Writer: Brian May and Freddie Mercury
Producer: Queen with Mike Stone
Recorded: July-September 1977 in London
Released: October 7, 1977
| Players: | Freddie Mercury – vocals, piano Brian May – guitar, vocals Roger Deacon – bass Roger Taylor – drums, vocals Robert Arron, Steve Elson — saxophones |
| Album: | News Of The World (Elektra, 1977) |
The songs “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions,” released as a double A-sided single, peaked at Number Four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. — Queen's highest-ranking hit to that point.
In France, “We Will Rock You” was considered the A-side and was Number One for six weeks.
The three-beat rhythm of “We Will Rock You,” which guitarist Brian May modeled after British soccer stadium cheers, has appropriately become a staple at sporting events.
Queen — a chief target of punk rockers during the late '70s — recorded the News Of The World album in a studio next door to where the Sex Pistols were making Never Mind The Bollocks.
In one exchange, Pistols singer-bassist Sid Vicious yelled to Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, “'Ullo, Fred. So you've really brought ballet to the masses, eh?” Mercury's response: “Ah, Mr. Ferocious…Well, we're trying our best, dear.”
News Of The World also included the track “Sheer Heart Attack.” It was left off the album of the same name three years earlier.
News Of The World peaked at Number Three on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S., making it the second highest-charting Queen album behind The Game, which hit Number One in 1980.
Mercury's assessment of Queen: “I think Queen songs are pure escapism, like going to see a good film — after that, they can go away and say 'That was great' and go back to their problems. I don't want to change the world with our music…I like to write songs for fun, for modern consumption. People can discard them like a used tissue afterwards.”
