The Show Must Go On (Queen Song)
| The Show Must Go On | |
|---|---|
| Queen | |
| publication | February 4, 1991 (album) October 14, 1991 (UK single) February 6, 1992 (US single) |
| length | 4:31 |
| Genre (s) | skirt |
| Author (s) | Brian May |
| album | Innuendo |
The Show Must Go On is a song by the English rock band Queen . It was released in October 1991 as a single from their album Innuendo and also served to promote the album Greatest Hits II , on which the piece is also included. On the album Innuendo is The Show Must Go On the twelfth and final piece. The cover artwork for the single is based on drawings by French artist Grandville .
Music genre
The Show Must Go On is a rock ballad in B minor . The song begins with a synthesizer- string intro. Before the third verse a resulting skidding the song after cis-Moll , however, it is returned back to B minor in the chorus. In the bridge ("My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies") the song changes to F major .
Emergence
John Deacon and Roger Taylor played the chord sequence on which Brian May put melody and lyrics together with Freddie Mercury , with May writing the melody and also adding the bridge while Mercury wrote the lyrics.
The Show Must Go On came from Roger and John playing the sequence, and I started to put things down. At the beginning, it was just this chord sequence, but I had this strange feeling that it could be somehow important, and I got very impassioned and went and beavered away at it. I sat down with Freddie, and we decided what the theme should be and wrote the first verse. It's a long story, that song, but I always felt it would be important because we were dealing with things that were hard to talk about at the time, but in the world of music, you could do it.
Brian May can be heard as a singer on some demo versions. Since his vocal range was insufficient to sing the song, he sang part of the song with his head voice ( falsetto ). The background was that the band had doubts whether Mercury would still be able to sing the song due to his already advanced illness. But when the recordings were due, according to May, Mercury drank a considerable amount of vodka in one gulp, put the bottle down energetically, said, "I'll fuckin do it, darling!" ("I'll fucking do it, honey!" ) and easily sang the song in a single take which was then used. May said he thought it was one of Mercury's best vocal performances.
On the album May played the synthesizer, a Yamaha DX7 , as well as the guitar. The move to the third verse was suggested by producer David Richards .
reception
The song reached number 7 in the German charts. In Great Britain the piece rose to number 16, in the USA - where These Are the Days of Our Lives had been released as a single and the song was only released in early 1992 - the single reached number 40 Mainstream rock charts . The Show Must Go On was Queen's last single release before Freddie Mercury's death on November 24, 1991. After Freddie Mercury's death, the song returned to the UK charts. In Germany, it only entered the charts at the end of December 1991.
performance
The song was played live on April 20, 1992 during the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert by the three remaining Queen members with Elton John as the singer. Tony Iommi played the rhythm guitar. A 1997 live version with Elton John also appeared on Greatest Hits III . The song was later also played live by Queen + Paul Rodgers .
Music video
Due to Mercury's rapidly deteriorating health, no new lead singer material was shot for the music video for the release of the single , with the exception of a short shot at the end of the video showing the band in the studio. Instead, it contains a collage of excerpts from Queen videos from 1981 to 1991: "I Want to Break Free", "Breakthru", "Friends Will Be Friends", "Im Going Slightly Mad", "Radio Gaga", "The Miracle." "," Scandal "," The Invisible Man "," Headlong "," Calling All Girls "," Innuendo "," Back Chat "," Who Wants to Live Forever "and" One Vision " .
This fueled the rumors surrounding Mercury's health. The following month, Mercury finally announced publicly that he had AIDS and died barely a day later.
Individual evidence
- ↑ rocktimes.at (Grandville graphic) accessed on May 9, 2013
- ↑ The Show Must Go On . In: queenpedia.com . Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- ↑ 100 greatest singers of all time - 20-1 . Rolling Stone . Retrieved November 19, 2016.
- ↑ The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time . Freddie Mercury ( Memento from May 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE CH UK US
- ^ The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert: The Show Must Go On . Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ ultimatequeen.co.uk: Queen Promo Videos