News of the World (album)

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News of the World is a Queen album released on October 28, 1977. Containing such hit songs as "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" (which are both commonly heard at sporting events) and "Spread Your Wings", the album went four times platinum in the United States alone. It is considered one of Queen's strongest albums, albeit a bit of an abrupt departure from the band's progressive mysticism into a much more spontaneous recording. It was recorded at Sarm West and Wessex Studios, England, and engineered by Mike Stone.

Contents

1 Track listing
2 Songs
3 Singles
4 Queen about the record
5 Cover
6 Credits
7 Charts

Track listing

Side 1

"We Will Rock You" (May) - 2:01 *
"We Are the Champions" (Mercury) - 2:59 *
"Sheer Heart Attack" (Taylor) - 3:24
"All Dead, All Dead" (May) - 3:09
"Spread Your Wings" (Deacon) - 4:32 *
"Fight From The Inside" (Taylor) - 3:03

Side 2

"Get Down, Make Love" (Mercury) - 3:51
"Sleeping On The Sidewalk" (May) - 3:07
"Who Needs You" (Deacon) - 3:07
"It's Late" (May) - 6:27 *
"My Melancholy Blues" (Mercury) - 3:29

1991 Hollywood Records bonus track:

"We Will Rock You ('1991 Bonus Remix Ruined by Rick Rubin')" (May) - 4:47

(* denotes a single)

Songs

"We Will Rock You" was not released as a single in its own right, but as a B-side to "We Are the Champions". Despite this, it became one of Queen's biggest songs worldwide, and a staple of arena and stadium sports everywhere. It was a conscious decision by Brian May to make the song so simple and anthemic ("stomp, stomp, clap, pause" in a 4/4 metre), so that the audience at their concerts could be more directly involved in the show. Queen were at the time looking to connect with their audiences and fans at live shows in new ways. Elektra Records in the US recommended to the band they put "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" together as a single and the double A-side reached #4 in the US in 1978.

"We Are The Champions" had been already written in 1975 but it wasn't recorded until 1977. Freddie was thinking about football when he wrote it and all of his life was surprised that nobody composed anything to overtake it.

"Sheer Heart Attack" was half-finished at the time of the eponymous album. Roger sang it all on the demo but for the definitive version they decided Fred should co-sing lead vocals (probably based on the fact that May already sang two and Taylor sang one). Guitars and bass were played by Roger, apart from some guitar "screams", during the instrumental section, which were played by May.

"All Dead All Dead" features uncredited piano and bass^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} by Brian. Brian also sang it and was supported by Freddie on backing vocals. Written about a cat Brian had owned in his childhood.

"Spread Your Wings" was written by John Deacon and featured him playing acoustic guitar. The piano is by Freddie, although John mimes it in the video. It's the first Queen single without harmony vocals.

"Fight From The Inside" is another minimalistic track by Roger, with bass, rhythm guitars and vocals all done by him. Roger used mostly Fender Stratocasters and borrowed John's basses for those purposes.

"Get Down Make Love" was composed by Freddie. It remains one of his most monotone creations, and contains some of his most explicit lyrics. There are no synths: strange noises were achieved by Brian using his Red Special guitar and an Eventide Harmoniser. The song was covered by Nine Inch Nails and appears on their Sin single.

"Sleeping On The Sidewalk" is Mercury-free: there's no piano and Brian did all the vocals. Backing track was a first take (with some mistakes made by John Deacon on the bass) and Brian did his guitar part inspired by Eric Clapton.

"Who Needs You" was composed by John Deacon and instead of featuring him on the bass, it's got both he and Brian playing Spanish guitars. Brian played maracas too and Freddie recorded cowbell and did all the vocals.

"It's Late" was Brian's idea of having a song as a three-act theatrical play. It features tapping one year before Eddie Van Halen "invented" it, although Brian May has credited an unnamed bar-band guitarist from Texas as his own primary inspiration for using this technique.

"My Melancholy Blues" is Brian-free and was probably recorded in one take. There are no backing vocals or guitars and Freddie did an extraordinary piano solo. The most bluesy aspect about the song is the title since the track is more related to jazz. John Deacon played fretless bass on stage during this song but for the record he used a regular Fender Precision.

A Freddie vocal version of 'Fight From The Inside' was recorded, as was a fast version of 'We Will Rock You', a guitar version of 'My Melancholy Blues', and two versions - one standard rock and one reggae - of 'Who Needs You'. The only true outtakes include a Brian composition titled 'Batteries Not Included' and a Freddie composition titled 'Where Did You Go Now?'.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

"Sheer Heart Attack" was a song begun in 1974 for the album of the same name, but was not completed and subsequently abandoned. Taylor revisited it for this album and it was completed in the short recording period the band allotted itself between tours.

"All Dead, All Dead" was written about the sadness May felt as a child from the death of his cat, though the lyrics were kept somewhat ambiguous and generalized.

"Sleeping on the Sidewalk" was written and recorded on the day, as a live take, with band simply performing it together in the same room with little to no rehearsal. After three or four takes, the band realized the takes were getting successively worse, and that they'd nailed it pretty much on the first go. That was the take they used on the album, warts and all.

