It wasn’t out of the question for Queen to bend the rules of what constituted a rock song. Throughout their time together in the 1970s and beyond, the group were known for stretching their limits as players and songwriters, graduating from stadium rock to some of the biggest hits of their career once MTV kicked in. Although Brian May was willing to go along with almost anything the band threw at him, he thought one of their enduring anthems was a bit too over-the-top.
Then again, the meaning of the phrase “over-the-top” when it comes to Queen is almost non-existent. For all of the massive soundscapes they created on their records, it was never a disservice to the songs they were working on, occasionally layering on so many vocal overdubs that the master tape would be nearly transparent when they turned it in.
By the time the band had reached their creative apex with albums like A Night at the Opera, they began toying with new sounds informed by their freedom in the studio. Having made everything from show tunes to heavy metal juggernauts, albums like A Day at the Races showed them pairing down their sound for something a bit more lighthearted, pairing their massive rock hooks like ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ with a gospel choir vocal on ‘Somebody to Love’.
For anyone who thought the band had lost their edge, though, News of the World saw them getting in touch with their heavy side again. From the punk energy of ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ to the elemental sounds of ‘We Will Rock You’, much of the album benefits from sounding much more caustic than their predecessors, including the massive track ‘We Are the Champions’.
While ‘We Will Rock You’ was primarily written by May, Freddie Mercury’s fingerprints are all over ‘We Are the Champions’, bringing every ounce of theatricality he can to this ode to victory. Even though the track has endured as a classic and a fixture at nearly every sporting event known to man, May remembered having reservations about releasing the song.
When talking about the writing sessions for the album, May felt that most of the piece was a bit too cocky of a song to come out with, recalling, “Our initial sense of it was that it was something very big-headed. 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.”
Even though the song has become a staple of the stadium rock circuit, there’s a lot more going on than just a football chant. For all of the singalong pieces of the track, the chords that May and Mercury put underneath the vocals are far more sophisticated, even sprinkling in diminished chords and various key changes that feel like they’re pulled right out of a classical concerto.
While Mercury may have still had a refined musical palette when writing the song, it was never about trying to cram as many musical tricks into the track as possible. This was about bringing people together, and ‘We Are the Champions’ went from an ego-fueled experiment to one of the most communal songs in the rock pantheon.
