Radio Ga Ga

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Lore & Background

The inspiration for "Radio Ga Ga" came when Roger Taylor heard his son utter the phrase "radio ca-ca" while they were driving in Los Angeles, reacting to a song he disliked. Taylor locked himself in a studio for three days with a synthesizer and a LinnDrum drum machine to write and develop the song. When the band heard it, John Deacon wrote a bassline and Freddie Mercury reconstructed the track, thinking it could be a big hit. Taylor then took a skiing holiday and let Mercury polish the song's lyrics, harmony, and arrangements. The lyrics reference two important radio events: Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of *The War of the Worlds* in the line "through wars of worlds/invaded by Mars", and Winston Churchill's 18 June 1940 "This was their finest hour" speech in the line "You've yet to have your finest hour". Taylor was quoted saying the song addressed how music videos "seem to be taking over almost from the aural side, the visual side seems to be almost more important."

In Their Own Story

Recording sessions for "Radio Ga Ga" began at Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles in August 1983, the band's first and only time recording in North America. The recording features prominent use of the Roland VP330+ vocoder, and Canadian session keyboardist Fred Mandel, who had played with Queen during the Hot Space Tour, programmed the Roland Jupiter-8's arpeggiated synth-bass parts. The music video, directed by David Mallet, uses footage from Fritz Lang's 1927 silent science fiction film *Metropolis*. Queen had to buy performance rights to the film from the communist East German government, the copyright holder at the time. The video was filmed at Carlton TV Studios and Shepperton Studios, London, between 23–24 November 1983 and January 1984. It received heavy rotation on music channels and was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in 1984 for Best Art Direction.

Reader's Guide

The song reached number one in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. In the UK, it entered the chart on 4 February 1984 and peaked at number two for two consecutive weeks starting on 11 February, unable to dislodge "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. In the US, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 18 February 1984 and peaked at number 16 on 7 April. Queen performed a shorter, up-tempo version at Live Aid on 13 July 1985 at Wembley Stadium, where their "show-stealing performance" had 72,000 people clapping in unison. It was the second song they performed after opening with "Bohemian Rhapsody". The song was played on the Magic Tour in 1986, recorded for the live album *Live at Wembley '86*. Paul Young performed it with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992. At the "Party at the Palace" concert in 2002, it opened Queen's set with Roger Taylor on vocals and Phil Collins on drums. It was played on the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour (2005–2006), the Rock the Cosmos Tour (2008), and the Queen + Adam Lambert Tour and Rhapsody Tour (2019–2024).

Did You Know?

• The song was inspired by Roger Taylor's son saying 'radio ca-ca' while they were driving in Los Angeles.
• The music video uses footage from the 1927 silent science fiction film *Metropolis*, and Queen had to buy performance rights from the communist East German government.
• At Live Aid in 1985, Queen's performance of the song had 72,000 people clapping in unison.
• American pop singer Lady Gaga credits her stage name to this song, stating she 'adored' Queen and their hit 'Radio Ga Ga'.
• The Police drummer Stewart Copeland reviewed the song for *Record Mirror*, writing that Queen had adopted the current 'synthesizer sound' and that Mercury's singing 'sounds like Bryan Ferry'.