Covers Revue, Vol. 27 – The Used and My Chemical Romance cover "Under Pressure" :: Originally by Queen and David Bowie

One of the greatest collaborations of all time has to be Queen and David Bowie with their recording of “Under Pressure.” Combining one of the biggest bands of the 70s/80s with one of the biggest musicians of the 70s/80s seemed like a good idea at the time … and it still is! The classic is instantly recognizable by practically every age group. The bass riff is so catchy that Vanilla Ice even STOLE it (he tried to claim innocence) for his song “Ice Ice Baby” (another instantly recognizable track).

What made “Under Pressure” such a success? Well first of all, that infectious bass-line! It immediately gets into your head and will take hours if not DAYS to get out! Also, the subtle, short piano key-strokes dance around the guitar melody and the ba-da-da-da’s in the verses to give it a sweet sound. Bowie and Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury alternate on the vocals, making the song a nice mix-up of voices.

Mercury’s falsetto backed by Bowie’s ghostly ooooo’s and aaaaah’s is another great feature of the song. These two power-houses obviously work very well together! The build-ups in the choruses and especially the bridge (Mercury shows off his serious vocal range here) are enough to get you to punch a hole in the wall. It’s that good!

The original version of “Under Pressure” is obviously a classic; one that not many (none, that I can think of) have thought to touch. Not until 2005, anyway. At the time, My Chemical Romance and The Used were power-houses in their own right. The two bands collaborated for Music for Relief, a charity founded by the band Linkin Park to benefit the victims of natural disasters. In this particular case The Used and MCR’s version of “Under Pressure” benefited the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, or the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami.

The more recent version carried on that same infectious bass-line and kept much of the song the same for the most part. The choruses are much harder though, incorporating aspects of the two band’s “screamo” genre. Lead singers Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) and Bert McCracken (The Used) have much scratchier voices (another characteristic of their genres) which is a change from the shaky yet smooth voices of Bowie and Mercury. These two bands decided to speed up the tempo as well, perhaps in order to better incorporate the harder aspects of the track.

Obviously, tackling this behemoth of a song would be a daunting task and a polarizing affair for fans of music. I’ve spoken to fans of Queen and David Bowie who have despised the newer version, but there are those who, even though they hesitate to do so, admit that it’s not that bad. In my opinion, I’m a fan of the cover but recognize that in no way are MCR and the Used trying to compare themselves with the classic rock legends. That would just be dumb. The original is by far the best version, but I do like how The Used and MCR incorporate some of their own flavor while still keeping in much of the same ingredients that Bowie and Queen used. That concoction tasted like success for the two bands, who saw the song chart at 28 on the Billboard Modern Rock 100 and Pop 100 charts and at 41 on the Hot 100.

One fan (12mychemicalromance3) who posted the video of the 2005 version on YouTube had this to say: “I WIll SAY THIS HERE AND HEAR ONLY I AM FED UP WITH PEOPLE SAYING OH ITS CRAP GOT NOTHING ON QUEEN MCR AND THE USED ARENT TRYING TO BE FUCKING QUEEN SO PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I AM SICK OF BLOODY IDIOTS GIVING ME AN EARFUL ITS NOT LIKE I CAN GO UP TO MY CHEM AND THE USED AND SAY HEY IM SORRY BUT A RANDOM SAYS YOUR VERSION OF UNDER PRESSURE SUCKS…” Though the amusing rant is filled with spelling and punctuation errors, I totally agree.

After all, the song was recorded for charity, folks! So you have to at least give them that.