Headlong

When Brian May was working on material for what would be his solo album, Back To The Light, two pieces emerged that ended up taking another direction. One of them was Headlong. The Queen guitarist composed them in a couple of days in the band's studio in Montreux, a space he described as ideal for creation. However, upon hearing Freddie Mercury perform Headlong, May felt the song fit perfectly as a Queen track. The other piece that emerged in that same period was I Can't Live With You, which was also well received by the rest of the band.

Headlong was released as the first single in the United States under the Hollywood Records label on January 14, 1991, reaching third place on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In the United Kingdom, it was the third single taken from the album Innuendo, released in May 1991. It debuted at number 28 on the British charts and reached number 14, remaining three weeks in the Top 40. The music video, directed by the Austrian team DoRo (Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher), was one of the last recorded with Freddie Mercury. It shows the band performing the song in a studio setting, with footage of them working. The recording of Mercury's parts was done in December 1990, and the band's parts in November of the same year, both at Metropolis Studios in London. This video is notable for being Freddie Mercury's last in color. The cover design for one of the CD singles was inspired by illustrations by Grandville, an aesthetic that was repeated on the other singles from the album Innuendo.