Nightcore (Queen) - Innuendo (1991): 02. I'm Going Slightly Mad

Innuendo is the fourteenth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 4 February 1991 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and it is the band's first studio album to be released by Hollywood Records in the United States. Produced by David Richards and the band, it was the band's last album to be released in lead singer Freddie Mercury’s lifetime, and their most recent one to be composed of entirely new material. It reached the No. 1 spot on the UK album charts and stayed at that position for two weeks, and also peaked at No. 1 in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, staying at No. 1 for three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, and eight weeks, respectively. It was the first Queen album to go Gold in the US upon its release since The Works in 1984.

"I'm Going Slightly Mad"

"I'm Going Slightly Mad" was begun in Mercury's London house, after he had gotten the idea of writing a song about madness, inspired by Noël Coward's camp one-liners. Most of the lyrics like "banana tree" or "one needle", came from both him and his friend Peter Straker, who stayed up all night in Mercury's kitchen, devising ever more outlandish lines. The music is Mercury's and is one of the earliest songs the band were working on in Montreux when Steve Howe came in. The video that accompanied the song saw Mercury dressed in a costume suit with wild hair, white gloves, long pointing shoes and extremely heavy make up, filmed in black and white. Whilst Queen fans were thoroughly amused by the band in the video, in the documentary, Champions of the World, Taylor confessed, from the band's perspective, the video was marred by Mercury's appearance having to be camouflaged by costume and make-up, as Taylor admitted Mercury looked "pretty ill, at that point."