Queen Quiz — The Show Must Go On

Mar 192 min read

Cover Artwork for Queen's single “The Show Must Go On”

“The Show Must Go On” was written by Brian May, but credited to Queen, and featured as the final track on Queen’s fourteenth studio album “Innuendo”. It was released in the autumn of 1991 as a promotion for Queen’s upcoming compilation album “Greatest Hits II”.

The track was put together after listening to John Deacon and Roger Taylor playing chord sequences that would then become the basis of the entire song. May and Freddie Mercury decided on the song’s theme and proceeded to write some lyrics down, which led to May completing the composition.

The song’s theme reflects the effort of Mercury continuing to perform, despite approaching the end of his life, although his diagnosis with HIV/AIDS had not yet been made public.

The song was recorded in 1990, at first, May provided demo versions singing, but had to perform in falsetto due to parts being too high. At the time, when the demo was presented to Mercury, May had doubts that Mercury would be physically capable of performing the highly demanding vocal line. However, Mercury entered the studio, consumed a measure of vodka, and then proceeded to record the vocals.

The music video was compiled and edited by Austrian director team DoRo, consisting of Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher. Giving that Mercury’s health had significantly deteriorated due to complications with HIV/AIDS, there was no new footage shot. Instead, the music video consisted of a montage of clips spanning Queen’s music video from 1981 to 1991, as a precursor to the release of their “Greatest Hits II” compilation album.