One Of Classic Rock's Best Duets Came From An Unplanned Jam Session Between 2 Powerhouses
"Under Pressure" is one of classic rock's best duets of the '80s, and the elegant, affecting collaboration between Queen and David Bowie was surprisingly completely unplanned. It was built out of an impromptu studio jam when Bowie, resident of the Swiss resort area of Montreux, dropped by unannounced one day in the summer of 1981 at Mountain Studios, the recording complex that Queen so highly preferred that they bought it and used it as a kind of band headquarters.
The solo star and the members of the mega-famous group were only faintly acquainted, but within a period of about two days, the legends had collectively built a rock song that sounds even cooler today, a beloved track that was a smash hit after it appeared on Queen's album "Hot Space." Here's how some casual banging around on some instruments, free-form improvisation, and a hefty amount of alcohol led to the creation of "Under Pressure."
Under Pressure was a happy accident that almost disappeared
In 1981, Queen was finishing the "Hot Space" LP when David Bowie popped by their studio. Before long, everyone had grabbed an instrument just to play around. "We would do the odd thing like covering old Cream songs," drummer Roger Taylor told Record Collector (via Guitar World). "I remember we did 'NSU' and 'I Feel Free,' just for a laugh really, and then we decided, 'Let's write one for ourselves.'"
In that creative phase, Queen bassist John Deacon plucked out a line of seven notes — six of the same and then one just below it, or as Queen Guitarist Brian May described it in the Mirror, the part that went "Ding-Ding-Ding Diddle Ing-Ding." But then, after a three-hour break for a meal and lots of wine, everyone returned to the studio, and Bowie asked Deacon to replay that captivating bass riff. According to May, Deacon couldn't get it right, and it was Bowie who re-created it. With each of the five musicians adding improvised lyrics, the song adopted the working title "People on Streets."
The next day, Bowie asked to head up things from there because he had an idea of where to take the piece. He fixated on another line, "under pressure," and wrote the words from there. By the end of 1981, "Under Pressure" was a single, and early the next year, the song was a hit, squeezing into the Top 30 in the U.S. and going to No. 1 in the U.K.