Story of Success

In 1977, the band Queen was performing in the city of Stafford. After their set, the musicians went backstage, but the audience called for an encore. However, they didn't do this with applause; instead, they started singing "You'll Never Walk Alone," a song traditionally sung by football fans in stadiums all around the world.

Brian May realized that they needed to create a song that the fans could not only sing but actively participate in with the music. The next day, he woke up with a future hit in his mind. The idea was to keep the rhythm simple because all people could do in a crowd was clap, stomp, and sing. So, the band came up with a rhythm of "stomp-stomp-clap-pause" and a short guitar solo.

The recording took place in an abandoned church, where the musicians stomped on piles of boards. They then layered these tracks on top of each other to create the effect of a large crowd. During live performances, the rhythm was set by Roger Taylor, playing the drums, with John Deacon on bass guitar and Brian May on guitar joining in.