Jazz is the seventh studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and was released on 10 November 1978 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. The album artwork was suggested by Roger Taylor, who had seen a similar design painted on the Berlin Wall. The album's varying musical styles were alternately praised and criticised. It reached number two in the UK Albums Chart and number six on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.
Recording
Rehearsals for Jazz began during the first week of July 1978. In the previous month the band had received a hefty tax bill; they consequently decided to record outside the United Kingdom. They had to make a swift decision, as Brian May would be forced out of the UK on 2 July due to these tax-related issues. This was shortly after the birth of his first child, Jimmy. As May relocated to Canada, the rest of the band flew to Nice, France, to begin rehearsing for the album. May soon joined the rehearsals.
The band attended the nearby Montreux Jazz Festival, which likely inspired the title of the album. There, they ran into David Bowie, who was working on his album Lodger (which would be released the following year) between tour dates. Bowie convinced them to record at Mountain Studios in Montreux. Production on the album was moved to Montreux the day after the jazz festival. On 19 July, May's 31st birthday, the band attended the 18th stage of the 1978 Tour de France, which inspired Freddie Mercury to write the lead single, "Bicycle Race".
During the next three weeks the band were in Mountain Studios, primarily working on "Fun It", "Jealousy", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy", and "Let Me Entertain You". The guitar had been given a replacement hardwood bridge, chiselled flat, with a small piece of fret wire placed between it and the strings, which lay gently above. The strings produce the "buzzing" effect of a sitar. This effect had previously been used on "White Queen (As It Began)", from Queen II. All vocals were recorded by Mercury.
"Bicycle Race"
"Bicycle Race" is a complex composition by Mercury. It features several modulations, unusual chord functions, a meter change (4/4 to 6/8 and back), and a programmatic section (a race of guitars emulating the bicycle race).
"If You Can't Beat Them"
"If You Can't Beat Them" is another hard rock composition by John Deacon and a live favourite for the band in the late 1970s. It is one of the few songs by Deacon where May plays all the guitars.
"Let Me Entertain You"
"Let Me Entertain You" was written by Mercury, directed towards the audience. The line "we'll sing to you in Japanese" is a reference to May's "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)", from A Day at the Races (1976). The song also contains a reference to their tour manager Gerry Stickells, in the line "Hey! If you need a fix, if you want a high, Stickells will see to that." In the very next line, Mercury mentions Queen's record labels at the time (Elektra, and EMI): "With Elektra and EMI; we'll show you where it's at!". The idea of a guitar riff in parallel sixths was re-used later in "The Hitman", a track on the Innuendo.
Side two
"Dead on Time"
"Dead on Time", written by May, contains two high belts by Mercury that top at C5. It was never played in concert; May would only incorporate snippets of it in his guitar solos during the Jazz Tour and the Works Tour.
The song ends with the sound of a thunderbolt, followed by Mercury screaming "You're dead!" The thunderbolt was actually recorded by May on a portable recorder during a thunderstorm. The album's liner notes credit the thunderbolt to God.
"In Only Seven Days"
"In Only Seven Days" is Deacon's other songwriting contribution on the album. He also plays acoustic and electric guitar on this song. It was the B-side of "Don't Stop Me Now".
"Dreamer's Ball"
"Dreamer's Ball" is Brian May's tribute to Elvis Presley, who died one year before the album was released. The arrangement for the concert version was completely different, with May and Taylor doing vocal brasses.
"Fun It"
"Fun It" is a funk track with a disco vibe by Taylor, where both he and Mercury shared the vocals. Taylor did the lead vocals, while Mercury was backup. Taylor used Syndrum pads and played most of the instruments.
"Leaving Home Ain't Easy"
"Leaving Home Ain't Easy" is a ballad by May, who also sings all the vocals (lead and harmony). His voice was speeded up for the bridge in order to create a feminine voice.
"Don't Stop Me Now"
"Don't Stop Me Now" was written by Mercury. It was a top ten hit single in the UK. May's only input is a short guitar solo and backing vocals. The song is used in the bar scene of the motion picture Shaun of the Dead, and in a fight scene in the 2015 motion picture Hardcore Henry. The BBC TV show Top Gear named it the top song in a viewer poll of Top Ten driving songs. Google also used the song for their Google Doodle to commemorate Mercury's 65th birthday on 5 September 2011.
