Calling All Girls - Promotional Video

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Screenshot from the video

Elektra Records, Queen's then-record label in America were unconvinced by the band's choice of fourth single from Hot Space, the John Deacon penned disco pop track Back Chat, and chose instead to release Calling All Girls instead - surprisingly the first Roger-penned track to be released as a Queen A-side. Whilst far from a success, reaching only number 60 in the Billboard charts, the song did come with a highly memorable video - the most high concept promo Queen had conceived of at to date, and a logical precursor to Radio Ga Ga two years later.

The video, like many since, was inspired by the science fiction movie THX 1138, directed by a pre-Star Wars George Lucas, and also by the George Orwell novel 1984 - the name of one of Brian May's pre-Queen bands.

The band are first seen in a high tech control room, with robot policemen and surveillance equipment keeping everyone in order. Freddie is then caught with a beautiful woman, violating the rules of the society they live in. Arrested by the robot police, Freddie is studied by the rest of the band and it is decided that the "felon" is to be "conditioned". He is then abused by the robots and fights back, only to be imprisoned in a circular cage before Brian, Roger and John break him out. Freddie then destroys the control room, thereby disabling the robot police long enough for the band to escape.

Directed once again by Brian Grant, this ambitious, if clearly low budget, video remains one of the more enjoyable of the period, but the song's lack of chart success meant it was rarely seen until its inclusion on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD in 2003.


Credits

Version Name Artist Recorded Format Length Director Filming Location
Standard Version Calling All Girls Queen July 1982 Video 3.57 Brian Grant Unknown

Availability