Did one song ruin Queen’s career in the United States?
With the passage of time, ‘I Want To Break Free’ has become one of Queen’s most-beloved tracks. However, the love for the single was non-existent upon release in the United States, and it put their career on a downward trajectory across the pond.
In 1984, the most important medium for artists was MTV, even if you were as established as Queen. They still had to play by all the rules as everybody else, and if their song didn’t have the aesthetics to go alongside it, then there was every chance it would be a commercial flop, as Queen painfully discovered with ‘I Want To Break Free’.
For their visuals for the single, Queen didn’t consider the American market and parodied the British soap opera Coronation Street. In the United Kingdom, Corrie is an institution which was the most popular programme on television at the time and a shared reference point between all Brits.
However, to American broadcasters, the comedic angle of the video for ‘I Want To Break Free’ was lost. In the eyes of many, it just seemed like the band had decided to crossdress for no apparent reason, which led to it failing to chart highly and causing Queen to lose relevance. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the single charted at number three.
The idea for the visuals came from Roger Taylor’s then-girlfriend and was directed by David Mallet. According to Taylor, “We had done some really serious, epic videos in the past, and we just thought we’d have some fun. We wanted people to know that we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, that we could still laugh at ourselves. I think we proved that.”
Fred Mandel, who played the synths on the track, discussed the cultural divide in the Days of our Lives documentary: “It’s a very British kind of humour, and I don’t think it went over too well in the States. I’m Canadian, so I get it!”
In the same documentary, Taylor added: “In those days on MTV, it was Whitesnake, and f**king Whitesnake, and then another Whitesnake track! They must’ve thought men dressing up in drag wasn’t ‘rock’ enough, I suppose.” Meanwhile, Brian May said: “I think at that point we lost America, which is a shame, as it means there’s a whole chunk of Queen songs which never got played or heard there.”
‘I Want To Break Free’ only managed to chart at 45 in the United States, and from this point, Queen’s relevance in America continued to decline gradually. Following this point, none of their new releases managed to chart in the top 40, and they were deemed to be yesterday’s news.
Since Freddie Mercury’s death, America has reassessed its relationship with Queen, and thankfully, it’s favourable once again. Astonishingly, despite flopping when it was released, ‘I Want To Break Free’ has sold over a million copies in the United States.