"More of That Jazz"
"More of That Jazz", written by Taylor, is loop-based. Taylor plays most instruments and sings all vocals, reaching some very high notes (peaking on an E5). The coda also contains short clips from many songs on the album, including "Dead on Time", "Bicycle Race", "Mustapha", "If You Can't Beat Them", "Fun It", and "Fat Bottomed Girls".
Release
Alternative artwork
A bicycle race with nude women was held to promote the album and the "Fat Bottomed Girls"/"Bicycle Race" single. A poster of the start of the race was included with copies of the LP. A smaller portion of the poster image also used as an alternative single cover for "Bicycle Race".
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Reviewing for Rolling Stone in 1979, Dave Marsh panned Jazz as "more of the same dull pastiche" from Queen, who he said displayed "elitist notions" with some of their musical choices and lyrics. Marsh said "Fat Bottomed Girls" treated women "not as sex objects but as objects, period (the way the band regards people in general)", and finished by famously tagging Queen "the first truly fascist rock band". Mitchell Cohen of Creem gave another negative review, calling Jazz "absurdly dull" and filled with "dumb ideas and imitative posturing". Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said the album was not wholly bad, even finding "Bicycle Race" humorous, although he said Queen sounded like the band 10cc "with a spoke, or a pump, up their ass". The Los Angeles Times concluded that, "while the surfaces remain as mainstream and as accessible as ever, there's a maturity to Queen that suggests even more advances are possible."
In a retrospective assessment, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described it as "one of their sleekest albums". He cited that the album's diversity and exaggeration made it "more fun than any of their other albums." The Chicago Tribune was less favorable, awarding the album one-and-a-half stars.
When Loudersound ranked every Queen album from best to worst, Jazz came fourth, as they felt it presented "some of the most satisfying moments in Queen's career." In a similar list of the band's greatest albums, Ultimate Classic Rock placed Jazz in third position. "Whenever discussions take place about Queen's incredible string of classic albums throughout the late '70s," they wrote, "1978's 'Jazz' is the one that often seems to get the shortest shrift, but tucked away behind its unusually nondescript cover art lies one of the band's finest albums. Never mind the reliable hit single double-whammy provided by 'Fat Bottomed Girls' and 'Bicycle Race,' Jazz is astonishingly deep with underrated Queen gems, ranging from Mercury's Eastern-spiced wig-out 'Mustapha,' to Deacon's head-banging beast 'If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them,' to Taylor's infectious disco tune 'Fun It'."
Rolling Stone subsequently featured it on their list of 10 Classic Albums Rolling Stone Initially Panned, indicating they now regarded the album as a "classic". They poked fun at Marsh's original negative review of the album, quipping: "Sometimes a reviewer just seems to have a really, really low opinion of a band, which seems to be the case with Dave Marsh and Queen."
2011 re-issue
In March 2011, a remastered and expanded reissue of the album was released. This was part of a new record deal between Queen and Universal Music, which meant Queen's association with EMI Records would come to an end after almost 40 years. All Queen albums were remastered and reissued in 2011. The deluxe edition contains five additional tracks on a separate EP. The second batch of albums (the band's middle five albums) were released in June 2011. The extra tracks included the single version of "Fat Bottomed Girls", an instrumental version of "Bicycle Race", a version of "Don't Stop Me Now" with "long lost guitars", a live version of "Let Me Entertain You", and an early acoustic take of "Dreamer's Ball".
The 2011 reissue corrected the tape glitch at the beginning of "Fat Bottomed Girls" which had been present on all previous compact disc editions of the album (as well as 1997 compilation album Queen Rocks); however, it also added a previously unused kick-drum part to the track "Jealousy", making the track sound drastically different from all previous releases.
Track listing
All lead vocals by Freddie Mercury unless noted.
Personnel
Personnel taken from Jazz liner notes.
Queen
- Freddie Mercury – vocals, piano
- Brian May – guitars, vocals
- Roger Taylor – drums, percussion, vocals
- John Deacon – bass guitar
Production
- Queen, Roy Thomas Baker – producers
- Geoffrey Workman – engineer
- John Etchells – assistant engineer
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
! Chart (1978–1979)
! Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| align="center"| 15
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)
| align="center"| 15
|-
!scope="row"| French Albums (SNEP)
| align="center"| 7
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| align="center"| 5
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Portuguese Albums (Musica & Som)
| align="center"| 6
|-
|-
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
! Chart (2019)
! Peak<br />position
|-
|}