Queen: "Innuendo" Single (1991)

Queen's "Innuendo" was released as a single in the UK by EMI Records on January 14, 1991. Written by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, though credited to Queen, the song serves as the opening track on the 1991 album of the same name and was also the album's lead single. The single premiered at number one on the UK Singles Chart in January 1991, marking the band's first chart-topping hit since "Under Pressure" nearly ten years earlier, and it also entered the top ten in ten other countries. The song is featured on the band's second compilation album, Greatest Hits II.

At six and a half minutes, this is one of Queen's epic tracks. The song has been described as "reminiscent" of "Bohemian Rhapsody" because it "harks back to their progressive rock roots." Its verses are in the Phrygian Dominant and include a flamenco guitar section performed by Yes guitarist Steve Howe and Brian May, also in that mode, along with an operatic interlude and hard rock sections that echo early Queen. The lyrics were partly inspired by Mercury's illness; although media reports about his health were being strongly denied, he was seriously ill with AIDS by this time, a disease that would claim his life in November 1991, 10 months after the song's release.