In current weeks, we’ve seen how Queen perfected the artwork of the opening quantity. Now, in Episode 11 of ‘Queen: The Best Stay’, we race to the tip of the setlist, with a uncommon clip from the band’s 1977 finish of yr USA tour that reveals how the band’s new anthem “We Are The Champions” saved the perfect till final. You’ll be able to watch the footage under.
Written by Freddie Mercury, “We Are The Champions” was impressed by a Could ’77 live performance at Bingley Corridor, Stafford, the place the group’s chants of soccer anthem “You’ll By no means Stroll Alone” satisfied the band to write down a tune that invited mass singalongs. “We needed to get the crowds waving and singing,” Brian Could has mentioned. “We Are The Champions” may be very unifying and optimistic. Folks find it irresistible as a result of it’s so uplifting.
Though a lot of our music was created utilizing multi-layered preparations and vocal harmonies – which work particularly nicely within the recording studio – we had been into making our live shows musical occasions.”
Featured on 1977’s Information Of The World album – and launched as a UK#2/US#4 single that included the equally grandiose “We Will Rock You” as its flipside – “We Are The Champions” was launched into the band’s dwell set in November 1977 on their finish of yr North American tour. “It’s probably the most egotistical and smug tune I’ve ever written!” Freddie joked in a single interview, earlier than explaining that the lyric was supposed to empower your entire viewers: “Mainly it’s a participation factor.”
With the Information Of The World tour’s epic manufacturing together with the long-lasting Crown lighting rig – an unlimited community of tungsten bulbs, searchlights and spotlights – the tune’s all-conquering sentiment was the right match. On this hardly ever seen footage from a type of US live shows we see the band throw the whole lot at their efficiency, with Freddie main “We Are The Champions” from the piano in a cloud of dry ice.
On the Queen excursions that adopted, the tune, together with “We Will Rock You,” would develop into the final word live performance finale and the band’s non-negotiable closing quantity (albeit adopted by a blast of “God Save The Queen”). “We Are The Champions may be very triumphal,” Brian has mentioned. “It matches the event, regardless of the event could be. We all the time finish our present with it as a result of it’s the perfect final tune we all know.”
Watch each episode of ‘The Best Stay’ on Queen’s official YouTube channel.