Radio Ga Ga
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Radio Ga Ga" | ||||
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| 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 | Synthpop | |||
| 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 song performed and recorded by 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 without "I Go Crazy" (that song would only be included on the 1991 CD remaster). The single was an enormous worldwide success for the band. It reached number two in the UK (kept from the number one spot only by Frankie Goes To Hollywood's smash hit "Relax"). In the USA it reached the number 16 spot. This was to be their last Top 20 hit single in the US until 1992.
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[edit] Meaning
The song was a commentary on the invention of televisions overtaking radio's popularity and how one would listen to radio for a favorite comedy, drama, or sci-fi program and so on. It also pertained to the advent of the music video and MTV. (Ironically, the video would become a regular staple on MTV in 1984.) Taylor originally conceived of 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 that sounded better, clearer, and rolled off the tongue more easily. There are rumours that the publishers objected to the original title because of the close resemblance of "Ca-Ca" to a common word for feces in many languages (as "Caca" in Portuguese, for example).[citation needed]
The song makes a reference to the broadcast of Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds, 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 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 appeggiated 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 Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi movie 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 Roger Taylor's dislike.[citation needed]
In the video there is a part where they list some of their earlier videos (such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Flash", 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.
In the video, a different version of Bohemian Rhapsody was shown. It can clearly be seen that there are flames around the four members of Queen in the clip.
[edit] Live versions
Queen played a shorter, uptempo version of "Radio Ga Ga" at the Live Aid charity event in 1985 at the Old Wembley Stadium. 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).
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 on 12 July 1986, the second night in the venue.
Paul Young performed the song with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert again at Wembley Stadium on 20 April 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. 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.
[edit] Chart performance
| Country | Peak position |
Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 3 | |
| Austria | 2 | |
| Belgium | 1 | |
| Canada | 11 | |
| France | 24 | |
| Germany | 2 | |
| Ireland | 1 | |
| Italy | 1 | |
| The Netherlands | 1[2] | |
| Sweden | 1 | |
| Norway | 2 | |
| Poland | 2 | |
| South Africa | 4 | |
| New Zealand | 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 inmates of CPDRC Philippines (as seen on various web based video sites).
- Jamie 'Afro' Archer sung this on The X Factor on Saturday November 14th during Queen week.
[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]
- "Radio Gaga" is also a Macintosh computer program for listening to and recording Internet radio.
- American pop singer-songwriter and musician Lady Gaga named herself after this song.[3]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ "Queen Concerts, The Works Tour II". http://www.queenconcerts.com/instruments/1985-works.html. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
- ^ "De Nederlandse Top 40, week 8, 1984". http://www.radio538.nl/web/show/id=44685/chartid=6325. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
- ^ Martin, Gavin (2009-01-08). "Lady GaGa the new Princess of Pop". Mirror.co.uk. http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/music/2009/01/08/lady-gaga-the-new-princess-of-pop-115875-21026283/. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
