We Will Rock You

"We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. Rolling Stone ranked it number 330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and it placed at number 146 on the Songs of the Century list in 2001. In 2009, "We Will Rock You" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Other than the last 30 seconds containing a guitar solo by May, the song is generally set in a cappella form, using only stomping and clapping as a rhythmic body percussion beat. In 1977, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" were issued together as a worldwide top 10 single. Soon after the album was released, many radio stations began playing the songs consecutively and without interruption.

Since its release, "We Will Rock You" has been covered, remixed, sampled, parodied, referenced and used by multiple recording artists, TV shows, films and other media worldwide. Since its release, the song has become a staple at sports events around the world as a stadium anthem, mostly due to its simple rhythm.

On 7 October 2017, Queen released a Raw Sessions version of the track to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of News of the World. It features a radically different approach to the guitar solo and includes May's count-in immediately prior to the recording.

History
"We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" were written in response to an event that occurred during the A Day at the Races Tour. The band played at Stafford's Bingley Hall, and, according to Brian May: "We did an encore and then went off, 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 – it was quite an emotional experience really, and I think these chant things are in some way connected with that."

One version was used as the opening track on 1977's News of the World. This consists of a stomp-stomp-clap-pause beat, and a power chorus, being somewhat of an anthem. The stamping effects were created by the band overdubbing the sounds of themselves stomping and clapping many times and adding delay effects to create a sound like many people were participating. The durations of the delays were in the ratios of prime numbers, a technique now known as non-harmonic reverberation. A tape loop is used to repeat the last phrase of the guitar solo three times as opposed to Brian May playing it three separate times on the recording. The "stomp, stomp, clap" sounds were later used in the Queen + Paul Rodgers song "Still Burnin'".

When performed live, the song is usually followed by "We Are the Champions", as they were designed to run together. The songs are often paired on the radio and at sporting events, where they are frequently played. They were the last two songs Queen performed at Live Aid in 1985.

Queen also performed an alternate version "We Will Rock You" known as the "fast version", featuring a faster-feeling tempo and a full band arrangement. The band would frequently use this version to open their live sets in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as heard on the albums Live Killers (1979), Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl (2004), Queen Rock Montreal (2007), and the expanded edition of News of the World (2011). A studio recording of this version is also known to exist, recorded for John Peel's show on BBC Radio 1 in 1977. It is part of a longer cut that starts with the original version. In 2002, the fast version was officially released on a promo single distributed by the tabloid The Sun. The "fast" BBC studio version can also be found on The Best of King Biscuit Live Volume 4. Between the two versions, there is a brief cut of a woman discussing Brahmanism, used in a BBC Radio documentary. The fast version is also used as the curtain call music for the musical of the same title, after the finale, which is a pairing of the original "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions."

Since its release, the song has become a staple at sporting events around the world as a stadium anthem. It was the most played song during the 2008–2009 seasons of the National Football League, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.

Five + Queen version
In 2000, English boy band Five released a cover of "We Will Rock You". It was released from their second studio album, Invincible (1999). Released on 17 July 2000, the song features two members of Queen: Brian May on guitar and Roger Taylor on drums; however, they do not sing any vocals on the track. Freddie Mercury had died in November 1991, nearly a decade before this version's release, and John Deacon had retired from public life three years before its release.

The song charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, making it Five's second number-one single, and their ninth consecutive top-ten hit.

Track listing

 * UK CD1
 * 1) "We Will Rock You" (Radio Edit) – 3:08
 * 2) "Keep on Movin'" (The Five-A-Side Mix) – 3:32
 * 3) "We Will Rock You" (Video) – 3:08


 * UK CD2
 * 1) "We Will Rock You" (Radio Edit) – 3:08
 * 2) "Invincible Megamix" (Including "We Will Rock You") – 4:19
 * 3) "Invincible Megamix" (Video) – 4:19


 * UK Cassette single
 * 1) "We Will Rock You" (Radio Edit) – 3:08
 * 2) "Keep on Movin'" (The Five-A-Side Mix) – 3:32
 * 3) "Invincible Megamix" (Including "We Will Rock You") – 4:19


 * European CD single
 * 1) "We Will Rock You" (Radio Edit) – 3:08
 * 2) "Invincible Megamix" (Without "We Will Rock You") – 3:43
 * 3) "We Will Rock You" (Video) – 3:08

Five + Queen version

 * Year-end charts

Cover versions
1990s
 * 1992: American glam metal band Warrant covered the song for the film Gladiator.
 * 1992: Brazilian band Viper covered the fast version of the song in their third album Evolution, and later in a 1993 live album Maniacs in Japan.
 * 1996: American recording artist Linda Ronstadt performed a soft lullaby version for her album Dedicated to the One I Love.

