Beat Street Records

Queen - Jazz LP

Hollywood

1978's Jazz, Queen's seventh album in just under six years, was their first to be recorded outside the U.K. Worldwide success and tax avoidance led the band to record at Mountain Studios, Montreux, in a luxurious location overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, and at Superbear Studios in Nice. Though producer Roy Thomas Baker had been absent on the previous two LPs (A Day At The Races and News Of The World), both of which the band produced themselves (with trusted collaborator Mike Stone), Jazz saw the team reunited - though it would prove to be the last Queen/Baker production.

As with previous albums, Jazz offered a greatly varied selection of songs and styles, reflecting a frenetic period in the band's songwriting. On the previous album News Of The World, Queen had returned to a ‘back to basics' feel, but for this, in new surroundings and with the assistance of Roy Thomas Baker, they experimented again and explored an even greater variation of musical avenues and tangents, as they had on their earliest albums. Queen again proved that all four band members were capable of writing songs in all styles of music - and hit songs at that.

Probably the most popular and recognizable song on the album – aside from Freddie Mercury's Tour De France ode "Bicycle Race" and Brian May's groupie classic "Fat Bottomed Girls" which were released together as the album's first single - is Freddie's penultimate track, "Don't Stop Me Now." Featuring its writer playing some amazing piano, and a memorable guitar solo from May, this is one of Queen's best known, radio friendly and most widely covered songs of all.

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