Songoftheday 7/3/13 - I'd sit alone and watch your light my only friend through teenage nights...

Queen - "Radio GaGa"
from the album The Works (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (one week)
Weeks in the top-40: 8

Today's Song of the Day is by the theatrical British rock group Queen, whose 1982 album Hot Space had scored them two top-40 hits with "Body Language" and their collaboration with David Bowie, "Under Pressure". After a year break recording, they released their eleventh studio album The Works in 1984. The first single, "Radio Ga Ga", was written by drummer Roger Taylor and inspired by an outburst from his three-year-old son. The video featured footage from the classic scifi movie Metropolis, which singer Freddie Mercury sang on the soundtrack for during their break...

"Radio Ga Ga" reached the top-20 on the US pop chart, as well as top-30 on both the rock radio and dance club charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, it was a much bigger hit, reaching the top-10 pretty much everywhere else, topping the chart in France, Ireland, Sweden, Holland, and Belgium, and #2 in their native England. It would be their last non-reissued single to reach the top-40 in America, though until Mercury's death from AIDS in 1991 at the age of 45, they were huge throughout the world.

I admit I wasn't initially keen on the record when it came out (I preferred "I Want To Break Free" and "It's A Hard Life" as singles), but the sonic intricacy has won me over now.

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In 1985 Queen played the Live Aid charity concert, and pretty much stole the show. Here's their "Radio Ga Ga" from Wembley from the show...