Queen "News Of The World"

News of the World is the sixth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 28 October 1977 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. News of the World was the band's second album to be recorded at Sarm West and Wessex Sound Studios, London, and engineered by Mike Stone, and was co-produced by the band and Stone.

In 1977, punk rock acts, most notably the Sex Pistols, sparked massive backlash against progressive rock artists such as Queen, to which the band responded by simplifying their symphonic rock sound and gearing towards a more spontaneous hard rock sound. The album subsequently went 4x platinum in the United States, reaching number 3 on the US Billboard 200, number 4 on the UK Albums Chart and achieving high certifications around the world. It has sold over 10 million copies and remains one of the band's best-selling studio albums to date. Its lead single, "We Are the Champions"/"We Will Rock You", reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Critical reaction to News of the World was initially mixed, with many reviewers commenting on the band's change in musical style. However, it has since come to be regarded as one of Queen's greatest albums, while "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" have since become rock anthems.

After completing the "A Day at the Races Tour", the quartet re-entered the studio to begin work on their sixth studio offering in July 1977, enlisting Mike Stone as assistant producer at the Basing Street and Wessex Studios in London. They scaled down their complex arrangements and focused on a "rootsier" sound (as Brian May put it). However, the staple of the Queen sound - multi-tracked harmonies and guitar orchestrations - still exist on this album, albeit more subtly than previously. Having received some criticism that their first completely self-produced album, A Day at the Races, was a "boring" album, Queen decided to shift their musical focus towards the mainstream but remain as the producers of the next album. Races garnered criticism as many critics felt that it was too similar to A Night at the Opera, something which the band members themselves acknowledged. In addition, the arrival of punk rock, led by the Sex Pistols, saw the mainstream shift away from progressive rock and more towards simpler rock music. Queen were seen as the antithesis of punk, particularly in their camp influences and elaborate production.

Brian May stated in an interview that “We'd already made a decision that...[after] A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, we wanted to go back to basics for News of the World. But it was very timely because the world was looking at punk and things being very stripped down. So in a sense we were conscious, but it was part of our evolution anyway.”

In contrast to "Races", which had taken five months to record, only two months were booked to record at Sarm West and Wessex Sound Studios. Most of the recording sessions took place in Wessex Studios, which was also where the Sex Pistols were busy recording "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". As such, the two groups had several interactions, including the famous meeting between Mercury and Sid Vicious. Vicious, upon stumbling into Queen's recording studio, asked "Have you succeeded in bringing ballet to the masses yet?" in response to a comment the singer had made in an interview with NME, to which Mercury called him "Simon Ferocious" and replied "We're doing our best, dear." Johnny Rotten also expressed a desire to meet with Mercury. According to Bill Price, who engineered "Never Mind the Bollocks", Rotten crawled on all fours across Queen's studio to Mercury, who was playing piano, and said "Hello Freddie" before leaving. May also recalled bumping into John Lydon in the corridors and having several conversations about music. Queen's history with the Sex Pistols dated back to December 1976, in which Queen were set to appear on Bill Grundy's Today show. However, Mercury had a toothache, and was forced to schedule a dentist appointment on the same day, his first one in 15 years. As a replacement, EMI offered the Sex Pistols instead, which led to their now famous appearance on the Today show.

The group completed recording and production of the album two months later in September, and released the album on 28 October 1977.

The album's cover was a painting by American sci-fi artist Frank Kelly Freas. Taylor had an issue of Astounding Science Fiction (October 1953) whose cover art depicted a giant intelligent robot holding the dead body of a man. The caption read: "Please... fix it, Daddy?" to illustrate the story "The Gulf Between" by Tom Godwin. The painting inspired the band to contact Freas, who agreed to alter the painting for their album cover, by replacing the single dead man with the four "dead" band members (with Taylor and Deacon falling to the ground, and Taylor only visible on the back cover).

The inner cover (gatefold) has the robot extending its hand to snatch up the petrified fleeing audience in the shattered auditorium where the corpses were removed. Freas said he was a classical music fan and did not know Queen, and only listened to the band after doing the cover "because I thought I might just hate them, and it would ruin my ideas", but eventually liked their music. "Killer Queen", a 2012 episode of Family Guy, featured the character Stewie Griffin being terrified by the album cover.

On 8 November 2010, record company Universal Music announced a remastered and expanded reissue of the album set for release in May 2011. This was part of a new record deal between Queen and Universal Music, which meant Queen's association with EMI Records would come to an end after almost 40 years. According to Universal Music, all Queen albums would be remastered and reissued in 2011. This reissue included a deluxe edition which contains five additional tracks. The second batch of albums (the band's middle five albums) was released in June 2011.

On 4 September 2017, Queen announced it would release a multi-format deluxe boxset marking the 40th anniversary of the album's original issue by the Virgin EMI label. The set contains previously unreleased outtakes and rarities from the band's archives, in the form of a newly created "alternative" version of the entire album, dubbed Raw Sessions. The boxset also includes a pure analogue vinyl LP, cut from the original analogue master mix tapes, and a brand new one-hour DVD documentary created from backstage material filmed during the North American leg of Queen's 1977 News of the World Tour.

In promotion of the anniversary release, on 6 October Queen released the previously unheard Raw Sessions of "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You". On 27 October, the band published on their official YouTube channel a new version of "All Dead, All Dead" which features previously unheard lead vocals by Mercury, and was accompanied with an animated lyric video. The box set was officially released on 17 November 2017.

The album as a whole has been released on Super Audio CD.

The TV show Family Guy dedicated an episode plot line to the album cover, in which Stewie is frightened of the robot. Creator Seth MacFarlane stated that it was based on his own fear of the cover when he was a child.

Marvel paid tribute to News of the World on the cover of X-Men Gold #11. The cover, by artist Mike del Mindo, depicts a Sentinel holding Old Man Logan and Kitty Pride as Colossus plummets to the ground.

The giant robot from the album cover, also known as "Frank", was used as a special effect during the songs "We Will Rock You" and "Killer Queen" for the 2017–18 Queen + Adam Lambert Tour, which was in celebration of the album's 40th anniversary.

Track listing

Original release

Information is based on the album's Liner Notes

All lead vocals by Freddie Mercury unless noted.

Side one

1. "We Will Rock You" Brian May 2:01
2. "We Are the Champions" Freddie Mercury 2:59
3. "Sheer Heart Attack" Roger Taylor Mercury and Roger Taylor 3:26
4. "All Dead, All Dead" May Brian May 3:10
5. "Spread Your Wings" John Deacon 4:34
6. "Fight from the Inside" Taylor Taylor 3:03

Side two

1. "Get Down, Make Love" Mercury 3:51
2. "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" May May 3:06
3. "Who Needs You" Deacon 3:05
4. "It's Late" May 6:26
5. "My Melancholy Blues" Mercury 3:29

Total length: 39:10

The multi-format deluxe box set features previously unreleased outtakes and rarities from the band's archives, as well as a newly created "alternative" version of the entire album, dubbed Raw Sessions. The boxset includes a pure analogue vinyl LP, cut from the original analogue master mix tapes, and a brand new one-hour DVD documentary created from backstage material filmed during the North American leg of Queen's 1977 News of the World Tour.