Sometimes a song becomes something bigger than a hit. It strikes a nerve with its audience and becomes an anthem that unites listeners with its message.
Brian May had no idea Queen were on the verge of recording such a momentous tune as the group set out to make News of the World, their sixth album, in 1977. Frontman Freddie Mercury had been working on a song designed to encourage audience participation. But when he first presented it to May, bass guitarist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor at a rehearsal, they didn’t get it.
Part of the problem was its lyrics, in which Mercury moved from complaints about having paid his dues to telling his audience his climb to the top had been “no bed of roses.”
Worst of all was the title: “We Are the Champions.”
“Our initial sense of it was that it was something very big-headed,” May told Guitar Player. “We all looked at Fred and said, ‘Really?’
“But he had a very clear view of it. It was aimed at an audience that wanted to feel a togetherness and a power and an optimism. He knew people would sing it.”
More than a gifted vocalist, Mercury was a performer who knew how to unite an audience. Which was only appropriate, considering that Queen had decided to bring them into the show with News of the World,
The genesis of this approach came after Queen’s 1977 show at Bingley Hall in Stafford, England, where the audience sang along loudly and enthusiastically to every song.
“We did an encore and then went off,” May explained in a BBC interview that year, “and instead of just keeping clapping, they sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone‘ to us, and we were just completely knocked out and taken aback.”
As they began to work on News of the World, the band was inspired to write tracks that would harness that collective energy. May brought along “We Will Rock You,” sensing its stomp-clap rhythm and simple vocal refrain would be good way to bring the audience together. Mercury, meanwhile, envisioned “We Are the Champions” as a theme that would unify fans in a moment of collective celebration.
“This was the first album where we contemplated audience participation. Up until that point, we were sort of tentative.”
— Brian May
“This was the first album where we contemplated audience participation,” May told Guitar Player. “Up until that point, we were sort of tentative. We didn’t expect the audience to sing along because they didn’t in those days. It was a big transition for us to realize that the audience was part of the show, and we decided to encourage that.”
As he explained, this shift in audience behavior was evident more in England and Europe than in America.
“This phenomenon started in Europe way before in the states,” he said. “And I used to prefer that people didn’t sing, to be honest. I liked them to hear all the delicate nuances of what we were doing. I found it kind of annoying, as if it was getting in the way of Freddie’s vocals. It’s funny to look back on that.”
Regarding “We Are the Champions,” May recalls that it was recorded in what was a typical fashion for Queen at the time.
“Normally, [Mercury] would put down the piano part with Roger and John live, and when it was good enough — after three or four takes — that would be what we used. And that’s pretty much what happened with ‘Champions.’”
Working that way allowed May to think about his guitar parts while the others were recording their parts. But sometimes his best ideas came later, as they did for “We Are the Champions.” Roughly two weeks after initially completing his part, he added two new guitar tracks of bell-like chimes using his Red Special electric guitar.
Panned in stereo on the song’s second verse, they ping-pong from speaker to speaker during the lines “It’s been no bed of roses, no pleasure cruise,” adding a bit of decoration as the arrangement builds to a new high ahead of the chorus.
“I remember listening to it in the car the day it was to be mixed and thinking that my guitar wasn’t good enough. I told them to give me one more go.”
— Brian May
“I remember listening to it in the car the day it was to be mixed and thinking that my guitar wasn’t good enough,” he explained. “I told them to give me one more go and planned that little piece in stereo that happens in verse two, which I really like, it’s that sort of bell effect between two guitars. So I know I did some extra work on this one in the light of having lived with it for a couple of weeks.”
May also added some guitar lines — “the lead guitar responses to Freddie’s vocal, particularly at the end,” he said. But when listening to them in the final mix, he felt they were too obtrusive.
“We were very wary of that, because we liked order in our music,” he said. “But the guitar in that case was kind of competing with Freddie’s vocal.”
However, Mercury felt it was exactly what the song needed: a contest of wills. He told May, “No. The guitar is fighting with the vocal here, and that’s the way it should be.”
“That song doesn’t have a solo as such,” May said, “and I don’t think it’s ever needed one.”
