music.wikisort.org - Composition

"A Kind of Magic" is the title track of the 1986 album of the same name by the British rock band Queen. It was written by the band's drummer, Roger Taylor, for the film Highlander and featured as the ending theme. The single reached number three in the UK Singles Chart, top ten in a number of European countries, and #42 on the US Billboard Hot 100.[1] The song is the opening track on the band's compilation albums, Greatest Hits II, and Classic Queen.[2]

"A Kind of Magic"
UK single picture sleeve
Single by Queen
from the album A Kind of Magic
B-side	"A Dozen Red Roses for My Darling" (UK) "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)" (US)
Released	17 March 1986 (UK) 4 June 1986 (US)
Recorded	September 1985 – January 1986
Genre	Rock
Length	4:25 (7" album version) 3:37 (A Kind of A Kind of Magic version) 6:23 (12" extended version) 4:10 (original Highlander version)
Label	EMI (UK) Capitol (US)
Songwriter(s)	Roger Taylor
Producer(s)	Queen David Richards
Queen singles chronology
"One Vision" (1985) "A Kind of Magic" (1986) "Princes of the Universe" (1986)
Music video
"A Kind of Magic" on YouTube

Recording

Highlander

The phrase "a kind of magic" is used in Highlander by Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) as a description of his immortality. Roger Taylor liked the phrase so much that he used it as inspiration for the song. There are references to the film in the lyrics: "one prize, one goal"; "no mortal man"; and "there can be only one". The single's cover art features an image of Clancy Brown in character as the film's villain, The Kurgan.

Composition

Taylor wrote the song, which originally appeared in the movie Highlander. Brian May described this original version as "quite lugubrious and heavy".[3] For the album version, Freddie Mercury created a new bass line, added instrumental breaks, and changed the song's order to make it more chart friendly. Mercury and David Richards produced this new version.

In a radio interview in September 2017, Chris Rea claimed that he performed the finger clicks with which the song opens.[4]

Live performances

The song was a live favourite on The Magic Tour of the same year, which proved to be Queen's last tour before the death of Freddie Mercury.

Taylor often included the song in solo set lists, and those with his band The Cross. On the Rock the Cosmos Tour of Europe, Taylor took lead vocals for the song at some concerts.

Music video

The music video for this song was directed by Russell Mulcahy, director of Highlander. Notable is that Brian May did not use his famous Red Special guitar in the music video, but instead a 1984 copy. In the video, Mercury is dressed as a magician type figure. He enters an abandoned theatre (The Playhouse Theatre in London) where May, Taylor and John Deacon (all dressed as stereotypical tramps) are asleep until awakened by Mercury's entrance. Mercury transforms the hobos into the Queen members, dressed regularly with their instruments, then back to hobos again as he leaves. Throughout the video, cartoon images dance to the beat of the song which were produced by The Walt Disney Company. As May later remembered, the theater was old and derelict, and lacking central heating, so the band were quite cold during the March filming.

Legacy

The single was certified platinum in Brazil for more than 100,000 digital downloads of the single.[5]

Queen's compilations The Platinum Collection, Classic Queen, and Greatest Hits II all make an unsubstantiated claim that the song reached #1 in 35 countries around the world,[6] but it reached number one in Spain in 1986, the only country where it topped the charts.[7]

Musical theatre actress Elaine Paige recorded the song on her album of Queen covers The Queen Album in 1988.[8]

Chart positions

Sales and certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[13]	Platinum	60,000*
Italy (FIMI)[14] sales since 2009	Gold	35,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[15] sales since 2011	Gold	400,000
* Sales figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Personnel

Queen

• Freddie Mercury – lead and backing vocals, synthesizer
• Brian May – electric guitars
• Roger Taylor – drums, drum machine, synthesizer, backing vocals
• John Deacon – bass guitar

with

• Chris Rea - uncredited fingerclicks

Usage in other media

This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2018)

• The music was used in the trailer for the film The Adventures of Pinocchio.
• A promotional music video, made by Boeing, was released called, Hornet Magic was released on VHS. The video was music video of the song set to video footage of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter planes. In the video, the word "magic" appeared on screen every time it was mentioned in the song.
• A shortened version of the song is used in the opening credits of the children's animated series A Kind of Magic.
• The song was heard on a launch promo of Disney Channel in the UK in 1995, but also in 2009 for the launch in the Netherlands and Flanders.
• A sample of Mercury saying "Ha ha ha ha ha, it's magic" also appears in the Queen version of the song "I Was Born to Love You" from their 1995 album Made in Heaven.
• The BBC used the song as the background music for the 1986 edition of The Rock 'n' Roll Years (aired in 1994) when featuring footage from the all-Merseyside FA Cup final of that year, in which Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 at Wembley Stadium.
• It was used by the BBC for the introduction of the opening ceremony in the 1986 Commonwealth games in Edinburgh.

References

1. "A Kind Of Magic by Queen Songfacts". Songfacts. Archived from the original on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 31 December 2007.

External links

• Official music video on YouTube
• Cover by Queen + Paul Rogers on YouTube ^{[dead link]}
• Lyrics at Queen official website

На других языках

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[de] A Kind of Magic (Lied)

A Kind of Magic ist ein Rock-Song der britischen Band Queen. Er erschien auf dem gleichnamigen Album und wurde daraus am 17. März 1986 als zweite Single nach One Vision ausgekoppelt. Das Stück war zwar 11 Wochen in den Billboard Hot 100, erreichte aber nur Platz 42[2], jedoch Top-Positionen in vielen anderen Ländern, so Platz drei in Großbritannien, wo es ebenfalls 11 Wochen in den Charts war[3] und Platz sechs in Deutschland, wo es 22 Wochen lang in den Charts war[4]. Das Stück gehört auch zum Soundtrack des Films Highlander.

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- [en] A Kind of Magic (song)

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[es] A Kind of Magic (canción)

«A Kind of Magic» (en español o castellano: Una especie/un tipo de magia) es una canción principal realizada por la banda de rock inglesa británica Queen como parte de su álbum del mismo nombre A Kind of Magic. La canción fue escrita y compuesta por el baterista de la banda Roger Taylor y formó parte de la banda sonora de la película «Los inmortales», una que aparece de forma exclusiva en Highlander, y el resto en el álbum del mismo nombre, y presentado como tema final. La letra de la canción hacía referencia a la película en frases como «One prize, one goal» (‘Un premio, una meta’) o «No mortal man» (‘Ningún hombre mortal’). El sencillo alcanzó el número tres en la lista de singles del Reino Unido, los diez primeros en varios países europeos y el número #42 en el Billboard Hot 100 de EE. UU.. La canción es la canción de apertura en los álbumes recopilatorios de la banda, Greatest Hits II y Classic Queen.

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[ru] A Kind of Magic (песня)

«A Kind of Magic» — песня группы Queen с одноимённого альбома 1986 года. Написана Роджером Тейлором специально для фильма «Горец», для которого группа Queen записывала саундтрек. Фраза «A kind of magic» произносилась в фильме Кристофером Ламбертом и так понравилась Тейлору, что он создал целую песню. Ссылки на фильм проявляются в песне, например, во фразах «one prize, one goal»; «no mortal man can win this day», «there can be only one».[источник не указан 1396 дней]

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