News Of The World

Queen Album

Produced by Queen and Mike Stone.
Engineered by Mike Stone.
Cover Concept by Roger. Based on 1953 picture by Frank Kelly Freas.

John Deacon : Bass Guitar,Acoustic Guitar
Brian May : Guitar,Backing Vocals,Maracas
Freddie Mercury : Vocals,Piano,Cowbell
Roger Taylor : Drums,Backing Vocals,Bass and Rhythm Guitars

Recommended Songs : We Are The Champions (Mercury), All Dead, All Dead (May), Spread Your Wings (Deacon)

Review

When ‘News of the World’ was released in 1977, the influence of punk in the UK was growing and was obvious in the charts. By sheer coincidence​, a track called ‘ Sheer Heart Attack ‘ was written around the time of the Sheer Heart Attack album was included on News of the World, and that song has punkish tendencies​ which may have helped the album in the UK charts of the time. The brilliant anthems of ‘We Will Rock You’​, ‘We Are The Champions’ as well as ‘Spread your Wings’ and ‘It’s Late’ are probably the highlights of the album. Other good tunes of note include ‘All Dead, All Dead’ by Brian, ‘Who Needs You’ by John, and the bluesy ‘My Melancholy Blues’ by Freddie.

The cover of the album was designed by American, Frank Kelly Frease, who did Sci-Fi art. Roger asked him to re-design a previous ‘robot painting’ iso that the members of the band were used.

The album isn’t as impressive as the classic ‘A Night at the Opera’, in that the middle section of the album is usually something I pass over. That aside, it is just as entertaining and is still an album which I enjoy, especially the 6 or 7 songs mentioned above, and I would still class it as a highly rated album.

Did you know …. The ‘We Are The Champions’ video was the first promo that featured Queen Fan Club members. They were invited to the New London Theatre on Oct 6th, 1977. Afterwards, Queen did a free concert everyone in the video got a free single.