Queen Kicks off "Jazz" Tour with 5 Live Debuts This Day in 1978

On this day in 1978, UK rock band Queen kicked off their North American Jazz tour to support their album of the same name. The inaugural date in Dallas, Texas came two weeks before the album's release and featured five live debuts.

The set opened with a fast version of "We Will Rock You" and led into the first live debut of the night, the crowd-focused "Let Me Entertain You." The second new track was up next, band favorite "If You Can't Beat Them," one of Queen's songs with a lengthy guitar solo.

A trifecta of known songs ("Somebody To Love" "Death on Two Legs" and "Killer Queen") from their earlier albums came before the live debut of Jazz single and would-be international hit "Bicycle Race."

Three songs from Queen's 4th studio album, A Night at the Opera, preceded "Now I'm Here" which is their 2nd most-performed song to date, trailing only behind "Bohemian Rhapsody."

The John Deacon-penned ballad "Spread Your Wings" led into the 9-song acoustic portion of the show, which began with the live debut of "Dreamer's Ball," the band's tribute to the late Elvis Presley. The acoustic portion of the show also included the final live debut of the night, "Fat Bottomed Girls" and the band's most performed song to date, "Bohemian Rhapsody."

The four-song encore led with "Tie Your Mother Down." Then the audience got the chance to sing along with the proper, drawn-out version of "We Will Rock You" and arena-anthem "We Are the Champions" before show closer, "God Save The Queen."

The setlist stayed fairly consistent throughout the Jazz tour, although they occasionally threw in a cover of Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock."

Check out the full setlist:

Queen setlist

Listen to audio of that concert here:

Embedded content is no longer available.

Karma Police - Please Share:

Most played songs

Last updated: 26 Apr 2024, 19:53 Etc/UTC