To herald the arrival of the 40th Anniversary of News of the World, Queen’s monumental ’77 release and its accompanying special box set—in stores now!—a special Record Store Day Black Friday edition of the iconic double A-side single “We Are The Champions” / “We Will Rock You” arrives in shops this coming Friday. But heck, why wait and fight the lines—we’ve got 5 copies of the 12″ single to ship out to 5 of you.
First however, some interesting factoids in regard to the seminal tracks on both sides of this special 12″ single:
1. Brian May wrote “We Will Rock You” and claimed the idea for the song came in a dream. He told Mojo magazine in October 2008 that he wanted to “create a song that the audience could participate in.”
2. “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You” are Brian May’s favourite Queen songs to perform live.
3. “We Will Rock You” doesn’t contain any actual drums. The famous rhythm came about from the band, engineers, roadies, and even their tea lady, Betty—stamping their feet in London’s Wessex Studios.
4. “We Will Rock You” has been covered 45 times by many artists, as varied as Snoop Dogg, Warrant, Linda Ronstadt, the cast of Glee and Macy Gray. It has also been sampled by several artists, including Eminem.
5. Robbie Williams also provided vocals to “We Are The Champions” for the soundtrack of A Knight’s Tale.
6. The music video for “We Will Rock You” was filmed in Roger Taylor’s back garden after filming “Spread Your Wings.”
7. “We Are the Champions” was the first Queen promotional video for which fan club members were invited to participate in the filming. The video was shot at the New London Theatre in London on 6 October 1977. Each fan received a free copy of the single. The band performed a short free concert after the shoot as a thank you to the fans.
8. Research by the University of St. Andrews in Scotland named “We Will Rock You” / “We Are The Champions” as the catchiest in history of popular music.
9. In 2004, “We Will Rock You” was featured in a Roman gladiator themed Pepsi commercial. The advert featured Britney Spears, Beyonce, and Pink who performed a rendition of the single.
10. “We Will Rock You” was played over half a million times during the 2012 London Olympics. Jessie J also performed the track with Brian May and Roger Taylor during the closing ceremony.
11. The Queen musical We Will Rock You opened in 2002 and ran for 12 years becoming the longest-running musical at the Dominion Theatre, selling 6,600,000 tickets in London alone and becoming the 9th longest running show in London’s West End.
12. “We Will Rock You” was knocked off the French number one slot after 12 weeks by “We Are The Champions.”
13. For “We Are The Champions,” lead singer, Freddie Mercury, drew on both soccer crowds and the band’s history for inspiration. “I was thinking about football when I wrote it,” Mercury said. “I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. Of course, I’ve given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant. I suppose it could also be construed as my version of “I Did It My Way.” We have made it, and it certainly wasn’t easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it’s still not easy.”
14. “We Will Rock You” featuring Five spent 13 weeks on the UK chart.
15. “We Are The Champions” was built on audience response. Brian May: “We wanted to get the crowds waving and singing. It’s very unifying and positive. People love it because it’s so uplifting. Although much of our music was created using multi-layered arrangements and vocal harmonies—which work especially well in the recording studio—we were into making our concerts musical events.”
Enter to win Queen’s Record Store Day Black Friday double A-side single “We Are The Champions” / “We Will Rock You” by citing in the comments below a number 16 to the above 15 item list—just what these tracks have meant to you over the years, briefly.
We’ll choose 5 winners with North American mailing addresses 1 week from today, November 28, 2017. Winners will be notified directly via email.
