the works

There are no better or more entertaining music videos than those produced for the rock group Queen, and Sony has put four of them together in a new Sony Video 45 called The Works (Beta Hi-Fi, VHS Hi Fi or Pioneer Artists laser stereo video disc, under $17).

Most recently, this quartet from England scored the hero’s attempts to cut Ming the Merciless down to size in the 1980 movie Flash Gordon, then returned to team with David Bowie for the hit 1982 single Under Pressure.

Radio Gaga,” the single that opens up the new Queen album, is another instant jewel in Queen’s Top Forty crown. It’s one more anthemic lament to that overfamiliar icon, sung and played with Queenly overkill in “Deutschland Uber Alles” style by a group that did its share to corrupt the airwaves in the Seventies.

The nicest thing I can say about Queen is that they always seem to have a few surprises down their trousers, knoworrimean?