You seem luckier in terms of current exposure to their cover, and yes, I brought it up because it did make Top 10 then.
The artist(s) that annoy me the most in terms of how two record labels handled their material is The Jackson 5/Jacksons, Michael Jackson, and Jermaine Jackson. Of course the first bunch is on Motown (Universal), and the other bunch is on Epic and Arista (Sony/BMG). When one company put out a comp, they shortchange us on the output of the other company.
Radio Ga-Ga was from the first album they released on Capitol. Hot Space had been seen as a stateside failure but it did have two top 30 singles, moving to Capitol should've boosted them but outside of having a top 20 single with Radio Ga Ga, Queen never made the top 40 again until after Freddie's death. Yet in Europe, Queen were selling out stadiums in 1984-1986 to the point it wasn't even worth bothering playing America where A Kind Of Magic only reached #46 on the album charts despite topping the UK charts.
I share your memory of it too. It's a shame that they hit the U.S. wall after "The Game" because "A Kind Of Magic" is an excellent album. Of course, we know why "The Game" was their last here.
The irony is that Hot Space underperformed in the UK as well yet there it was seen as a minor misstep and come their next album, they had bounced back, but in the US they kept declining further and further, with nothing on the subsequent albums performing as well as Body Language (a rare case of them having a bigger hit in the states than UK)
On the topic of Queen, and leaping ahead of things big time, but I've always been puzzled about how "I Want It All" was not a top 40 song. Certainly has had staying power stateside in stuff like commercial appearances. I was familiar with the chorus long before I was familiar with queen
Part of that is because of the "I Want To Break Free" video, which we Yanks didn't really understand or feel comfortable with ("oh my gosh...they're in drag!").
Rumours of Freddie being gay becoming stronger? That might have been part of it, and like Slug Man mentioned above, the video of Freddie in drag (I just thought it was funny, and far from offensive). But, I think there was a decline in their music. Plus, they didn't change their sound enough to update to the '80s like say Genesis did. They might have been so big in Europe during the '80s because they weren't that big there in the '70s. There was a newness for them. America was a little burnt out on the '70s bands in the '80s. I was one of those burnt out on the '70s bands then, and wanted something new, although the '70s is now my favourite musical era, and the '80s seems a bit weak in hindsight.
I never understood that as well, given it was released at the zenith of Boy George's fame and we also had a group like Duran Duran who mostly looked like the girls throwing panties at them at the height of their career (well at least John Taylor and Nick Rhodes). I think like Billy Squier, it was a misjudging of their American audience, whereas it wasn't as much an issue overseas. Personally I find the I Want To Break Free video to be a blast and they're being completely tongue-in-cheek with the drag. I'd say the middle section with Freddie doing the ballet sequence (where he shaved the mustache for) was "gayer" than the drag. Oddly though, listening to I Want To Break Free, you'd think this song would've been a smash, it's very commercial and catchy. Then again, I also would've pegged Radio Ga-Ga as a top 10 single as well, instead of topping at #16.
Good point about Boy George and Duran Duran. I think the heavier bands from the '70s were held to a different standard regarding masculinity. Because Poison, Motley Crue, etc., were able to get away with all that makeup and poofed up hair.
One problem with my opinion is that Culture Club, and Duran Duran (Nick Rhodes) rose to prominence in 1983. A difference is that Culture Club and Duran Duran had a different and younger audience than Queen.
That was also probably why Motley Crue and all the hair bands were able to slide on the makeup and poofy hair.
If Boy George was unknown and became the drummer of Poison, I doubt anyone would have blinked an eye.
Totally. Poison literally looked like the cast of The Facts Of Life during their debut era (1986, so it's on topic lol) Duran Duran looked like Stallone in comparison
My feeling, as someone who dislikes '80s Heart, is that they sold their soul to the devil for the later success. Judging from what they "have" said, I wonder if they feel similarly (although I don't know if they would say it the same way I did). My college friends (I was in college at this time) loved the s/t Heart album. So I heard it a lot while I was studying with them. When I was alone I listened to '70s Heart.
I can relate to that! Chubby kid, chubby adolescent, chubby 20-something... I only lost the weight when I was 32 because I worked really effin' hard at it. Still have the weight off at 53! Well, mostly - middle-age drift is real! But I'm still only maybe 5-8 pounds heavier than I was 20 years ago - and a good 50 pounds below my peak...
Doesn’t hurt then at all nowadays. “Don’t Stop Me Now” which I didn’t TOUCH for nearly 40 years is played at every party I DJ of late. Especially school age children. The power of TV talent shows in full effect
The struggle is real. I had friends in high school who had fabulous speedo bodies, and would eat an entire large pizza in one sitting. I always had to work at it (In my avatar pic, I am 23). I did pretty good until after I hit 40. But then I went to my 30 year reunion and saw that only 4 other guys were thinner than me. All the rest were fatter.
My mentor was 42-43 when they broke (I was 16). I just remember him shaking his head at the album cover before playing “Talk Dirty to Me” at the teen dance club I got my start in