Released 9 October 1989 | Recorded 1988 | |
B-side "My Life Has Been Saved" Format Vinyl record (7", 12")
Cassette tape
CD Length 4:43 (Album version)
6:23 (12" extended version) Label Parlophone, EMI, Capitol | ||
"Scandal" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was released as the fourth single from their 1989 album The Miracle and peaked at #25 in the UK. The single was released in the United States but failed to chart.
Contents
Composition
"Scandal", written by Brian May, but credited to Queen, is about the unwanted attention May and lead singer Freddie Mercury received from the press in the late 1980s, involving May's divorce from his first wife, Chrissie Mullen, and his relationship with actress Anita Dobson and growing media speculation about Mercury's health. Mercury had tested positive for HIV in 1987, and did not announce he was suffering from the virus until the day before his death in November 1991, but changes in his appearance, particularly weight loss, helped fuel speculation that he was seriously ill.
Recording
May recorded the keyboards and guitars in one take. Mercury's vocal was also done in one take.
Music video
The video for the song featured the band performing on a stage designed to look like a newspaper - it was filmed at Pinewood Studios in September 1989, and is notable for Mercury's "gaunt" appearance.
In the audio commentary included with the video in Queen: Greatest Video Hits 2, Roger Taylor stated: "Not one of my favourite songs. One of the most boring videos we ever made."
B-sides
The original version of the song "My Life Has Been Saved" was featured on the B-Side of the single, before May, Taylor, Deacon and Richards reworked the track for their fifteenth and final studio album Made in Heaven. The 1995 version replaced the original guitar intro with keyboards played by bassist John Deacon.