Sheer Heart Attack (song)
"Sheer Heart Attack" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released on their sixth studio album News of the World in 1977. It is one of two songs on the album entirely written by Roger Taylor.
| "Sheer Heart Attack" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Queen | |
| from the album News of the World | |
| A-side | "Spread Your Wings"(Europe) "It's Late"(USA,Canada,Japan,New Zealand) |
| Released | 28 October 1977 |
| Recorded | July – September 1977 at Basing Street and Wessex Studios |
| Genre | |
| Length | 3:27 |
| Label | EMI, Parlophone (Europe) Elektra, Hollywood (US) |
| Songwriter(s) | Roger Taylor |
| Producer(s) | Queen and Mike Stone |
Background
"Sheer Heart Attack" was originally written for the album of the same name in 1974, but was not included on the album for several reasons. The song was finished for News of the World in 1977.
Roger Taylor plays almost every instrument on the finished track, with some help from Brian May on guitar. This is one of the few original Queen recordings that does not feature bass guitarist John Deacon.
The song was the B-side of the Deacon-penned single "Spread Your Wings" in February 1978. It was also the B-side of the single "It's Late", written by May, which was released only in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Japan in April 1978.
The opening lyrics make reference to "I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles, which start with "Well, she was just seventeen/You know what I mean", compared to the track's "Well you're just 17 and all you want to do is disappear/You know what I mean there's a lot of space between your ears".
Live performances
The song was performed live from 1977 to 1984. It has been released on three live albums: Live Killers in 1979, Queen Rock Montreal in 1981, and Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl in 1982.
Comments
Sheer Heart Attack written in essence, not completely, wasn’t finished at the time of recording Sheer Heart Attack, but really we didn’t have room, and it wasn’t quite finished and for a number of reasons it didn’t get on. But now, it lives again, and actually I’m quite pleased with it. It's really pure energy, and it’s one of my contributions to News of the World.
— Roger Taylor, 1977
We came up with the title for the Sheer Heart Attack album, and it was a song that I had an idea for, but I hadn't actually finished the song, yet. By the time I had finished the song, we were two albums later, so it just struggled out on the News of the World album. It's quite interesting, because we were making an album next-door to a punk band, the Sex Pistols, and it really fit into that punk explosion that was happening at the time, which was happening right then. It was actually better that it happened that it came out on the News of the World album.
— Roger Taylor, 1991[4]
Personnel
Information is based on the album's Liner Notes[5]
- Freddie Mercury – lead and backing vocals
- Brian May – lead guitar
- Roger Taylor – lead and backing vocals, drums, rhythm guitar, bass guitar
References
- House, Denis (23 November 2018). "The Show Must Go On". The Sentinel-Echo. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- Testa, Bart (9 February 1978). "News Of The World". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- Chiu, David (24 June 2015). "How Queen Embraced Disco, Conquered America, Then Bit The Dust". Medium. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- "Sheer Heart Attack (song)". Queenpedia. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- Queen. “News of the World” (Album Notes). EMI. 1977.