In the video for "We Will Rock You" and "Spread Your Wings" Brian May used a copy of his guitar. He supposedly didn't want to commit his Red Special to outside conditions, as the videos for these songs featured the band performing in the snow. The duplicate was made by John Birch, but May never felt comfortable with its sound. The guitar was used as a stage backup for several years before Brian threw it offstage during a performance, breaking it into several pieces.

"We Are the Champions" was the first promotional video for which fan club members were invited to participate in the filming. The video was filmed at the New London Theatre on October 6th 1977. Everyone got a single and Queen did a free concert after the shoot.

Singles

"We Will Rock You"/"We Are The Champions" released October 7, 1977 in the UK as a double A-side, it reached number 2.
"Spread Your Wings" followed as the second single from the album. Written by John Deacon and released in the UK on February 10, 1978, it reached number 34.
"It's Late"

Queen about the record

Brian May:

"It's a spontaneous album. I think we've managed to cut through to the spontaneity lacking in our other albums. I have no apologies to make for any of our previous albums. We're proud of them and wouldn't have let them out if we weren't. But I now feel some may have been over-produced, so we wanted to go with a more spontaneous, rock & roll based album. It was nice to do something that didn't need such intensity. For example, with "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" we did it in one take because it just seemed right the first time. We like to think of the album as a window on an unguarded moment, not a set piece. Each cut seems to do that, from the participation songs to Freddie's mood pieces. Even his numbers on the album are different, from his heavy "Get Down, Make Love" to "My Melancholy Blues", which is just what it says.#redirect

"Sleeping on the Sidewalk" was the quickest song I've ever written - I just wrote it down, and I'm quite pleased with it as well, because it's not highly subtle, but it leaves me with a good feeling. It was the sort of thing any guitarist who had played a bit of the blues would do, and I could have very well had Eric Clapton in the back of my mind. It was a one-take thing as well - so it had a kind of sloppy feel, but that works with the song. I suppose "It's Late" is as close to typical Queen as you can get, and there's a kind of style in there, which I've often thought about, which is somewhere between my kind of thing on "It's Late", and one of Freddie's, something like "We Are the Champions". It's so easy for us to do, and we can slip into it almost without thinking, on stage and on record. Once Freddie starts playing E flat and A flat on the piano, which he very often does, it has a particular sound. . . (that) produces something different out of me."#redirect

Cover

The album's cover was a painting by American sci-fi artist Frank Kelly Freas. Taylor had the issue of "Astounding Science Fiction" (October 1953) whose cover-art depicted a giant intelligent robot holding the dead body of a man. The caption read: "Please... fix it, Daddy?" to illustrate the story The Gulf Between by Tom Godwin. The robot killing the man was likened to a child injuring a bug and looking up at his parents saying "what have I done?". The painting inspired the band to contact Freas, who agreed to alter the painting for their album cover, by replacing the single dead man with the four "dead" band members (Taylor and Deacon falling to the ground). The original painting (also called The Gulf Between) features on the cover of Freas's collection of art As He Sees It (Paper Tiger, 2000).

Brian May confirmed the cover was Roger Taylor's idea on an episode of the US radio show In the Studio With Redbeard which devoted an episode to the making of News Of The World.

Credits

Lead vocals by Freddie Mercury except:

All Dead All Dead: Brian May
Fight from the Inside: Taylor
Sleeping on the Sidewalk: May

Backing vocals by Freddie Mercury except:

We Will Rock You: band and crew
Sheer Heart Attack: Taylor and Mercury
All Dead, All Dead: May and Mercury
Fight from the Inside: Taylor
Sleeping on the Sidewalk: May
It's Late: Mercury, May and Taylor

Drums by Roger Taylor.
Maracas in "Who Needs You" by Brian May.
Cowbell in "Who Needs You" by Freddie Mercury.
Percussion in 'We Will Rock You' by Queen.
Bass guitars by John Deacon, except "Sheer Heart Attack" and "Fight from the Inside" (Roger Taylor) and "All Dead All Dead" (Brian May)^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}.
Electric guitars by Brian May, except "Fight from the Inside" and "Sheer Heart Attack" (Taylor and May).
Guitar effects in "Get Down Make Love" by Brian May.
Acoustic guitar in "Spread Your Wings" by John Deacon.
Acoustic guitars in "Who Needs You" by John Deacon and Brian May.
Pianos by Freddie Mercury except "All Dead, All Dead" (May).

Charts

Album News of the World

Chart positions	Countries
1	France; Netherlands; Portugal
3	Japan; US (Billboard Pop Albums)
4	Norway; UK
9	Austria

Single We Are the Champions/We Will Rock You
Chart
positions Countries
1 France
2 Netherlands; UK
3 Canada; Ireland
4 US (Billboard Pop Singles)
12 Austria
13 Germany

Chart positions	Countries
1	France
2	Netherlands; UK
3	Canada; Ireland
4	US (Billboard Pop Singles)
12	Austria
13	Germany

Single Spread Your Wings
Chart
positions Countries
34 UK

Chart positions	Countries
34	UK

Single It's Late
Chart
positions Countries
72 US

Chart positions	Countries
72	US

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