2000s
 * 2000: American hip hop producer DJ Hurricane and vocalist Scott Weiland collaborated on a cover of the song for the album Don't Sleep.
 * 2003: A remix by KCPK, sung by a chorus of children, was released in a series of animated Evian adverts which aired in France, Germany and Belgium. The remix was later released as a single and entered the local charts.
 * 2004: American pop singers Britney Spears, Beyoncé and Pink used this song in an international commercial Pepsi campaign and the song was released on Pepsi Music 2004: (Dare For More) CD.
 * 2009: Australian Idol winner of season 7 Stan Walker did a cover on the show and recorded a version on his debut album Introducing Stan Walker (2010).
 * 2013: American musical TV series Glee covered the song in the twentieth episode of their fourth season, "Lights Out".

Live cover performances
1990s
 * 1992: Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose performed the song with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.
 * 1992: U2 used the song as a set list opener before they performed on stage during the Zoo TV Tour.
 * 1993: Nirvana performed it in São Paulo, Brazil, changing the lyrics to "we will fuck you".
 * 1996: Alanis Morissette and her band ended the first encore of her "Can't Not" Tour (following the song, "You Learn") with a cover of the song, with Alanis playing the "stomp-stomp-clap" rhythm on drums.

2000s
 * 2003: English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams performed the song live at Knebworth.
 * 2007, 2010: Japanese pop singer Kumi Koda covered this in her a-nation '07 performance, and three years later in a medley at her 10th anniversary concert at the Tokyo Dome.
 * 2008: Canadian singer Celine Dion performed a Queen medley with "We Will Rock You" and "The Show Must Go On" in her Taking Chances World Tour.
 * 2009: American guitarist Joe Perry from Aerosmith and singer Katy Perry covered the song at the MTV's Video Music Awards 2009.

2010s
 * 2011: American rock band My Chemical Romance performed the song with Queen guitarist Brian May at the Reading Festival.
 * 2011: Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton covered the song on The Voice (U.S.).
 * 2012: English pop singer Jessie J performed the song live with Brian May and Roger Taylor at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on 12 August.
 * 2012: English rapper Dappy covered the song live alongside Brian May for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. The song later appeared on UK chart-topping album BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge 2012.

Remixes

 * 1991: Rick Rubin produced remixes of "We Will Rock You", for an EP released by Hollywood Records. The "Ruined Remix" also contains contributions by Flea and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
 * 2009: French electronic music duo Daft Punk mixed this song along with their own song "Robot Rock" for the game DJ Hero to create "We Will (Robot) Rock You".
 * 2011: Geddy (a.k.a. Armageddon), former member from hip hop group Terror Squad, mashed up "I Want It All" and "We Will Rock You" for the soundtrack to the 2011 film Sucker Punch and the videogame Madden NFL 12.
 * 2012 : Helmut VonLichten (formerly of E.S. Posthumus) mixed this song with an orchestral version of "Posthumus Zone" for CBS's Super Bowl 50 coverage. This mashup was later used for the 2015 film Pixels.
 * 2014 : Canadian dubstep producer Excision and downlink remixed this song in the track Rock You.

Sampling

 * 2011: American pop singer Katy Perry uses the "stomp-stomp-clap" beat in her song E.T.
 * 2011: Beyoncé uses the "stomp-stomp-clap" beat in her song "Dreaming", featured on the Japanese edition of her 4th album 4.
 * 2011: Lady Gaga sampled the "stomp-stomp-clap" in her song "You and I", which also features the band's guitarist Brian May, from Gaga's album Born This Way.
 * 2012: One Direction sampled the "stomp-stomp-clap" and references "Rock" in their song "Rock Me" featured on their second album Take Me Home.
 * 2012: Kesha sampled the "stomp-stomp-clap" in her song "Gold Trans Am", featured on the deluxe edition of her second album, Warrior.

Parodies and references to the song

 * 1987: Henry Rollins did a parody of "We Will Rock You" titled "I Have Come to Kill You".
 * 2010: The cast of the Off-Broadway musical Avenue Q performed covers of "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" in a video spoof of the Muppets' "Bohemian Rhapsody".
 * 2012: In the edition of WWE Raw of 12 March, The Rock performed his version during the Rock Concert segment by adding references to Team Bring It and fans chanting "Cena Sucks" in the chorus while taking aim at John Cena before they square off at WrestleMania XXVIII.
 * 2014: Indonesian singer Ahmad Dhani made a video with three Indonesian Idol contestants for supporting the Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo-Hatta. Dhani wears a Nazi costume. It was noted as one of the worst political campaigns ever.
 * 2015: In The Big Bang Theory episode "The Bachelor Party Corrosion" Raj, Howard and Leonard sing a modified version of the song called, "We Will Percussive Shock You" and Sheldon burst out singing the first verse of the original song, which he then credited to his eidetic memory, mentioned that in this instance it was a 'curse.'