Sheer Heart Attack (song)

"Sheer Heart Attack" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released on their sixth studio album News of the World in 1977.[4][5][6][7] It is one of two songs on the album entirely written by Roger Taylor.

"Sheer Heart Attack"
B-side label of the US vinyl pressing of the "It's Late" single release
Song by Queen
from the album News of the World
A-side (US)
Released
  • 10 February 1978 (Europe)
  • 25 April 1978 (US)
RecordedJuly – September 1977 at Basing Street and Wessex Studios
Genre
Length3:27
LabelEMI, Parlophone (Europe)
Elektra, Hollywood (US)
Songwriter(s)Roger Taylor
Producer(s)
Music video
"Sheer Heart Attack" on YouTube

Background

"Sheer Heart Attack" was originally written for the album of the same name in 1974, but was not included on the album for several reasons. The song was finished for News of the World in 1977.

Roger Taylor plays almost every instrument on the finished track, with some help from Brian May on guitar. This is one of the few original Queen recordings that does not feature bass guitarist John Deacon.

The song was the B-side of the Deacon-penned single "Spread Your Wings" in February 1978. It was also the B-side of the single "It's Late", written by May, which was released only in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Japan in April 1978.

The opening lyrics make reference to "I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles, which start with "Well, she was just seventeen/You know what I mean", compared to the track's "Well you're just 17 and all you want to do is disappear/You know what I mean there's a lot of space between your ears".

Live performances

The song was performed live from 1977 to 1984. It has been released on three live albums: Live Killers in 1979, Queen Rock Montreal in 1981, and Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl in 1982.

Comments

Sheer Heart Attack written in essence, not complete, wasn’t finished at the time of recording Sheer Heart Attack, but really we didn’t have room, and it wasn’t quite finished and for a number of reasons it didn’t get on. But now, it lives again, and actually I’m quite pleased with it. It's really pure energy, and it’s one of my contributions to News of the World.

— Roger Taylor, 1977

We came up with the title for the Sheer Heart Attack album, and it was a song that I had an idea for, but I hadn't actually finished the song, yet. By the time I had finished the song, we were two albums later, so it just struggled out on the News of the World album. It's quite interesting, because we were making an album next-door to a punk band, the Sex Pistols, and it really fit into that punk explosion that was happening at the time, which was happening right then. It was actually better that it happened that it came out on the News of the World album.

— Roger Taylor, 1991[8]

Personnel

Information is based on the album's Liner Notes[9]

References
  1. House, Denis (23 November 2018). "The Show Must Go On". The Sentinel-Echo. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  2. Testa, Bart (9 February 1978). "News Of The World". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  3. Chiu, David (24 June 2015). "How Queen Embraced Disco, Conquered America, Then Bit The Dust". Medium. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  4. Epstein, Dan (28 October 2017). "Queen's 'News of the World': 10 Things You Didn't Know". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  5. Easlea, Daryl. "BBC - Music - Review of Queen - News Of The World". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  6. News of the World by Queen, retrieved 21 November 2020
  7. News of the World - Queen | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic, retrieved 21 November 2020
  8. "Sheer Heart Attack (song)". Queenpedia. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  9. Queen. “News of the World” (Album Notes). EMI. 1977.
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