings. We turned a negative into a positive by adding a fresh sound to the original albums.”

The fans and critics disagreed. The reissue credits didn’t emphasize the fact that parts had been re-recorded yet it was apparent to those who knew the original issue that something had been altered. Daisley and Kerslake deny the accusations of “abusive behavior” and continue to battle for royalties owed to them for their work on Diary of a Madman.