Queen 'A Kind Of Magic'

Chart Peak: 3

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You see, that's what makes Now 7 different from every other album in the series - it's the only one I know of that features a hidden track. Presumably they only got permission to include this song after the sleeve had gone to press. And Queen's punishment for this brinkmanship was demotion from their usual spot at the very start of the album to the back end of Side 3.

I'd entirely forgotten that this song appears (in a somewhat different form) in the film Highlander; though I do remember seeing the film at school a few years later I'd presumably lost interest by this point. It's obvious once you know though, with the various lyrical references like "there can be only one". In 1986 it was just a song to me, and one I could hardly fail to remember. Listening to the two versions now I have to award a lot of the credit to Freddie Mercury for restructuring and re-arranging Roger Taylor's song from the film version to the more familiar production featured on the single and album (and here of course). Though hardly revolutionary, it's a well-constructed pop record and on that basis one of my favourite Queen hits. Ironically, it's Taylor's dull click-track drumming that's the weakest point in the finished article.

Also appearing on: Now 2, 3, 4, 6, 15, 16, 19, 21, 25 [with George Michael], 32, 33, 54 [with Vanguard]
Available on: The Platinum Collection