Queen - Hammer to Fall

The first video for today is Queen's "Hammer to Fall," and is posted on what would have been Freddy Mercury's 65th birthday.  (Special shout out to Google Doodles and my friend Liz for pointing this out to me.)

We will point out that it was not easy finding a suitable 80s video for Queen -- most of their best work was recorded in the 1970s.  And much of their work in the 1980s was ... well, not great.

"Hammer to Fall" was the final single released from Queen's 1984 album, The Works.  The song did not chart in the U.S., and the video received limited airplay on MTV.  It some ways, the song is a throwback for Queen -- it reminds us of their earlier work, with a strong guitar riff, and of course, the wonderful overdubbed vocals.  For readers who have not explored Queen, they recorded some truly great songs.  Aside from "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You," we particularly recommend "Tie Your Mother Down," "You're My Best Friend," "Fat Bottomed Girls," and "Don't Stop Me Now."

But we digress.  The video for "Hammer to Fall" was shot on The Works tour in Brussels and features Freddy Mercury in his typical understated outfit (yes, we are kidding).

Cool trivia fact:  Queen's guitarist, Brian May, does not use a pick to play guitar -- he uses a sixpence coin.