QUEEN: Radio Ga Ga 12″ UK. Vinyl only (no sleeve). Free for orders of £25+ Check video.

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Description

Queen   Radio Ga Ga

Label: EMI  12QUEEN 1
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Single, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 23 Jan 1984
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock

Tracklist:
A Radio Ga Ga (Extended Version)
B1 Radio Ga Ga (Instrumental)
B2 I Go Crazy

“Radio Ga Ga” is a 1984 song performed and recorded by the British rock band Queen, written by their drummer Roger Taylor. It was released as a single with “I Go Crazy” by Brian May on the original B-side (3:42) and was included on the album The Works. The song also features on the bands compilation albums, Greatest Hits II, and Classic Queen.
The single was a worldwide success for the band, reaching number one in 19 countries, number two in the UK Singles Chart, and number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. The band performed the song at every concert from 1984 to their last with lead vocalist Freddie Mercury in 1986, with their most notable performance at Live Aid in 1985.

Meaning:
Recorded in 1983 and released in January 1984, the song was a commentary on television overtaking radios popularity and how one would listen to radio for a favorite comedy, drama, or science fiction programme. It also pertained to the advent of the music video and MTV. Ironically, the video for “Radio Ga Ga” would become a regular staple on MTV in 1984, and was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award that year. Taylor originally conceived of it as “Radio caca” (from something his toddler son once said), which doubled as a criticism of radio for the decrease in variety of programming and the type of music being played.
The song makes reference to two important radio events of the 20th century; Orson Welles’ 1938 broadcast of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds in the lyric “through wars of worlds/invaded by Mars”, and Winston Churchills 18 June 1940 “This was their finest hour” speech from the House of Commons, in the lyric “You’ve yet to have your finest hour”.

Development:
The inspiration for this song came when Roger Taylor heard his son utter the words “radio ca-ca” while listening to a bad song on the radio while they were in Los Angeles. After hearing the phrase, Taylor began writing the song when he locked himself in a room with a Roland Jupiter 8 and a drum machine. He thought it would fit his solo album, but when the band heard it, John Deacon wrote a bassline and Freddie Mercury reconstructed the track, thinking it could be a big hit. Taylor then took a skiing holiday and let Mercury polish the lyrics, harmony, and arrangements of the song. Recording sessions began at Record Plant Studios and included Canadian session keyboardist Fred Mandel, who later on would work with Supertramp and Elton John. Mandel programmed the Jupiters arpeggiated synth-bass parts. The recording features prominent use of the Roland VP330+ vocoder. The bassline was produced by a Roland Jupiter 8, using the built-in arpeggiator.

Video:
David Mallets music video for the song features scenes from Fritz Langs 1927 German expressionist science-fiction movie Metropolis and was filmed at Carlton TV Studios and Shepperton Studios, London, in November 1983. It features the band in a car flying over the title city, and later performing the song in front of the citys working class. Freddie Mercurys solo song “Love Kills” was used in Giorgio Moroders restored version of the film, and in exchange Queen were granted the rights to use footage from it in their “Radio Ga Ga” video. However, Queen had to buy performance rights to the film from the communist East German government, which was the copyright holder at the time. At the end of the music video, the words “Thanks To Metropolis” appears.

Additional information

Weight 0.25 kg

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