Bicycle Race
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| “Bicycle Race” | |||||
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| Single by Queen from the album Jazz |
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| A-side | "Fat Bottomed Girls" | ||||
| Released | October 13, 1978 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | 1978 | ||||
| Genre | Neo-progressive rock | ||||
| Length | 3:01 | ||||
| Label | EMI, Elektra | ||||
| Writer(s) | Freddie Mercury | ||||
| Producer | Queen and Roy Thomas Baker | ||||
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Bicycle Race is a hit single for the English rock band Queen. It was released on their 1978 album Jazz and written by Queen's frontman Freddie Mercury.
To release this song, Queen staged a bicycle race with 65 naked girls. A clip from this race was used as the single cover. The video was originally banned, and the video had to be re-edited with colour added to censor out any offensive imagery. The song is famed for its 'bicycle bell solo', which fans would often replicate live at Queen concerts with their own such bells.
It was released as a Double-A side with the song "Fat Bottomed Girls". A still photograph from the naked bicycle race was used for the single cover, a pair of bikini bottoms crudely painted on the photo of the naked rider.
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[edit] Trivia
- This song was released as a double-A side with "Fat Bottomed Girls" and contains the line "Fat Bottomed Girls, they'll be riding today/ so look out for those beauties, oh yeah". For its part, "Fat Bottomed Girls" contains the line "Get on your bikes and ride!"
- The video featured a collection of naked models riding around a race track on bikes hired from British cycle shop chain Halfords. When returned, Queen was ordered to pay for all the seats as Halfords wouldn't accept them knowing what they had been used for.
- During a show at Madison Square Garden the band had numerous topless women on stage riding bicycles.
- The song makes numerous references to pop culture from the 1970s, including Jaws, Star Wars, Watergate, Peter Pan, Frankenstein, Superman, and Vietnam, among others.
- This song is performed on an episode of The Great Space Coaster.
- The song appears in the movie "How High".
[edit] Cover versions
- This song was covered by the German dance artist Blümchen (1996). Her version contains samples from Queen's original recording.
- This song was covered by Lemon Demon and was released on the bonus tracks to his Damn Skippy album in 2005.
- The song was covered again in 2005 by Be Your Own Pet on a Queen Tribute album.
- The song was covered again in 2006 by Between the Buried and Me on their album The Anatomy Of.
[edit] Alternate artwork
 Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls |
 Back cover |
 A bicycle race with nude women was held to promote the single.[1] |
[edit] References
- ^ This is a much bigger view of the inside cover of this album. http://luthor.altervista.org/queen01.jpg
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