Queen released “Fat Bottomed Girls” in the UK on October 13, 1978, paired with “Bicycle Race.” Brian May’s song introduced listeners to the band’s seventh studio album, Jazz, through a recording shaped by Southern boogie, a live backing track and a few practical decisions about radio.
Jazz was Queen’s first album recorded outside the UK. Sessions began at Mountain Studios in Switzerland that July before moving to Super Bear Studios in France. Producer Roy Thomas Baker returned after sitting out the previous two albums. His reunion with Queen would also be their final album collaboration.
May had imagined “Fat Bottomed Girls” through the music of the American South. Speaking to Total Guitar in 2011, he connected the image of a Dobro player stamping a foot with the electric boogie of ZZ Top. He wrote for Freddie Mercury to sing, drawing inspiration from the devoted fans they encountered on tour.
At Super Bear, May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor recorded the backing track together while Mercury offered comments. Taylor also doubled his drum parts, including the fill before the final choruses.
The guitar part used drop D tuning. In Guitar Player’s January 1983 issue, May explained that he lowered the bottom string to D for this song, as he had for “The Prophet’s Song” and “White Man.” That adjustment takes the guitar’s lowest string down a whole step from its usual E, extending its range downward while leaving the other strings in their standard tuning.
The single required another adjustment. Queen removed guitar passages between verses and faded the recording before its album ending. May told Total Guitar that they wanted the song to reach its main section faster on radio.
The visual campaign made the connection with “Bicycle Race” literal. Queen staged a race with nude women at Wimbledon Stadium in London, producing photographs for the single and a poster for Jazz. The promotion drew accusations of sexism and exploitation, and the images were altered or distributed differently for particular markets. A cyclist on the single sleeve acquired painted-on underwear; the American version added a bra. In the US, Elektra included a coupon for the album poster instead of packing the poster inside the record.
Jazz followed in Britain on November 10. The paired single reached No. 11 on the UK chart and spent 12 weeks in the Top 75, with its run continuing into January 1979. Album buyers could hear the guitar passages and ending that had been cut from the single.
