Hot Space

Unleashed in May 1982, Queen’s tenth studio album (counting their soundtrack to the film “Flash Gordon” as their ninth), Hot Space was more intentionally the “follow-up” to the intense success of 1980’s “The Game”. The album’s first four songs have been described as somewhere in the key of “dance music”. And the key to the maligned venture germinated from the massive success of their 1980 hit “Another One Bites the Dust”. “The Game” felt like a lost one, to many fans, but it had enough “bite”. To note that the 1982 album Hot Space was “less popular with fans who preferred the traditional prog-rock style they had come to associate with the band” is an understatement. The U.S. leg of the tour for “Hot Space” was their last tour of the U.S. (that is, Queen with Freddie Mercury and John Deacon).

“Under Pressure”, Queen’s collaboration with David Bowie, was released in 1981 and became the band’s second #1 hit in the UK. Though included on Hot Space, the song was a separate project and was recorded ahead of the album, before the controversy over Queen’s new disco-influenced rock sound. The album’s first “single-proper” was, “Body Language”, which peaked at #11 on the US charts.

Michael Jackson, who was close friends with the band during the time, later cited Hot Space as an influence for his own album Thriller. In a 2015 interview with Greg Prato of Songfacts, Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt described how Hot Space was an important album for him as a musician. “I think it’s interesting because that album taught me two things. It taught me that even if you’re in a band as a guitar player, music doesn’t have to be driven by guitar – it’s about the song, first. But I think the main thing is that Queen actually did an album like that – it was the fans' least favorite, but it was one of my favorites because it took a risk and branched out. All those synth parts they did and horns, I could always hear them with guitar in my head somehow. But quite oddly enough, or coincidentally enough, the title Hot Space is exactly what it meant: it’s all the space between the music. That’s what makes it funky and that’s what makes it have a pocket.”