"Flick of the Wrist" | ||||
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Single by Queen | ||||
from the album Sheer Heart Attack | ||||
A-side | "Killer Queen" | |||
Released | 21 October 1974 | |||
Format | Vinyl record (7") | |||
Recorded | 1974 | |||
Genre | Hard rock | |||
Length | 3:17 | |||
Label | EMI Records (UK), Elektra (US) | |||
Writer(s) | Freddie Mercury | |||
Producer(s) | Roy Thomas Baker, Queen | |||
Queen singles chronology | ||||
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"Flick of the Wrist" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as a Double A-side with "Killer Queen" in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, the United States and most other territories. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack.
Freddie Mercury never explained whether the unpleasant character in the song was based on anyone in particular. The song includes Freddie Mercury singing octave vocals throughout the verses, and the chorus features a call and response style section between the backing and lead vocal parts. When Brian May returned to work having recovered from his hepatitis, he had not heard the song before he recorded his guitar and backing vocals.
As it appears on the album, "Flick of the Wrist" is the middle song of a three-track series of songs which seamlessly overlap, segueing from one to the next: "Tenement Funster", "Flick of the Wrist" and "Lily of the Valley. Each song was recorded separately and later mixed together to form the unbroken stretch of music. Because of this structure, the record company had to select points to separate each track on CD re-issues of the album. "Flick of the Wrist," in this way, starts with the crescendo ending of "Tenement Funster" and ends abruptly before the last line of the song "...baby, you've been had." This last lyric appears at the beginning of the next CD track, "Lily of the Valley".
The original, non-segued master recordings of "Tenement Funster," "Flick of the Wrist" and "Lily of the Valley" were used for certain single releases, such the Japanese 3-inch CD single re-issue of Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy ("Tenement Funster"), the Dutch AA-side version of "Flick of the Wrist" (see below) and the 1975 US-only re-issue of "Keep Yourself Alive" ("Lily of the Valley"). Thus, a standalone version of "Flick of the Wrist" is available.