Queen in the 80s

In 1980, *The Game* featured synthesizers on a Queen album for the first time, and they released their first movie soundtrack, *Flash Gordon*. In 1981, Queen collaborated with another artist for the first time. The song "Under Pressure", recorded with David Bowie, was spontaneous, as a result of a visit by Bowie to the studio in which the band were recording. Also that year, the *Greatest Hits* album was released and it has become the best-selling album in UK history. In 1982, the band tried their hand at disco and funk with *Hot Space*, an experiment led by John Deacon that divided not only fans but the band.

*The Works* appeared in 1984 and the supporting tour was the first to feature keyboardist Spike Edney as an extra live musician. The tour featured nine sell-out dates in South Africa at Sun City. They returned to England facing outrage for playing the country at the height of apartheid. Despite arguing that they had played to integrated audiences of fans they were fined by the British Musicians' Union and blacklisted by the United Nations.

In 1985, Queen performed at Live Aid, stealing the show. The 1986 album *A Kind of Magic* contained re-workings of some songs written for the fantasy film Highlander. The resulting tour would be the last with Freddie Mercury.

The band had been working on separate projects throughout the 80s (May's *Star Fleet Project*, Taylor's solo albums, and Mercury performing with opera star Montserrat Caballe). The band reconvened to finish the decade with *The Miracle*. Fans had noticed Mercury's gaunt features as early as 1988 but he denied being ill despite having been diagnosed HIV positive in 1987.

###  1980

#### November 24, 1980: "Flash"

***"Flash"*** was written by guitarist Brian May as the theme song of the 1980 film Flash Gordon. There are two versions of the song. The album version ("Flash's Theme") is in fact the start to the movie, with all the dialogue from the first scene. The single version features dialogue cut from various parts of the movie, most memorably, Brian Blessed's character exclaiming "Gordon's alive?!"

* UK #10, Silver; US #42
* From *Flash Gordon* (1980)

   Flash is sung as a duet between Freddie Mercury and Brian May, with Roger Taylor adding the high harmonies. May plays all of the instruments except for the rhythm section.

On the U.S. charts, "Flash's Theme aka Flash" reached #42 on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at #39 on the Cash Box Top 100. It fared much better in Europe, where it was a Top 10 hit in most nations, including #1 in Austria.

#### December 8, 1980: *Flash Gordon*

* UK #10, Gold; US #23, Gold

***Flash Gordon*** is the ninth studio album and one of two film soundtracks from Queen It is the soundtrack to the science fiction film Flash Gordon, and features lyrics on only two tracks. "Flash's Theme" was the only single to be released from the album under the title "Flash". Unlike most soundtrack albums, audio from the film is prominently used in the songs.
Listen to *Flash Gordon* on Deezer.

* Freddie Mercury – lead and backing vocals, synthesizers, piano, keyboards
* Brian May – lead guitar, backing vocals, synthesizers, piano on "Flash's Theme" and "The Hero", co-lead vocals on "Flash's Theme", guitar orchestration on "The Wedding March"
* Roger Taylor – drums, timpani, backing vocals, synthesizers
* John Deacon – bass guitar, guitar, synthesizers
* Howard Blake – additional orchestral arrangements

### 1981

#### October 26, 1981: "Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie

***"Under Pressure"*** was written and recorded in collaboration with the singer David Bowie.

* UK #1; US #29
* From *Hot Space* (1982)

Queen had been working on a song called "Feel Like", but was not yet satisfied with the result. David Bowie had originally come to Mountain Studios to sing back up vocals on another Queen song, "Cool Cat", but his vocals were removed from the final song because he was not satisfied with his performance. Once he got there, they worked together for a while and wrote the song. The final version, which became "Under Pressure", evolved from a jam session that Bowie had with the band at Queen's studio in Montreux, Switzerland.

The video for the song features neither Queen nor David Bowie due to touring commitments. Taking the theme of pressure, director David Mallet edited together stock footage of traffic jams, commuter trains packed with passengers, explosions, riots, cars being crushed and various pieces of footage from silent films of the 1920s, most notably Sergei Eisenstein's influential Soviet film Battleship Potemkin, the silent Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring John Barrymore, and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, a masterpiece of the German Expressionist movement. The video explores the pressure-cooker mentality of a culture willing to wage war against political machines, and at the same time love and have fun (there is also footage of crowds enjoying concerts, and lots of black and white kissing scenes). Top of the Pops refused to show the video due to it containing footage of explosions in Northern Ireland, so a choreographed performance was instead shown.

#### November 2, 1981: *Greatest Hits*

* UK #1, 20x Platinum; US #14, 8x Platinum

***Greatest Hits*** consisted of Queen's best-selling singles since their first chart appearance in 1974 with "Seven Seas of Rhye", up to their 1980 hit "Flash" (though in some countries "Under Pressure", the band's 1981 chart-topper with David Bowie, was included). There was no universal track listing or cover art for the album, and each territory's tracks were dependent on what singles had been released there and which were successful.

