Queen Quiz — Headlong

Dale Tatnell
3 days ago
2 min read

Cover Artwork for Queen's single “Headlong”

“Headlong” was released in the UK on the 13th of May 1991, and is the third single released from Queen's fourteenth studio album “Innuendo”

The song was written by Brian May, originally intended for his upcoming solo album “Back To The Light” however, once he heard Freddie Mercury sing the track, he allowed the song to become a Queen song, acknowledging that “the band is the best vehicle; Sometimes it's painful to give the baby away, but what you gain is much more. It became a Queen song”.

This song is about rushing into things without proper preparation. Rushing into something headlong is like jumping into something head first without thinking about consequences.

Although “Headlong” was written by May, as per all Queen material released on or after “The Miracle”, the band received the writing credit. And, as with all other tracks related to the “Innuendo” album, the single artwork cover, except for the UK release (which featured it on the reverse), was inspired by the French illustrator Grandville.

The US single artwork cover for the Queen single “Headlong”

The music video for “Headlong” was one of the final set of Queen videos shot with lead singer Freddie Mercury prior to his death. The video features the band performing the song within a stage-like setup, alongside clips of the band working within the studio. The video version included an extra short section after the second chorus that was not released on any audio format at the time. This was also the last colour video that featured Freddie Mercury, as due to his failing health, the remaining videos were recorded in black-and-white.