Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All) is one of Type O Negative’s most enduring songs for good reason. It mixes all their best ingredients – sex, love, despair and biting, sarcastic humour – into a single irresistible goth metal anthem. On the face of it, the song takes a tongue-in-cheek poke at a certain gothic stereotype. The Black No. 1 of the title refers to a popular hair dye and, in between references to Lily Munster and Nosferatu, the lyrics contain the classic couplet, ‘You wanna go out cause it's raining and blowing/ You can't go out cause your roots are showing.’
Beneath the jokes, though, lay a real and seemingly toxic relationship. ‘This entire opus is respectfully dedicated to all those who have loved unconditionally only to have their hearts unanesthetically ripped out,’ wrote late frontman Peter Steele in the original liner notes to Type O’s 1993 album Bloody Kisses, on which Black No.1 was a centrepiece.
