Jazz (album)
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| Studio album by Queen | ||||
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Publication |
November 10, 1978 |
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| Label (s) | EMI / Parlophone ; Elektra , Hollywood Records (USA) | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
44:43 |
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| occupation |
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Queen and Roy Thomas Baker |
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Studio (s) |
Mountain Studios (Montreux), Super Bear (Nice) |
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Jazz is the seventh studio album by the British rock band Queen , released in 1978 .
The album
After the previous two albums ( A Day at the Races and News of the World ) had been produced by Queen itself, there was another - last - collaboration with Roy Thomas Baker , the style-defining co-producer of the first four Queen , when recording jazz Albums. For the first time, the recordings took place outside Great Britain: The album was recorded from July to October 1978 in Nice and in the Mountain Studios located directly on Lake Geneva in Montreux - which was taken over by Queen the following year.
With a total of 13 tracks, Jazz contains the highest number of tracks on a Queen studio album alongside Sheer Heart Attack (and apart from the soundtrack album Flash Gordon ). The titles are correspondingly short: only three songs last a little longer than four minutes. While the first part of the album is mainly dominated by Mercury's compositions, the second half is much more heterogeneous in terms of style and composition.
The title of the album and the cover with the concentric circles were inspired by a picture on the Berlin Wall that caught the band members' eyes when they were in Berlin . The concept for the cover design comes from Queen, the design from Cream . The photographers were David Finch, Chris Hopper and Peter Hince. With the exception of North America, the plate was accompanied by a poster showing naked women on their racing bikes. This photo was taken on the occasion of the video recording for the Bicycle Race in the Wimbledon Stadium.
Jazz is dedicated to John Harris, a queen roadie since the early 1970s . The car racing enthusiast Harris had already been dedicated to Roger Taylor's dedication to I'm in Love With My Car on the album A Night at the Opera .
Was published Jazz on 10 November 1978 during the October 28 to December 20 permanent tour of the USA and Canada. It reached number two in the UK charts and sixth in the US. In terms of sales, the album went gold in the UK and platinum in the United States . The single, which was released on October 13 with the double A-side Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls , came in at eleventh place in the British charts , which was rather weaker than the previous first single releases ; the second single Don't Stop Me Now came in ninth.
For the production of the following studio album, the band took more time than before. While the first three albums were released within less than one and a half years and an album annually thereafter, just under 20 months passed between Jazz and The Game (with another album followed less than half a year later).
Track list
Page 1:
- Mustapha (Mercury) - 3:01
- Fat Bottomed Girls (May) - 4:16
- Jealousy (Mercury) - 3:13
- Bicycle Race (Mercury) - 3:01
- If You Can't Beat Them (Deacon) - 4:15
- Let Me Entertain You (Mercury) - 3:01
Page 2:
- Dead on Time (May) - 3:23
- In Only Seven Days (Deacon) - 2:30
- Dreamer's Ball (May) - 3:30
- Fun It (Taylor) - 3:29
- Leaving Home Ain't Easy (May) - 3:15
- Don't Stop Me Now (Mercury) - 3:29
- More of That Jazz (Taylor) - 4:16
Lead vocals are from Taylor and Mercury in Fun It , May in Leaving Home Ain't Easy, and Taylor in More of That Jazz .
The album was produced by Queen and Roy Thomas Baker. Sound engineers were Geoff Workman and John Etchells. The pieces were written and recorded between July and October 1978 in Montreux (Mountain Studios) and Nice (Super Bear Studios).
Reviews in the media
- Single Fat Bottomed Girls / Bicycle Race
“Queen loathe the music press. They deserve all the vitriol that may be further hurled at them if this is an accurate preview of the new album. "
“Queen loathe the music press. They deserve all the bitterness that is thrown at them if this is to be an accurate preview of the album. "
- Jazz album
Jazz has been unfairly slagged in some quarters as an inconsistent and unfocused record; granted, there's a bit of filler cluttering the second half, […] Jazz emerges as one of Queen's most playful, maniacally entertaining records. There are a few Freddie Mercury piano ballads and unusually hopped-up metallic rockers, but about half of Jazz is given over to quirky lyrics and / or stylistic detours (which, oddly enough, don't include any jazz, unless you count the music hall swing of 'Dreamers Ball'). [...] It's difficult to discuss Jazz without referring to individual tracks one by one, since it can come off as a collection of moments, but its anything-goes diversity actually helps tie it together. Plus, there's a giddy sense of fun through most of the album, which helps make it Queen's strongest since A Night at the Opera .
“ Jazz has been unjustifiably branded an inconsistent and unfocused album in some circles; admittedly, the second half is a little overloaded with filler material [...] Jazz turns out to be one of Queens' most playful, craziest entertaining albums. There are some Freddie Mercury piano ballads and unusually erratic metallic rock numbers, but roughly half of jazz is used on quirky lyrics and / or stylistic lapses (which, curiously, don't include jazz, except for the music hall swing of 'Dreamers Ball' ). […] It's hard to discuss jazz without going into the songs in detail, because it creates a collection of moments, but the variety that goes anywhere helps hold the album together. There is also a dizzying kind of fun running through the whole album, making it Queen's best since A Night at the Opera . "
- Single Don't Stop Me Now
“Despite everything, Freddie has one of the best voices in rock, and Queen know how to change chords intelligently. Do they own EMI yet? "
“Even so, Freddie has one of the best voices in rock, and Queen knows how to alternate chords intelligently. Do you already own EMI? "
Alternative versions
Single edit:
- Fat Bottomed Girls (1978; also included on the 1981 album Greatest Hits )
5.1 surround sound mixes:
- Fat Bottomed Girls
- Bicycle Race
- Don't Stop Me Now (all included on DVD Greatest Video Hits 1 , 2002)
Remixes (from Hollywood Records):
- Fat Bottomed Girls (1991 Bonus Remix by Brian Malouf)
- Bicycle Race (1991 Bonus Remix by Junior Vasquez)
Of the 13 songs on the album, 7 were also played live: Mustapha - Fat Bottomed Girls - Bicycle Race - If You Can't Beat Them - Let Me Entertain You - Dreamers Ball - Don't Stop Me Now .
Chart placements
album
The album Jazz achieved the following positions in the charts :
- # 1 - Portugal .
- # 2 - Great Britain ( gold ).
- # 4 - Netherlands ( platinum ).
- # 5 - Germany (gold) / Japan (gold).
- # 6 - Norway / Sweden / USA (platinum).
- # 8 - Austria (gold).
- # 36 - Italy.
Single releases
Bicycle Race / Fat Bottomed Girls (October 13, 1978)
- # 7: Netherlands, Norway; # 10: Ireland; # 11: Great Britain; # 21: Austria; # 24: USA; # 27: Germany; # 28: Australia.
Don't Stop Me Now (January 26, 1979)
- # 9: Great Britain; # 10: Ireland; # 14: Netherlands; # 35: Germany; # 86: USA.
Jealousy (April 1979: Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, USA)
Mustapha (1979: Bolivia, Germany, Yugoslavia, Spain)
See also
Roy Thomas Baker • Mountain Studios • Record Mirror • Junior Vasquez
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, ISBN 0-283-06052-2 , p. 118
- ↑ Steve Huey: Queen - Jazz. Review. In: All Music Guide .
- ↑ Quoted from Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, ISBN 0-283-06052-2 , p. 121.