When Queen released the second single from their 1982 album Hot Space, it was met with praise by radio and on the charts, where it hit No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went to No. 4 in the UK, despite it being more of a dance song and a departure from the band’s heavier stadium rock.
Written by Freddie Mercury, “Body Language” was a blatantly sexual song about desiring someone else’s body—Give me your body / Just give me your body—and also features seductive groaning by Mercury.
Don’t talk
Body language
Body language
Body language
You got red lips
Snakes in your eyes
Long legs, great thighs
You’ve got the cutest ass I’ve ever seen
Knock me down for a six anytime
[RELATED: On This Day: Queen Scored Their First No. 1 Album with ‘A Night at the Opera’]
Videos by American Songwriter
Banned for No Nudity?
The single transferred well on radio but when it came time to visualize it, MTV wasn’t too keen on giving Queen’s new music video much airtime. The music network banned the video entirely, making it the first one in history to be pulled from MTV.
In the dimly lit video, directed by Mike Hodges, who previously worked with Queen on “Flash’s Theme” from Flash Gordon, several vignettes show a group of barely dressed people in suggestive situations. Midway through, the band also appears surrounded by writhing bodies, and fully clothed. Despite no full-on nudity in the video, the combination of Mercury’s sexy groans and barely dressed bodies still made it a no-go on the network.
Munich Madness
While Queen recorded Hot Space at Giorgio Moroder’s now-defunct Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, they hit some excesses with alcohol, drugs, and heavy partying, which resulted in a longer recording time. There was also discord around the musical direction of the more disco-bent album, which the band believed was influenced by Paul Prenter, Mercury’s one-time partner and personal manager from 1977 through 1986.
Prenter, who even turned down interview requests for Mercury by U.S. radio stations, heavily influenced the singer at the time, along with the sound of Hot Space. “[Prenter] wanted our music to sound like you’d just walked in a gay club, and I didn’t,” said Roger Taylor on the 2011 BBC Queen documentary Days of Our Lives.
“Under Pressure”
Despite the contention within the band around Hot Space, and some fans’ disregard of the album, it was still a success for Queen, hitting No. 4 on the UK chart and peaking at No. 22 on the Billboard 200.
Hot Space also delivered a second No. 1 hit for the band in the UK with Mercury’s closing classic duet with David Bowie, “Under Pressure.”
Although the band played “Body Language” live—with more guitars and as more of a rock song— during their Hot Space tour, they eventually cut the song from the set after their 1982 tour and never played it live again.
Photo: David Redfern/Redferns
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