Side one "Radio Ga Ga" The Works opens with "Radio Ga Ga", written and composed on keyboards by Roger Taylor after he heard his 3-year-old son Felix say "radio ca ca".
"It's a Hard Life" "It's a Hard Life" was written by Mercury. May and Taylor have stated it as one of their favourite songs of Mercury's, although Taylor admitted his vast displeasure with the video. May contributed with some of the lyrics, and the intro was based on
Ruggiero Leoncavallo's "
Vesti la giubba", an aria from his opera
Pagliacci. Mercury played piano and did most of the vocals, and instructed May about the scales he should use for the solo, described by May in the guitar programme
Star Licks as very "
Bohemian Rhapsody"-esque.
"Man on the Prowl" "Man on the Prowl" is a three-chord
rockabilly Mercury composition. May played the solo using a
Fender Telecaster whilst Mandel plays the piano ending. This was planned as the fifth and final single from the album, with a provisional release date of 19 November 1984. Promotional copies were pressed and sent out, but the band opted for the Christmas single "
Thank God It's Christmas", on which the song appears as a B-side.
Side two "Machines (Or 'Back to Humans')" "Machines (Or 'Back to Humans')" came about as an idea by Taylor, and May collaborated with him and finished it. Producer
Reinhold Mack programmed the synth-"demolition" using a
Fairlight CMI II Sampler, and all the vocals are sung by the group's three vocalists, including Mercury and May singing in harmony and Taylor performing the robotic voices (using a
Roland VP-330 Vocoder). The instrumental remix of the song samples parts of "Ogre Battle" from Queen's second album
Queen II, "
Flash" and
Larry Lurex's "
Goin' Back". This song, along with "Radio Ga Ga", are some of the heaviest uses of electronics on the album. It was released as a digital single on 10 November 2023.
"I Want to Break Free" "I Want to Break Free", written by John Deacon, is best known because of its video, featuring all four Queen members crossdressed as women, in a parody of the British soap opera
Coronation Street. The idea for the clip was Taylor's. Mercury commented that 'Everybody ran into their frocks'. Deacon, the song's author, insisted he didn't want a guitar solo on the track so a synth solo was played by Mandel – live, however, May played the solo on guitar. The version used for the single and the promotional video includes an opening and instrumental bridge (after the synth solo) not part of the original mix.
"Keep Passing the Open Windows" "Keep Passing the Open Windows" was written by Mercury in 1983 for the film
The Hotel New Hampshire, based on
the novel by
John Irving. The phrase is mentioned on a number of occasions throughout the film and was, according to the opening credits, also co-produced by the band's manager Jim Beach, who changed it in order to suit the album mood better. Mercury played piano and synths and wrote the lyrics after reading the quote in the book.
"Hammer to Fall" "Hammer to Fall" is May's other rock song on the album. Live versions were considerably faster and he sang it in his solo tours as well. Synths are played by Mandel and most of the vocal harmonies were recorded by May himself, particularly in the bridge, except for the lyric "oh no" which is Taylor. The song harks back to Queen's old sound, with a song being built around a hard angular and muscular riff. The song features Mercury on lead vocals, doing a call and response with May, who sings the chorus. The song's music video, directed by
David Mallet, contains footage of a performance of the song in Brussels. "Hammer to Fall" was a concert favourite, and was the third song the band performed at
Live Aid in 1985. The song also features in both the setlist of the band's Works Tour and Magic Tour in 1986.
"Is This the World We Created...?" The album concludes with "Is This the World We Created...?", which was written by Mercury and May in Munich after the two saw a news broadcast about poverty in Africa; the song was performed at Live Aid as an encore. Mercury wrote most of the lyrics and May wrote the chords and made small lyrical contributions. The song was recorded with an
Ovation guitar, although when playing live May used Taylor's
Gibson Chet Atkins CE nylon-stringed guitar. A piano was tracked at the recording sessions for this song, but ultimately not included in the final mix.
Unreleased songs and demos The sessions for
The Works were highly productive, resulting in an overwhelmingly large body of material written and recorded. Only nine of these were used on the album, but many of those remaining have been released in other forms.
"Coming On Far Too Strong" Believed to originate from the
Works sessions, this is a fast-paced track dominated by the piano and drums. Two versions of the demo exist and very little is known about the track. It is about a minute and a half long. At the end of the track, Mercury can be heard to say: "very good, ha, ha. It's gotta go somewhere, but it just, er, wasn't"; the rest of the dialogue is inaudible.
"I Dream of Christmas" When Queen wanted to write a Christmas single in 1984, Taylor wrote the basics of "
Thank God It's Christmas" while May wrote "I Dream of Christmas". The group then had to choose between the two, and opted for "Thank God It's Christmas", which May and Taylor then wrote together. It is rumoured that "I Dream of Christmas" was recorded by the band, though nothing has ever been confirmed. May later worked on "I Dream of Christmas" with his future wife
Anita Dobson, which was released as a single in 1988 and also features John Deacon.
"I Go Crazy" Written by May some time in 1981, the song was recorded during the
Hot Space album sessions but never made it onto the final cut. It was instead used as the B-side to the single release of "
Radio Ga Ga".
"Let Me in Your Heart Again" Written by May, this song went through several rewrites and re-recordings before it was left unfinished and subsequently recorded by Anita Dobson, featuring May, for her 1988 album
Talking of Love. In 2014, the band released a completed version of the song which features elements from a number of Queen demos of the track, with new backing vocals from May and Taylor, and new guitars from May on the album
Queen Forever.
"Let Me Live" "Let Me Live" was originally recorded by the band in 1983 as a duet between Mercury and
Rod Stewart. It originally also featured
Jeff Beck on guitar. The song was never released, although it was reworked by the band for inclusion in their 1995 studio album
Made in Heaven, released after Mercury's death. The finished version features one verse and the chorus sung by Mercury, while the rest is sung by May and Taylor. It is unknown why the Stewart version was never used.
"Little Boogie" Believed to originate from the
Works sessions, this is an alternative piano version of "Coming on Far Too Strong". Nothing else is known about the track.
"Love Kills" Written by Mercury and
Giorgio Moroder, "Love Kills" was originally recorded for
The Works, but was ultimately rejected. It was then reworked as a Mercury solo track for inclusion in Moroder's 1984 restoration and edit of the 1927 silent film
Metropolis, and was also released as a single. The track was later remade into a Queen ballad and released on the 2014 album
Queen Forever.
"Man Made Paradise" This song was later re-recorded as a Mercury solo track and released on his 1985 solo album
Mr. Bad Guy.
"Man on Fire" "Man on Fire", written by Taylor, is believed to have been recorded in 1984 for
The Works, before it was re-recorded and then released on Taylor's second solo album
Strange Frontier that same year. An early promo cassette for
The Works features a very different track listing, where its title appears. Nothing else is known about the track, or even whether a complete version exists.
"Thank God It's Christmas" This track, written by May and Taylor, was eventually released as a Christmas single in 1984, and later appeared as the B-side to the "
A Winter's Tale" single in 1995. It was also released as part of the 1999 compilation
Greatest Hits III. It was the only Christmas song Queen recorded.
"There Must Be More to Life Than This" Written by Mercury, this song was originally recorded by Mercury and
Michael Jackson before being re-recorded by Queen in 1981 for their
Hot Space album. The track was then going to be recorded to close
The Works before Mercury and May wrote "Is This the World We Created...?". It was ultimately recorded as a solo track by Mercury and released on his 1985 solo album
Mr. Bad Guy. In 2014, a reworked Queen version with a Mercury and Jackson duet was released on the album
Queen Forever. ==Reception==