"Peace Sells" is a song by American thrash metal band Megadeth from their 1986 album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, written by Dave Mustaine. The song was released as the band's second ever single in November 1986. "Peace Sells" was the group's breakthrough hit, and is regarded as one of the best songs in the history of heavy metal. Since 1985, the song has since been a constant at Megadeth concerts. According to David Ellefson, it became quickly apparent when playing the song live prior to recording the album that "Peace Sells" would be a hit. In 2006, VH1 ranked "Peace Sells" at number 11 on their list of the "40 Greatest Metal Songs" of all time. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked the song number nineteen on their list on the 100 greatest heavy metal songs.
The song is also known for the distinctive bass intro played by Ellefson. The video for the track became an MTV mainstay and the bassline was used as the introduction to MTV News. However, Mustaine proclaimed that they received no royalties because the song was excluded shortly before MTV would have to pay them for its use.
Background
Lyrics
"Peace Sells" reflects band frontman Dave Mustaine's political and social beliefs. The title of the song was taken from a copy of Reader's Digest that Mustaine saw, which had a story written by Patti Smith with the words "Peace sells, but nobody's buying it". Band drummer Gar Samuelson encouraged Mustaine to write more political lyrics in his songs, which in turn helped the song be a success. The lyrics for the song were written on the wall of the bands rehearsal space, due to Mustaine not having a pen or paper to write with.