Radio Ga Ga
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| “Radio Ga Ga” | |||||
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| Single by Queen from the album The Works |
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| B-side | "I Go Crazy" | ||||
| Released | January 23, 1984 | ||||
| Format | vinyl record (7", 12") | ||||
| Recorded | 1983 | ||||
| Genre | Synth Pop | ||||
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| Label | EMI / Capitol | ||||
| Writer(s) | Roger Taylor | ||||
| Producer | Queen and Mack | ||||
| Queen singles chronology | |||||
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"Radio Ga Ga" is a song performed and recorded by the band Queen, written by their drummer Roger Taylor. It was released as a single and was included on the album The Works. The single was an enormous worldwide success for the band. It reached number 2 in the UK and 16 in the USA.
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[edit] Meaning
The song was a commentary of the invention of television overtaking radio's popularity, and how one would listen to radio for their favorite comedy, drama, sci-fi programs and so on as well as the advent of the music video and MTV. (Although, ironically, the video would become a regular staple on the channel in 1984.) Taylor originally conceived it as "Radio Ca-Ca" (apparently from something his toddler son once said), a slam against radio for the decrease in variety of programming and the type of music being played. It was eventually changed to "Radio Ga Ga", because it sounded better, clearer, and rolled off the tongue easier. There are rumours that the publishers objected to the original title because the word "caca" means "crap" in Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Greek, Hebrew and French, with much the same cultural connotations.
The song makes a reference to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcasting, in the verse "through wars of worlds/invaded by Mars".
[edit] Development
Taylor began writing the song in Los Angeles when he locked himself in a room with a synthesiser and a drum machine. He thought it would fit his solo album, but when the band heard it, John Deacon wrote a bass-line 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 session keyboardist Fred Mandel, who later on would work with Supertramp and Elton John. Mandel programmed the 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.[1]
[edit] Video
David Mallet's music video for the song features scenes from the film Metropolis—Freddie Mercury's solo song "Love Kills" was used in Giorgio Moroder's 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. Critics said that the video looked like a "Nuremberg Rally" much to the anti-Nazi Roger Taylor's dislike. In the video there is a part where they list some of their earlier videos (such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Flash's Theme", and so forth) in a photo album, illustrating the changes and the influence videos received through the years. In the video Taylor tries to turn right in the vehicle but the vehicle moves to his left, he quickly tries to correct this but the video still shows the error.
[edit] Live versions
Queen played a shorter, uptempo version of "Radio Ga Ga" at the Live Aid charity event in 1985. It became a live favourite thanks largely to the audience participation potential of the clapping sequence prompted by the rhythm of the chorus (copied from the video).
Paul Young performed the song with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992.
At the "Party at the Palace" concert, celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002, "Radio Ga Ga" opened up Queen's set with Roger Taylor on vocals and Phil Collins on the drums.
This song was played on the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour in 2005/2006, and sung by Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers.
[edit] Chart performance
| Country | Peak position |
Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 3 | |
| Austria | 2 | |
| Belgium | 1 | |
| Canada | 11 | |
| France | 24 | |
| Germany | 2 | |
| Ireland | 1 | |
| Italy | 1 | |
| Japan | 89 | |
| The Netherlands | 1[2] | |
| Portugal | 1 | |
| Sweden | 1 | |
| Norway | 2 | |
| Poland | 2 | |
| South Africa | 4 | |
| Spain | 6 | |
| Switzerland | 3 | |
| UK | 2 | silver |
| US | 16 |
[edit] Cover versions
- Roger Taylor performed the song with Spike Edney's SAS Band.
- A heavily modified version of the song serves as the introductory number for We Will Rock You, a musical composed of Queen songs.
- The song was covered in 2004 by Electric Six. The band recorded the song against their wishes under pressure from their label at the time. The video depicts Electric Six frontman, Dick Valentine, as the ghost of Freddie Mercury dancing near his own grave. It was widely misinterpreted that Valentine (as Mercury) was dancing on his grave. He explains on his website's video section "Though some have claimed this video portrays me dancing on Freddie Mercury's grave, actually it's more like we are resurrecting Mr. Mercury for the duration of the song and his grave is the logical starting point." [[1]] Roger Taylor has said the video is tasteless and that he will "wait for the royalties". On the other hand, Brian May reportedly enjoyed the video.
- Sophie Ellis-Bextor has made a live-cover of this single at the Al Murray's Happy Hour, on ITV.
- "Radio Ga Ga" is one of the songs performed by the Philippine prisoners (as seen on various web based video sites).
- One Night of Queen also performs this song as part of their Queen tribute concerts.
[edit] Influences
- "Radio Ga Ga" is also the name of a radio station in Targu Mures (Marosvasarhely), Romania, in 88 FM (in the region).[2]
- "Radio Gaga" is also a Norwegian cartoon published in the Norwegian cartoon album pondus.[3]
- "Radio Ga Ga" is also a radio program broadcast on Melbourne's (Australia) 3WBC-FM - 94.1FM locally. See [4]
[edit] External links
- Video of Queen's performance in Live Aid (at AOL Music)
- Radio Ga Ga performed by Prisoners in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitational Centre
[edit] References
- ^ Queen Concerts, The Works Tour II. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
- ^ De Nederlandse Top 40, week 8, 1984. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
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