“A Kind of Magic” by Queen

"A Kind of Magic" is the title track of Queen's 1986 album, and Roger Taylor wrote it for the film Highlander, where it plays over the end. He lifted the title from a line the immortal Connor MacLeod, played by Christopher Lambert, uses to explain what he is, and the words keep nodding to the film; the single's sleeve even featured Clancy Brown as the villain, the Kurgan.

Brian May recalled Taylor's first version as dark and heavy, but the finished record is bright and bouncy, with Freddie Mercury on lead vocals and synth, May's electric guitar slicing through, John Deacon on bass, and Taylor handling drums, drum machine, electronic kit and synth. Queen produced it with David Richards, who also engineered. It climbed to number three in Britain and later opened the compilations Greatest Hits II and Classic Queen.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.