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Post by coolcat27 on Oct 17, 2021 22:32:51 GMT
I've always kind of wondered how We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions ended up so massive, with News of the World being so successful and Queen, and yet the singles kind of dried up after the big two.
Now I love Spread Your Wings. I need to open an Emerald Bar some day. That is an amazing song. And the same for It's Late. I listened to it today and thought, "Geez, this is a nearly perfect song." Both are two of the better non-hits in the Queen catalogue.
But how come these two, especially Spread Your Wings, didn't? Champions/WWRY are all-time classics. Maybe that was clear early on. Did the label put all the promotional push behind those songs? Was SYW an afterthought since the album was already a success? I know in the '70s they didn't push out as many singles as they would in the '80s.
But it just seems like with this album being such a big deal and Queen on top as a live act, they could have gotten further with SYW, which didn't even chart in the US. Any thoughts? I still love both songs.
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dysan
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Post by dysan on Oct 18, 2021 6:44:24 GMT
SYW wasn't a single in the US, but ironically the Live Killers version on the b-side of Crazy Little Thing got to number one in that territory which hopefully redresses the balance. Regarding it being pushed, they went to the trouble of shooting a video for it which WWRY never got - proved by the fact they made a belated one for it at the same time. I don't think it's low position in the UK worried them. It's a nice song, but without the novelty value their hits have which usually drives them higher (opera! rockabilly! gospel! errr.. gay funk!). There is a general law of diminishing returns for singles off albums (there are exceptions of course). This wasn't helped by the single edit of It's Late losing 2 minutes 30 seconds off the running time. In America radio play is important and usually singles are considered promo for albums / tours without thinking about chart position. Notably, by the time It's Late came out Queen had returned to Europe. There is also the point of Elektra promo guys buying singles up the chart so perhaps they didn't bother with later ones off the same album? I imagine that purchasers were mainly new fans who just liked what they heard on the radio without knowing the band and the bulk of FM / rock listeners were happy with the version they already had on the album. Also note that Need Your Loving Tonight also reached exactly the same position in the US and it was the final single off a huge US record. But in short, who knows?  |
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Post by ActionThisDay on Oct 30, 2021 18:40:30 GMT
Spread Your Wings chart position has always puzzled me as well.
Although it should be noted that despite a massive hit single in WATC, the NOTW album only made #4 in the UK. This must've been a shock to the band as their two previous albums had made #1.
Maybe's it's no surprise that SYW struggled, punk was happening and many felt Queen were already 'old hat' by 1978. SYW was quite an unusual single for Queen with no 'sausage factory' backing vocals and a slightly stripped-back recording style.
A bigger surprise for me was Tie Your Mother Down only reaching #31 at a time when Queen were one of the biggest bands in the world. Brian was very disappointed at having to omit it from GH1 which meant that it would never be known by the general public in the way Flash or Fat Bottomed Girls is.
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Oct 30, 2021 19:01:37 GMT
Perhaps one of the reasons SYW and TYMD didn't take off is that most people who would have bought them already had them, and their B sides, on the albums. In those days, Queen weren't very good at exclusive B sides, the only non-album track issued on a single at that time, being SWAFIB on the back of SSOR.
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Post by ActionThisDay on Oct 30, 2021 19:09:04 GMT
Perhaps one of the reasons SYW and TYMD didn't take off is that most people who would have bought them already had them, and their B sides, on the albums. In those days, Queen weren't very good at exclusive B sides, the only non-album track issued on a single at that time, being SWAFIB on the back of SSOR. That's a good point actually. The main reason for releasing further singles with album track B-sides was to entice people to buy the album. Months after the album was released there were probably few fans who hadn't heard them hence the low sales. Queen hadn't attained iconic status yet so they weren't being bought by collectors either. It's funny how 70s Queen were all about the albums whereas 80s Queen concentrated on hit singles. |
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georg
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Post by georg on Dec 7, 2021 23:32:30 GMT
Bumping an old thread, but I always was surprised that Spread Your Wings wasn’t released in the US, as it probably fit in more with what was on the radio at the time than did It’s Late. Also, I always felt It’s Late and Tie Your Mother Down were a bit too “raw” for the hit parade – outstanding album tracks, don’t get me wrong, but not really what the singles buying public were looking for at the time. Deakey really had his finger on the pulse when it came to commercial single-worthy songs.
But the point of diminishing returns is also well-made; the album has been out for three (UK) and five (US) months by the time the singles were released, and Queen wouldn’t tour America again until October, six months after the release of It’s Late and four months after the album came out, so it really must have seemed like an afterthought. At least in Europe and the U.K., Queen were about to go on tour by the time Spread Your Wings was released…
(Take all this with a grain of salt – I was born five years after those singles were released, so all I have to go by is context clues, educated guesses, and, of course, a somewhat healthy dose of research.)
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Dec 7, 2021 23:53:26 GMT
Bumping an old thread, but I always was surprised that Spread Your Wings wasn’t released in the US, as it probably fit in more with what was on the radio at the time than did It’s Late. Also, I always felt It’s Late and Tie Your Mother Down were a bit too “raw” for the hit parade – outstanding album tracks, don’t get me wrong, but not really what the singles buying public were looking for at the time. Deakey really had his finger on the pulse when it came to commercial single-worthy songs. But the point of diminishing returns is also well-made; the album has been out for three (UK) and five (US) months by the time the singles were released, and Queen wouldn’t tour America again until October, six months after the release of It’s Late and four months after the album came out, so it really must have seemed like an afterthought. At least in Europe and the U.K., Queen were about to go on tour by the time Spread Your Wings was released… (Take all this with a grain of salt – I was born five years after those singles were released, so all I have to go by is context clues, educated guesses, and, of course, a somewhat healthy dose of research.) It's Late was also a terrible edit! |
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georg
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Post by georg on Dec 8, 2021 0:10:49 GMT
It really was! I did my own amateur edit that ran 4:54 that I was happy with, but that original edit is appalling.
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Post by The Real Wizard on Dec 8, 2021 0:35:49 GMT
It's funny how 70s Queen were all about the albums whereas 80s Queen concentrated on hit singles. Not just Queen. It was pretty well everybody.
FM radio was bought up by advertisers, and then the music video showed up. Sink or swim - you had to adapt to the business model or you were a goner.
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Post by zanzibar1 on Dec 11, 2021 1:53:21 GMT
Bumping an old thread, but I always was surprised that Spread Your Wings wasn’t released in the US, as it probably fit in more with what was on the radio at the time than did It’s Late. Also, I always felt It’s Late and Tie Your Mother Down were a bit too “raw” for the hit parade – outstanding album tracks, don’t get me wrong, but not really what the singles buying public were looking for at the time. Deakey really had his finger on the pulse when it came to commercial single-worthy songs. But the point of diminishing returns is also well-made; the album has been out for three (UK) and five (US) months by the time the singles were released, and Queen wouldn’t tour America again until October, six months after the release of It’s Late and four months after the album came out, so it really must have seemed like an afterthought. At least in Europe and the U.K., Queen were about to go on tour by the time Spread Your Wings was released… (Take all this with a grain of salt – I was born five years after those singles were released, so all I have to go by is context clues, educated guesses, and, of course, a somewhat healthy dose of research.) Interesting this about SYW never being released in the US as i once owned a 1sided test pressing of this on the PRC label..from the US...but the strange thing was it had the UK MATRIX numbers...& i always thought that they may have had plans to release it but then scrapped the idea? |
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