"Another One Bites the Dust"
"Play the Game"
"Need Your Loving Tonight"
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
"Rock It (Prime Jive)"
This week marks the 35th anniversary of Queen hitting the height of their success in the US as its album The Game topped the album chart for the first of 5 weeks. It would eventually sell 4 million copies on the strength of four hit singles: "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (#1 in Feb. 1980), "Play the Game" (#42 in July), "Another One Bites the Dust" (#1 in October) and "Need Your Loving Tonight" (#44 in December). The album - the only chart-topping album the group ever achieved in the US - was a musical departure for the band which mostly abandoned the operatic vocals of its past in favor of synthesizers, an element the band had previously shunned. That was changed by the album being recorded in Munich with a different producer, Mack. The band was inspired by the disco scene in the German city, and bassist John Deacon was stimulated to write "Dust" after hanging out with Chic in NYC on the night they recorded the bass line to their chart-topper "Good Times." (Ironically, "Dust" would knock Diana Ross' "Upside Down," which was produced and written by Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, off the #1 spot.) Interesting side note: "Dust" was released as a single at the recommendation of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury's friend Michael Jackson, and the song would go on to hit #2 on the R&B chart. "Crazy Little" also has an interesting story behind it. Mercury was inspired to write the song while sitting in the bathtub, and while it has a definite American rockabilly feel to it, the band's record company did not want the song released in the US. DJs in the US got hold of import UK copies, and the song went to #1 while the band was still recording The Game, which wouldn't be released until June. Personally, The Game is tied with News of the World as my favorite Queen album, so permit me the indulgence of highlighting more than the usual 3 tracks as my favorites: "Another One Bites the Dust" "Play the Game" "Need Your Loving Tonight" "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" "Rock It (Prime Jive)" If you're still interested in learning more about Queen in the 1980s, there's a chapter devoted to them in my book Cannibals and Vixens on the River Styx.
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Walburgh's BlogMostly retro, mainly music, but generally whatever's on my mind. Archives
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