Ozzy Osbourne released Bark at the Moon on November 15, 1983. His third studio album introduced guitarist Jake E. Lee to his recording lineup following Randy Rhoads’ death in 1982. The title track also supplied a new way to present the singer: his first music video, wearing the werewolf makeup featured on the album cover.
Lee arrived with ideas, but little confidence that he could insist on how they were used. “I was the new guy and I could be out at any second,” he told Guitar World in 1986. He would play Osbourne a riff, and an approving response meant the band could start developing it. Lee often had other sections worked out already, but he remembered being reluctant to challenge changes once the group got involved.
Osbourne already had the album’s name in mind when Lee played him the riff that became “Bark at the Moon.” In an interview published by Ultimate Classic Rock in 2023, Lee recalled the singer immediately choosing that music for the title. He and bassist Bob Daisley then spent time developing the songs together, with Daisley handling lyrics. Their working relationship gave Lee someone to build arrangements with while he adjusted to the demands of recording with Osbourne.
Recording brought another kind of education. Producer Max Norman helped Lee tighten his playing and match separate guitar takes closely enough to work together. Lee credited Norman with teaching him those practical studio skills during his first album. The pressure wasn’t limited to getting the parts right: he remembered trying to keep thoughts of following Rhoads out of his head while he worked.
Keyboardist Don Airey described a band that had spent roughly six weeks developing material before recording at Ridge Farm. Speaking to Electronics & Music Maker in February 1984, he recalled another six weeks completing the sessions, with Lee taking particular care over his guitar sounds. Airey’s own keyboard parts came together in a much shorter burst, mostly over a couple of days. He preferred that pressure because too much time encouraged him to keep changing things. One result was a growling sound from his Yamaha CS80 that he later admitted he couldn’t find again. He also described the challenge of making keyboards hold their own beside a loud guitar while finding sounds that allowed the two instruments to support each other.
“So Tired” gave those keyboards a different job. Airey tried the studio’s Steinway piano but wasn’t satisfied with the sound, so he used a Yamaha instead. His part took two takes. Elsewhere in the arrangements, an Oberheim OB-Xa thickened the sound of the real strings. The orchestration divided the musicians: Lee told Guitar World he had liked the earlier four-piece arrangement of “So Tired,” then disliked what the added strings did to it.
The album reached No. 19 on the Billboard 200. For The Ultimate Sin, released in 1986, Lee prepared fuller demos and pushed to develop the songs around guitar, bass and drums before adding keyboards. He wanted weak sections solved through the writing itself. Keyboards were added after the other parts had been established, a concrete change from the working process he had experienced on Bark at the Moon.
