"Flash" is a song by British rock band

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. Written by guitarist

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

, "Flash" is the theme song of the 1980 film ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...

''. There are two versions of the song. The album version ("Flash's Theme") is in fact the start to the film, with all the dialogue from the first scene. The single version contains dialogue cut from various parts of the film, most memorably,

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed ( ; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars''; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television ...

's character exclaiming "Gordon's alive?!" This version was also included on the ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

'' compilation from 1981. The song's lead vocals are shared by May and

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter who achieved global fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. Regarded as one of the gre ...

, with Roger Taylor adding high harmonies. May plays most of the instruments, except for the

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

and drums. He used an Imperial Bösendorfer piano (with 97 keys instead of 88, having an extra

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

on the low range), an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer (as seen in the song's music video), and his homemade Red Special electric guitar. The song reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart and number three in Germany. On the U.S. charts, "Flash's Theme aka Flash" reached number 42 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It peaked at number 39 on the ''Cash Box'' Top 100. ''

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'' described the single version as a "supersonic cut with a chorus hook guaranteed to rescue tired holiday ears."

Music video

The music video was filmed at Advision Studios, London, in November 1980 and directed by

Don Norman Donald Arthur Norman (born December 25, 1935) is an American researcher, professor, and author. Norman is the director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego. He is best known for his books on design, especially '' The Design o ...

and shows the band performing the song to a screen showing clips from the film. An alternative version broadcast during the Concert for Kampuchea in 1981 with different clips included on the ''Flash Gordon'' 2011

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edition.

Personnel

– lead and backing vocals *

– lead and backing vocals, guitars, piano, synthesizer * Roger Taylor – drums, backing vocals,

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

* John Deacon – bass guitar

Charts

Sales and certifications

Vanguard remix

German producers Vanguard released a cover of "Flash", credited to "Queen + Vanguard", on 10 February 2003. The single peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart, number two on the

UK Dance Chart The Dance Singles Chart and the Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the electronic dance music, dance music genre (e.g. house music, house, trance music, trance, ...

, and number 17 in Germany.

Charts

Live recording

*'' Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl'' *'' Queen Rock Montreal''

In other media

The song is played during an ice dancing routine in the 2007 film '' Blades of Glory''. The song is played in ''

The Flash The Flash is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date, cover-dated Jan ...

'' episode " Into the Void" where Cisco Ramon plays it when Barry Allen / The Flash enters a black hole to save Chester P. Runk, mentioning that he has been saving the song "for the right moment". In 2016, a re-recording of the song was used to advertise Flash Multi Surface Concentrated Cleaner in the UK. It has since been used to promote other Flash products. In 2022, the song appeared in a Toyota Corolla Cross commercial in Australia but it used "Cross" instead of "Flash".

References

External links

*
Lyrics at Queen official website
(original version, reprise, single version) {{DEFAULTSORT:Flash (Song) Film theme songs Queen (band) songs 1980 singles 1981 singles Works based on Flash Gordon Male vocal duets Songs about comics Songs about fictional male characters Songs about outer space Songs written by Brian May Song recordings produced by Reinhold Mack EMI Records singles Elektra Records singles Hollywood Records singles Virgin Records singles 1980 songs Music based on science fiction works UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles