Under Pressure

Queen & David Bowie * Track #7 On Greatest Hits (North America)

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Album Greatest Hits (North America)

ALBUM

Queen & David Bowie

1981

Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

Release Date

Mon Oct 26 1981

Performed by

Queen & David Bowie

Produced by

David Bowie & Queen

Writed by

David Bowie & John Deacon & Brian May & Roger Taylor & Freddie Mercury

About

A duet about how the pressure on our lives makes us nearly crumble. The collaboration emerged from a hectic day of partying and composing by David Bowie and the four members of Queen.

The bass line, performed by Queen bassist John Deacon, was famously sampled by Vanilla Ice in his 1990 song “Ice Ic...

Under Pressure Lyrics

[Intro: Freddie Mercury]
Mmm num ba de
Dum bum ba be
Doo buh dum ba beh beh

[Verse 1: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, no man ask for
Under pressure that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets

[Bridge: Freddie Mercury]
Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da- that's okay

[Chorus: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming, "Let me out!"
Pray tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people, people on streets

[Verse 2: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
Day day de mm hm
Da da da ba ba
Okay
Chipping around, kick my brains around the floor
These are the days it never rains but it pours
Ee do ba be
Ee da ba ba ba
Um bo bo
Be lap
People on streets
Ee da de da de
People on streets
Ee da de da de da de da

[Chorus: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming, 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow gets me higher, high
Pressure on people, people on streets

[Bridge: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn
Why, why, why?
Love, love, love, love, love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking

[Verse 3: Freddie Mercury]
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give love that one more chance?
Why can't we give love, give love, give love, give love
Give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?

[Outro: David Bowie]
Because love's such an old-fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night
And love (People on streets) dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves under pressure
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure

Under Pressure Q&A

Who wrote Under Pressure's ?

Under Pressure was written by David Bowie & John Deacon & Brian May & Roger Taylor & Freddie Mercury.

Who produced Under Pressure's ?

Under Pressure was produced by David Bowie & Queen.

When did Queen & David Bowie release Under Pressure?

Queen & David Bowie released Under Pressure on Mon Oct 26 1981.

What did Queen & David Bowie say about "Under Pressure"?

Absolutely nothing was written, and, in fact, all that we were doing was jamming and David came in one night, and we were just playing other people’s songs for fun and David said, ‘This is stupid. Why don’t we just write one?’ It was originally called ‘People on Streets’, and that was the basis of...

Do Freddie Mercury and David Bowie have any other songs together?

Unfortunately, they never released anything else. The original demo of “Cool Cat” featured Bowie on backing vocals, but Bowie disliked the final product and asked to be removed from the track for its official release.

What have the other members said about the song?

“David Bowie and Freddie and I have been friends for the past few years. ‘Under Pressure’ was a spontaneous collaboration. We started out just playing some old songs, then worked on a few ideas and liked ‘Under Pressure’ very much, so we finished it.”

Roger Taylor – 1981

“Freddie and David had bee...