Flash (Queen song)

Author: Leandro Alegsa Creation date: November 13, 2022

"Flash" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, "Flash" is the theme song of the 1980 movie Flash Gordon.

There are two versions of the song.

Flash is sung as a duet between Freddie Mercury and Brian May, with Roger Taylor adding the high harmonies. May plays all of the instruments except for the rhythm section.

On the U.S. charts, "Flash's Theme aka Flash" reached #42 on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at #39 on the Cash Box Top 100. It fared much better in Europe, where it was a Top 10 hit in most nations, including #1 in Austria.

History

There are two versions of this rock song by Queen: The album version, which contains entire dialogues from the first scenes of the movie, and the single version, which contains phrases from various scenes. The latter is better known worldwide. In particular, the exclamation "Gordon's alive!?" (in German: "Gordon's still alive!?") spoken by Brian Blessed (who plays Prince Vultan in the film), which can be misinterpreted as "cucumber salad" during song interrogations. The single version is also included in the 1981 Greatest Hits.

Flash is sung as a duet by Freddie Mercury and Brian May, with Roger Taylor providing background vocals. May also plays all the instruments in the song. He uses an Imperial Bösendorfer piano (with 97 keys instead of 88 with an extra octave in the low range), an Oberheim OBX synth (which he also plays in the video) and also his own Red Special electric guitar.

It was released on November 24, 1980, and while the song still made the top-50 charts in the United States, it was much more successful in Europe (especially reaching #1 in Austria). The song could be heard in the episode Not All Dogs Go to Heaven of Family Guy, in the film The Ice Princes, and in commercials for the Blackberry Playbook and Clash Royale. The song was used as the opening song at the 2007 Formula One World Championship and was used by the Miami Heat (NBA) and Philadelphia Phillies (MLB) sports teams.

Google used the song in a commercial for the NightSight feature of its Google Pixel 3 smartphone.

Music video

The music video was shot in November 1980 at Anvil Studios London, directed by Donald Norman. In the video, the band performs the song accompanied by scenes from the film Flash Gordon. The video was available on iTunes in 2011.