Queen | Queen II | Sheer Heart Attack | A Night at the Opera | A Day at the Races | News of the World | Jazz
The Game | Hot Space | The Works | A Kind of Magic | The Miracle | Innuendo | Made in Heaven
- Bury Your Art: David Bowie recorded backing vocals for "Cool Cat", but ended up dissatisfied with the results and asked the band to remove them. As this happened just days before Hot Space's planned release date, Queen had to undergo a bit of Schedule Slip to comply with Bowie's request. This early version of "Cool Cat" would become a popular bootleg among Queen fans and Bowie fans alike after it was discovered on an Elektra Records test pressing of Hot Space.
- Creator Backlash: Brian May felt uncomfortable about the closeted Freddie Mercury writing a gay anthem like "Body Language" in 1982, not so much due to Freddie's sexuality as fearing it would alienate the band's straight fans.
- Creator-Driven Successor: The album was meant to be a spiritual successor to the massive success of the Funk-influenced "Another One Bites the Dust", although its success was limited.
- Cut Song: Three duets between Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson were recorded during the sessions for this album: "There Must Be More to Life Than This", "State of Shock", and "Victory". However, none of them were completed by the pair, and two of them would be redone for their solo projects: Mercury would re-record "There Must Be More to Life Than This" for his solo debut, Mr. Bad Guy, while Jackson would redo "State of Shock" with his brothers and Mick Jagger for The Jackson 5's Victory. The original Jackson/Mercury version of "There Must Be More to Life Than This" would eventually be completed for the 2014 compilation Queen Forever; the surviving members of Queen attempted to release all three duets, but the Jackson estate only allowed them to use one song, and that was the track they agreed on. The original version of "State of Shock" would eventually leak online, whereas "Victory" remains in the vaults.
- In Memoriam: "Life is Real (Song for Lennon)" was written as a tribute to John Lennon, who was murdered two years prior to the album's release.
- Rarely Performed Song: With the sole exception of "Under Pressure", which remains a concert staple to this day, material from this album hardly shows up in the band's live shows thanks to Brian May and Roger Taylor's dislike of it and the major backlash that its disco sound spawned.
- Serendipity Writes the Plot: "Under Pressure" came into existence only due to an impromptu jam session after David Bowie decided to drop in on the recording.
- What Could Have Been:
- "Under Pressure" was not originally intended to feature David Bowie on it. However, when he showed up at the band's studio in Montreux to record the theme song to the 1982 remake of Cat People, the band invited him to contribute to the material they were working on, leading to the jam session that created the final version of "Under Pressure".
- David Bowie was originally slated to provide backing vocals on "Cool Cat", but Bowie, unhappy with his vocal performance, asked the band to remove his vocals before the album was supposed to be released. The version with Bowie's vocals was included on a test pressing of the album, however, and it would eventually leak online through that.
- Working Title: "Under Pressure" was originally demoed as "Feel Like" before David Bowie joined in on the song.
- Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: While it was born out of a conventional demo, the final version of "Under Pressure" was the result of an impromptu jam session between Queen and David Bowie that built upon the demo.
