Released 6 November 1991 Recorded 1991 Length 4:11 | Format CD single, 7" single Genre Hard rock | |
Label Parlophone (Europe)
Hollywood (North America) | ||
"Driven by You" is a song by Queen's lead guitarist Brian May. It was written as part of his 1992 solo album, Back to the Light. It was released as a single in late 1991, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart and #9 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart.
Contents
Besides the original album/single version, there are three other known studio versions of the song. One was used in a Ford commercial. The second is an instrumental remix of the song, called Driven by You Two. The other known version of this song has a new drum track from Cozy Powell as a bonus track on the US release of Back to the Light.
Shortly before releasing it as single, May played it on the Guitar Legends concert in October 1991, having a super-group backing him: Cozy Powell on drums, Neil Murray on bass, Steve Vai on rhythm guitar, Rick Wakeman and Mike Moran on keyboards, Maggie Ryder, Miriam Stockley and Chris Thompson on backing vocals. Many fans think this song is dedicated to Freddie Mercury because of the lyrics and the song title Driven by You.
It was released on 6 November 1991, just 18 days before the death of May's bandmate Freddie Mercury.
It was used by the Ford Motor Company in advertisements for the Ford Probe and for the Ford Escort RS Cosworth, in which Miki Biasion (a Ford rally driver at the time) compared his rally car to the road-going version.
Track listing
A. "Driven by You" (Producer – Brian May, David Richards) – 4:11
B. "Just One Life" (Dedicated To The Memory Of Philip Sayer)(Engineer – David Richards, Justin Shirley-Smith, Producer – Brian May) – 3:43
Personnel
Credits
Appearances
- Single Driven by You / Just One Life (Guitar Version, Instrumental) (November 1991)
- On the album Back to the Light (September 1992)
- Used as an advertising slogan by Ford: "Better Ideas. Driven by You." and "Everything we do is driven by you" (1991)
- The Brian May Band — Live at the Brixton Academy (live album, 1994)
- Queen — Greatest Hits III (compilation, 1999)
- A 35sec orchestral (unattributed) clip used in a Ford promotional video for Mondeo — 1993.