Queen's Greatest Hits and has spent over 700 weeks in the UK Charts, making it the best-selling album of all time in the UK, selling over six million copies.

Listen to Greatest Hits on Deezer.

### 1983

#### October 24, 1983: "Star Fleet" by Brian May & Friends

***"Star Fleet"*** is the first single that Brian May released independently of Queen. It started out as a jam session involving May (guitar, vocals), Eddie Van Halen (guitar, vocals), Alan Gratzer (drums), Phil Chen (bass) and Fred Mandel (keyboards) over the days April 21 & 22, 1983.

* UK #65
* From *Star Fleet Project* (1983)

Aside from the main participants, the title track also included backing vocals by Queen drummer Roger Taylor.

The main track, "Star Fleet", was edited down from the mini-album's length of eight minutes to a more radio-friendly 4:12. The British B-side, "Son Of Star Fleet" is an instrumental version of "Star Fleet".

#### October 31, 1983: *Star Fleet Project* by Brian May & Friends

***Star Fleet Project*** is a project of Brian May, which resulted in an album with the same name. The project was released as the work of "Brian May + Friends", consisting of May, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alan Gratzer (of REO Speedwagon), Phil Chen (session bassist who played with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart), and Fred Mandel (session keyboard player who also played as additional keyboard player on Queen's Hot Space World Tour and The Works). Roger Taylor, Queen's drummer, provided backing vocals for the title song. It was not meant for the tapes to be released and they had minimal mixing before release.

* UK #35

The idea for the album came from May's son, Jimmy. May has said, "Star Fleet is the theme tune for a superb TV sci-fi series broadcast in England for kids of all ages; Japanese visuals and British soundtrack including music by Paul Bliss. The heroes pilot space vehicles which can assemble into a giant robot for land battles. The aliens fly fantastic insect-like craft which spawn smaller fighting machines; all intent on possession of the secret of F Zero One. Having been introduced to all this by my small boy, I became equally obsessed by it, and formed the idea of making a hard rock version of the title theme."

"Let Me Out" was an old Brian May song which until that point had not been committed to record. During the song Eddie Van Halen "tortures his top string to its audible death" (according to May's liner notes) and plays the rest of the song on the remaining five.

"Blues Breaker" was dedicated to Eric Clapton, of whom both Van Halen and May were huge fans. This song, as well as "Let Me Out" were more spontaneous than "Star Fleet", showing both guitarists enjoying a jamming session, with Brian showing off his signature sound and Van Halen using his tapping technique to great effect (although the best example of this is at the beginning of "Star Fleet").

### 1984

#### November 26, 1984: "Thank God it's Christmas"

***"Thank God It's Christmas"*** was written by lead guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. The single spent six weeks in the UK charts over Christmas 1984 and new year of 1985.

* UK #21

The song was not originally released on any Queen studio album, appearing only on Queen's Greatest Hits III, released in 1999, and as the B-side of the single "A Winter's Tale" from the 1995 album Made in Heaven.

No promotional video was filmed for the track, hampering its future use on music TV channels. For that reason it is a lesser known Christmas single. The song appears on several Christmas compilation albums.

Listen to "Thank God it's Christmas" on Deezer.

### 1985

#### November 4, 1985: "One Vision"

***"One Vision"*** was originally conceived by Roger Taylor. The song has been speculated to be inspired by either the band's "show-stopping" performance at Live Aid earlier in 1985, or by the life and exploits of Martin Luther King, with the lyrics recounting a man battling and overcoming the odds.

* UK #7; US #61
* From *A Kind of Magic* (1986)

The song's music video featured a "morphing" effect of the band's famous pose in 1975's "Bohemian Rhapsody" video to a 1985 version of the same pose. The song was included in all Queen's live concert performances of The Magic Tour, as the first song of each concert. They claimed they chose "One Vision" as the introduction song because its intro made a perfect concert introduction.

The final line of the song is "fried chicken", although the lyrics say "one vision". This was the result of trying to come up with the proper wording of the song, and since it was not working, Freddie Mercury at some point introduced words that had nothing to do with the song for fun.

#### November 18, 1985: "Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow" by Freddie Mercury

* UK #6
* From *Mr Bad Guy* (1985)

Listen to "Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow" on Deezer.

### 1987

#### February 23, 1987: "The Great Pretender" by Freddie Mercury

* UK #4

***"The Great Pretender"*** is a popular song first recorded by The Platters and released in 1955. It reached #5 in the UK charts. The song was re-popularised in 1987 by Freddie Mercury.

Mercury's music video for the song became one of the most well-known of his career. It featured Mercury in many of his Queen guises through video medium over the years, including visual re-takes of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "It's a Hard Life", "I Want to Break Free", "Bohemian Rhapsody", and "I Was Born to Love You". Mercury had permanently shaved off his moustache, which had been his trademark feature since 1980.

