Queen's "The Game," Forty Years Old Today

2020 has seen its share of "forties" in the rock world. Today is just one of many. For it is on this day, that one of Queens greatest albums first hit stores
Queen The Game.png

What makes it special?

To many, The Game is something of transition album. The tracks are a bit more poppy with faster tempos. Seeking to redefine their sound, the band dumped long-timer Roy Thomas Baker (responsible for producing some of their well-known records of the mid 70s), and worked with Reinhold Mack, known mononymously as Mack, at Giorgio Moroder's Musicland studio in Munich. 

It Was A Hit

The album itself yielded four singles (five in the US and Japan). The album's lead single, Crazy LIttle Thing Called Love, issued ahead of the record, actually features Mercury playing acoustic guitar folks! In fact, with guitarist Brian May late to the session, the band decided to record as a power trio. Drummer Roger Taylor sang backing vocals and May added backing vocals and a few electric guitar licks and even a guitar solo to the rockability-influenced track. 

It's also noteable for using the phrase, "Ready Freddy," in reference to Freddy Mercury. Queen's 1989 single, The Invisible Man, is noteable for naming all four members.

A sort of quasi-title track, the next single, Play the Game, was a top 20 hit in the UK, but fell short of the top 40 in the US. The follow-up single, one of their signature songs, Another One Bites the Dust, was inspired by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers of Chic and their hit Good Times. It features a harmonizer used by Brian May during the middle eight, tape looped drums, and a reversed piano - the latter of which has been a staple of several songs of the early 70s such as Yes' Roundabout and David Bowie's Fame. Contrary to popular belief, nary a synthesizer was used on Dust. Queen did incorporate synthesizers during their later albums of the 80s. 

The album's fifth and final single, Need Your Loving Tonight, was only issued in the US and Japan. Like Play the Game, it missed the US top 40.

Queen's next album, Flash Gordon, would be an even more exotic release, and only six months from The Game.

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