The famous collaboration between Queen and David ‘Under Pressure’ is the soundtrack for a new Adidas advert, celebrating athletes thriving under pressure.
This campaign video which you check out below, shows stars such as Lionel Messi, Patrick Mahomes, Anthony Edwards and others in a video, shouting out “You got this”.
‘Under Pressure’ was a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between Queen and David Bowie, skyrocketing up the UK charts, following its release on 21 November 1981.
The song also did not feature on an LP or album of any description, until arriving on Queen’ Hot Space a year later.
Brian May ‘never liked’ Under Pressure
Despite its indisputable success in the charts, not everyone involved was overly keen with how the track came out.
In a recent interview, Queen guitarist Brian May reflected on how the track came about, revealing that Bowie had even removed some of his guitar parts from the track’s final product, which led to his somewhat love/hate relationship with the song.
Having created the song during a late-night session at the studio with the band, Brian May had revealed that the original track “sounded like the Who”, and was “massively chord-driven”.
“I was beaming because I liked The Who. I remember saying to David, ‘Oh, it sounds like The Who, doesn’t it?”, May said.
He added, “Yeah, well it’s not going to sound like The Who by the time I’ve finished with it!’ You know, in a joking kind of way. But he didn’t want it to be that way”.
The Queen guitarist also explained how you had the added difficulty of each musician coming up with “different ideas of how it should be mixed”.
May revealed that it was “the only time in my career I bowed out, because I knew it was going to be a fight”.
“So basically it was Freddie and David fighting it out in the studio with the mix. And what happened in the mix was that most of that heavy guitar was lost”, he added.
Last November, it was also confirmed that the world’s biggest bands will perform on cinema’s biggest screens with the global release of “QUEEN ROCK MONTREAL,” exclusively in IMAX, which takes place in January.
Speaking of Adidas, Manchester band the Stone Roses also announced a collaboration with Adidas and football giants Manchester United. See more on this here.