**Personnel**: Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals; Mike Moran - piano, keyboards; Harold Fisher - drums; Alan Jones - bass guitar

#### October 26, 1987: "Barcelona" by Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé

    ***"Barcelona"*** reflects Mercury's love of opera with his high notes and Caballé's operatic vocals, backed by a full orchestra. It was one of the biggest hits of Mercury's solo career, reaching number eight in the UK Singles Chart. After Mercury's death in 1991, it was featured at the 1992 Summer Olympics, after which the track climbed even higher, peaking at number 2 in the UK, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

* UK #8 (1987), #2 (1992 re-release)

Mercury had been a long-time fan of opera, especially favouring Montserrat Caballé and, in 1986, he mentioned on Spanish television that he would be glad to see her in person. They had a friendly initial meeting in Barcelona in February 1987. When the city had been chosen for the 1992 Summer Olympics, Caballé, a native of the city, was asked to help with producing a song for the games. She summoned Mercury for the task. Mercury became enthusiastic about the project and instead of recording a single, she proposed to make an album, on which Mercury agreed.

Personnel: Freddie Mercury - vocals; Montserrat Caballé - vocals; Mike Moran - keyboards; Homi Kanga - violin; Laurie Lewis - violin; Deborah Ann Johnston - cello; Barry Castle - horn; Frank Ricotti - percussion.

### 1988

#### January 25, 1988: *Shove It* by The Cross

***Shove It*** is the first album released by The Cross, founded by Queen's drummer Roger Taylor. This album contains a mix of rock with dance influences. It peaked at #58 in the UK

The album features Queen members Freddie Mercury (singing lead vocals on "Heaven for Everyone"), Brian May (playing lead guitar on "Love Lies Bleeding") and an uncredited John Deacon (playing bass guitar on a few tracks).

Personnel: Roger Taylor - vocals and most instruments on album; Spike Edney - keyboards, vocals; Clayton Moss - guitar (on some tracks); Peter Noone - bass guitar (on some tracks); Josh Macrae - drums (on some tracks)

Listen to *Shove It* on Deezer.

#### October 24, 1988: "The Golden Boy" by Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé

    Originally included in the 1988 album Barcelona, ***"The Golden Boy"*** was released with another excerpt from the LP, "The Fallen Priest", as the B-side. An instrumental version of the song was included in both the 12" vinyl and the 5" CD single releases.

* UK #83

The song's music video is footage of the artists' performance at the open air "La Nit" festival in Barcelona on October 8, 1988 (Mercury's last live performance before his illness got worse).

Personnel: Freddie Mercury - vocals, piano; Montserrat Caballe - vocals; Mike Moran - keyboards; and Madeline Bell, Dennis Bishop, Lance Ellington, Miriam Stockley, Peter Straker, Mark Williamson, and Carol Woods - backing vocals.

### 1989

#### November 27, 1989: "The Miracle"

***"The Miracle"*** was composed by the entire band, though Freddie Mercury and John Deacon were the main writers.

* UK #21
* From *The Miracle* (1989)

The idea for the song came from Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, who wrote the basic chord structure for the song. All four contributed to the lyrics and musical ideas, and the song was still credited to the entire band because they had agreed to do so during the album recording, regardless of who had been the actual writer. While both Mercury and May regarded this as one of their favourites, Taylor said in the audio commentary of Greatest Video Hits II that although it was not a favourite of his, he respected it as "an incredibly complex track".

The song describes several of "God's creations, great and small", such as great buildings like the Taj Mahal and the Tower of Babel, all described as "miracles" in the song, yet the one miracle "we're all waiting for" is "peace on Earth and an end to war." The song also references such well-known figures as Captain Cook, Cain and Abel, and Jimi Hendrix.

The music video for the song features four young boys as each member of the band. Queen themselves appear only near the end of the video. According to Roger Taylor, Mercury joked about sending the boys out on tour instead of them because of how well they did in the video.

#### December 4, 1989: *At the Beeb*

***At the Beeb*** is a live album comprising tracks recorded in two sessions for the BBC Radio 1 Sound of the 70s programme. The first four tracks were recorded on February 5, 1973; the rest were recorded on December 3, 1973.

All but one track appeared on the album Queen; the exception is "Ogre Battle" which appeared on Queen II. However, the versions featured on At the Beeb are different from the original versions, being closer to the songs as performed live. This is most notable on "Ogre Battle", as it starts right away with its riff (without any long intro), does not have any effects that the version on Queen II has and sounds much less polished. The BBC version of "Ogre Battle" did originally have a long intro featuring a grand guitar build up. It was not used for this release, allegedly because the original tape was damaged.

* UK #67

Listen to *At the Beeb* (CD 1 of *On Air*) on Deezer.