Another one bites the dust

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Another one bites the dust
Queen
publication August 12, 1980
length 3:33
Genre (s) Funk / rock
Author (s) John Deacon
Publisher (s) EMI
album The Game

Another One Bites the Dust ( Engl. For: Another one bites the dust ) is a song by Queen in 1980, that of John Deacon was written and on the album The Game appeared. With sales of over 7 million units, Another One Bites the Dust is the band's best-selling single. The song reached number 34 on Billboard's All Time Top 100 list.

Original version

Origin background

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Another one bites the dust
  DE 6th 10/06/1980 (26 weeks)
  AT 6th 11/15/1980 (20 weeks)
  CH 8th 11/23/1980 (9 weeks)
  UK 7th 09/16/1980 (10 weeks)
  US 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 08/16/1980 (31 weeks)

The chic piece Good Times served as inspiration for the bass line . In an interview with the New Musical Express said Chic member Bernard Edwards "that Queen record came about Because that bass player ... spent some time hanging out with us at our studio Well, [.]" (: Dt. "So , this Queen release came about because their bass player ... hung around with us in the studio for a while ")

The song was produced by Reinhold Mack and recorded in the Musicland Studios in Munich . Deacon played almost all the instruments: electric bass , piano , rhythm guitar and the handclaps . The drum loop in the song comes from the drummer Roger Taylor , Brian May added a few guitar noises and some effects from his Eventide harmonizer . The song works without a synthesizer : all the effects in the song were displayed using analog instruments and various simple tricks (running speed, running direction) when pasted onto the studio tape. The characteristically swelling, dark harmonies in the background were created from piano chords that were played backwards. Finally, additional effects were added through a harmonizer.

Bassline from "Another One Bites the Dust"
\ relative c {\ tempo 4 = 110 \ time 4/4 \ partial 4 \ clef bass r8 a16 g e4-. e-. e-. r8 r16 e16 e8 eg e16 ar 4}

After Michael Jackson had attended a Queen concert in Los Angeles in 1980, he suggested backstage to Freddie Mercury to release Another One Bites the Dust as a single. The song was recorded in several recording sessions from February to May 1980. The release of the single was held on 12 August 1980 on the B-side is Do not Try Suicide . In contrast to the original version, in which Freddie Mercury sang the entire title, Roger Taylor took over the refrain at concerts. Later, the band also had parts of the chorus performed by the audience. The location of the music video was the Reunion Arena in Dallas .

The song was nominated for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 1981 Grammy Awards , but lost to Bob Segers Against the Wind .

John Deacon on the song

“I'd been wanting to do a track like Another One Bites The Dust for a while, but originally all I had was the line and the bass riff. Gradually I filled it in and the band added ideas. I could hear it as a song for dancing but had no idea it would become as big as it did. The song got picked up off our album and some of the black radio stations in the US started playing it, which we've never had before. "In the end it was a famous fan who swayed the vote:" Michael Jackson actually suggested we release it as a single. He was a fan of ours and used to come to our shows. "

“I've wanted to record a song like Another One Bites the Dust for a while, but in the beginning I only had one line and a bass riff. At some point I came up with this idea and the band made suggestions. I thought of the whole thing as a song to dance to, but I had no way of knowing that it was becoming that popular. The song was picked from the album by black US radio stations and played. That has never happened to us before. It was Michael Jackson who suggested we release the song as a single. He was a fan of ours and often came to our shows. "

- John Deacon : in an interview with Queen Archives (online music magazine, 1996)

Alleged backward message

In the early 1980s, Another One Bites the Dust was considered one of the pop-rock tracks that supposedly had a backward message. American evangelicals were responsible for these rumors . The sentences “Start to smoke marijuana” (“Start smoking marijuana ”) and “Decide to smoke marijuana” or “It's fun to smoke marijuana” (“ It's fun to smoke marijuana ”). A spokeswoman for the Hollywood Records label denied these rumors.

Cover versions

Wyclef-Jean version

1998 made Wyclef Jean a remix of Another One Bites the Dust for the film Small Soldiers . The rapper Pras Michel and his colleague Free can also be heard on this song . In the United Kingdom this version reached # 5 and had a total of nine weeks in the charts. In Austria the single was placed at number 23 and in Switzerland at number 35. The cover version was also used for Queen's best-of album Greatest Hits III . The music video was shot by Michel Gondry . Pras Michel was unable to take part in the shooting. His verse is therefore rapped by Canibus in the video . However, the version with this vocal line was never officially released and can only be found in the music video.

More cover versions

In 1980 Weird Al Yankovic presented the satire Another One Rides the Bus for the first time live on the radio show by Dr. Denial . He also released this version on his self-titled debut album. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five used the bass line in 1981 for the song The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel . Foxy Brown and Jay-Z used a sample from Another One Bites the Dust for the single I'll Be in 1997 . The German grindcore band Excrementory Grindfuckers released their debut album in 2004, Ready to go, scene cleaning! a cover called Another Grindcore of Us . In 2010 the song was used in the television series Glee and sung there by the actors.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs (40-31). The definitive list of the Hot 100's top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008 ; accessed on September 13, 2008 .
  2. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
  3. ^ Queen: Biography . rollingstone.com, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  4. ^ Chic Biography & Awards . billboard.com, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  5. ^ Fred Bronson: "Good Times" - Chic. superseventies.com, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Phil Sutcliffe, Peter Hince, Reinhold Mack: Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock . 2009, ISBN 978-3-283-01141-3 , pp. 155 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  7. ^ Queen Concertography 1977-1981. ultimatequeen, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  8. ↑ 23rd Annual Grammy Awards - 1981. rockonthenet.com, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  9. ↑ 04-XX-1996 - Bassist & Bass Techniques. queenarchives.com, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  10. ^ Betty A. Lunam: Subliminal smut hidden in rock-record lyrics. In: The Telegraph-Herald. news.google.com, October 30, 1981, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Dionne Searcey: Behind the Music: Sleuths Seek Messages In Lyrical Backspin. online.wsj.com, January 9, 2006, accessed May 23, 2016 .
  12. ^ Queen / Wyclef Jean - Another One Bites The Dust ft Pras And Free. Chart Stats, accessed May 7, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Chart positions for Another One Bites the Dust. Austriancharts.at, accessed on August 23, 2011 (English).
  14. ^ Palmer, Robert (September 26, 1980). "The Pop Life; Confident disk from Jerry Lee Lewis". The New York Times , New York City, USA: Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. Page C14.
  15. ↑ 'Another One Bites The Dust (Glee Cast Version). Billboard, archived from the original on November 12, 2010 ; accessed on July 3, 2011 (English).