| "Radio Ga Ga" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Queen | ||||
| from the album The Works | ||||
| B-side | "I Go Crazy" | |||
| Released | January 23, 1984 | |||
| Format | Vinyl record (7", 12") | |||
| Recorded | 1983 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length |
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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 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 band's compilation albums, Greatest Hits II, and Classic Queen.[1]
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.[2][3] The band performed the song at every concert between 1984 to their last with Mercury in 1986, with their most notable performance at Live Aid in 1985.[4][5][6]
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Recorded in 1983 and released in January 1984, the song was a commentary on television overtaking radio's popularity and how one would listen to radio for a favourite 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.[7] Taylor originally conceived of it as "Radio caca" (from something his toddler son once said),[8] which doubled as a criticism of radio for the decrease in variety of programming and the type of music being played.[2] "Radio Ga Ga" in one of the original cassette boxes is called 'radio ca ca'.[9]
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 Churchill's 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".[10]
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 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 Jupiter's 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.[11]
David Mallet's music video for the song features scenes from Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction movie Metropolis.[12] 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.[13]
The video also features footage from earlier Queen promo videos (such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Are the Champions", "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Flash") in a photo album.[12] A different version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" is also shown.
Queen finished their sets before the encores on The Works Tour with "Radio Ga Ga" and Mercury would normally sing "you had your time" in a lower octave and modify the deliveries of "you had the power, you've yet to have your finest hour" while Roger Taylor sang the pre-chorus in the high octave. Live versions from the 1984/85 tour were recorded and filmed on the concert films Queen Rock in Rio 1985, and Final Live in Japan 1985.[14]
Queen played a shorter, uptempo version of "Radio Ga Ga" during the Live Aid concert in July 1985 at Wembley Stadium, where Queen's "show-stealing performance" had 72,000 people clapping in unison.[4][15] It was the second song the band performed at Live Aid after opening with "Bohemian Rhapsody".[16] "Radio Ga Ga" 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).
The song was played for the Magic Tour a year later, including twice more at Wembley Stadium; it was recorded for the live album Live at Wembley '86, VHS Video and DVD on 12 July 1986, the second night in the venue.[6]
Paul Young performed the song with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert again at Wembley Stadium on 20 April 1992.[17]
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. It was recorded officially at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield, England, on 5 May 2005. The result, Return of the Champions, was released on CD and DVD on 19 September 2005 and 17 October 2005, respectively.
It was also played on the Rock the Cosmos Tour during the fall of 2008, this time with only Rodgers on lead vocals. The concert Live in Ukraine came as a result of this tour, yet the song is not available on the CD or DVD versions released 15 June 2009. This performance of "Radio Ga Ga" is only available as a digital download from iTunes.
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