Somebody To Love - Promotional Video

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Screenshot from the video

Bruce Gowers returned to the Queen fold in October of 1976 to direct a promotional clip for the first single from A Day At The Races, the gospel-tinged Somebody To Love. This video was a step up from previous promotional pieces, in that for the first time it mixed the now standard performance of the song filmed in Wessex recording studios in between recording sessions for the album, with footage from their legendary free concert at Hyde Park.

The concert, co-organised with future media mogul Richard Branson (whose personal assistant, Dominique Beyrand later became Roger's first wife), took place on 18th September 1976. The sheer size of the audience, estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000 can be glimpsed in the promo, most notably in the final shot.

Upon it's release on 12th November 1976, the single had already generated massive public support, thanks to Kenny Everett once again, and reached number 2 in the UK charts easilly, again aided by a picture sleeve, and only kept from the top spot by the similarly iconic "If You Leave Me Now" by Chigago.

However, the first time the song was played on Top Of The Pops, the resident dancers, Pan's People, performed a choreographed sequence to it in place of the promotional video, which as a result was rarely seen until the 1981 home video release of Greatest Flix. It now now available on the Greatest Video Hits 1 DVD.

Credits

Version Name Artist Recorded Format Length Director Filming Location
Standard Version Somebody To Love Queen October, 1976 [studio scenes], 18th September 1976 [live scenes] Video 4.56 Bruce Gowers Wessex Studios, Highbury, London [studio scenes], Hyde Park, London [live scenes]

Availability

The Video

Somebody to Love