"Save Me" is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1980 album The Game. Written by guitarist Brian May, it was recorded in 1979, and released in the UK on 25 January 1980, nearly six months prior to the release of the album. "Save Me" spent six weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 11.[1]
"Save Me" | ||||
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![]() Artwork for UK release | ||||
Single by Queen | ||||
from the album The Game | ||||
B-side |
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Released |
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Recorded | June - July 1979 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 3:48 | |||
Label |
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Songwriter(s) | Brian May | |||
Producer(s) |
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Queen singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Save Me" on YouTube | ||||
The power ballad[2] was played live from 1979 to 1982[3][4][5][6] and was recorded for their live albums, Queen Rock Montreal at the Montreal Forum, Quebec, Canada in November 1981 and Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl at the Milton Keynes Bowl, Buckinghamshire, England in June 1982.[7] The song is also included on Queen's Greatest Hits[8] and Queen Forever albums. A circulating video of the performance during the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1979 also exists.
Brian May wrote "Save Me" about friend and bandmate Freddie Mercury.[9] Recorded in the Summer of 1979 in Munich,[10] the song was written when Mercury's relationship with American chef Joe Fanelli had just ended. During an interview for the radio show In the Studio with Redbeard, May stated: "I wrote ['Save Me']—to cut a long story short—I wrote it about a friend, someone who was going through a bad time, and I imagined myself in their shoes, kind of telling the story. Someone whose relationship is totally fucked up and how sad that person was."
Musically, the song is complex, with the verses in the key of G major, and the chorus in the key of D major. An instrumental solo, in the related key of G major, serves as a verse.
The video for the song was filmed at Alexandra Palace on 22 December 1979 and directed by Keith "Keef" MacMillan and features animation of a woman and a dove. The video would be the last to feature Freddie without a moustache until 1984, as he would sport it starting with the next video for "Play the Game" until he shaved it off for the music video for "I Want to Break Free".[11]
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Queen songs | |
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Queen | |
Queen II | |
Sheer Heart Attack | |
A Night at the Opera |
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A Day at the Races | |
News of the World | |
Jazz | |
The Game | |
Flash Gordon | |
Hot Space | |
The Works |
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A Kind of Magic | |
The Miracle | |
Innuendo | |
Made in Heaven | |
Queen Rocks | |
Queen Forever | |
Other songs | |
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Authority control ![]() |
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