Found in 2011 by a team of scientists from Goldsmiths University London to be the most catchy songs ever. Yes, there is a science to how catchy a song can be, but from what I understood about this research is that it was done by measuring people’s reactions to different songs. Interesting, but iffy I think: people can be biased because of experience, they know the songs already, and associate it with uhm.. sports events.
But of course this is a monster hit. It was designed that way, to sound well in a stadium. Written two years earlier, it was published in 1977 on the album News of the world. And combined with We will rock you on one single. So two hits on one single, and both big stadium sing alongs. They went on to become the best known songs of the band.
I’ve always been fascinated with the cover. It is part of a larger painting, that looks like it is older. Hurray for wiki: it is from Frank Kelly Freas, and was requested by Roger Taylor because he owned a copy of his pulp magazine from 1953. The original is the image of a robot holding a dead man saying Please, fix it… daddy?
An interesting article about the use of iron man in all kinds of pop culture. http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2008/04/we_are_iron_man.html.