Vinyl Record

Queen - Jazz

Queen - Jazz on LP vinyl. A 1978 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.

LP · 1978

Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.

Buyer notes: 1978 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.

Jazz is Queen's 1978 sprawl, a record whose title is less genre promise than permission slip. After A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races and News Of The World, the band had earned the right to be both disciplined and ridiculous, and Jazz leans into that freedom. Mustapha opens with theatrical mischief; Fat Bottomed Girls and Bicycle Race turn double-A-side cheek into mass-recognition; Jealousy and In Only Seven Days show the band's softer craft; Let Me Entertain You winks at the whole touring machine; Dead On Time is a May-driven sprint; Dreamer's Ball looks backward to pre-rock styles; Don't Stop Me Now gives Mercury one of his most unstoppable pop performances. The album's 1978 context matters because punk had already challenged rock excess, and Queen responded not by shrinking but by making an album of contrasts, jokes, virtuosity and hooks. Jazz can feel messy beside the cleaner monuments, but that mess is the point: four songwriters, several personas, no single mood held for long, and a band turning over-stimulation into identity.

Jazz matters because it captures Queen at the end of their 1970s imperial run, refusing to choose between camp, speed, balladry, music-hall memory and stadium pop. It is a catalogue hinge between the ornate mid-70s albums and the sharper, more single-driven era ahead.

For collectors, Jazz is a core late-1970s Queen LP because it carries major singles while preserving the band's most unruly album personality. It is not as conceptually tidy as A Night At The Opera, but it is indispensable for understanding Queen's appetite for contrast.

High-contrast Queen with hard rock, music-hall echoes, racing guitar, theatrical vocals, soft ballads, pop excess, comic provocation and the euphoric momentum of Don't Stop Me Now.

Recommended for: Collectors filling the essential 1970s Queen sequence; Listeners who like Queen at their most varied and theatrical; Fans of Don't Stop Me Now, Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls in album context.

What year was Jazz released? Jazz was released in 1978, after News Of The World and before The Game. Is Jazz actually a jazz album? No. The title is more playful than literal; the album ranges across rock, pop, balladry, music-hall touches and theatrical experiments. Which tracks define Jazz? Don't Stop Me Now, Bicycle Race, Fat Bottomed Girls, Mustapha, Dead On Time and Let Me Entertain You define its range.