Queen are well known for closing their live shows with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions.
But prior to May 1978, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon’s encore was often a classic cover, one of which was Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.
Sir Brian reflected in 2021: “I think it’s impossible to have been a kid at that time and not been influenced by Elvis.
“Freddie in particular though, of course. He was one of Freddie’s great heroes.
“For me, his guitarists were a great inspiration. Scotty Moore was one, James Burton the other. So, yeah, Elvis was definitely an influence.”
This week’s episode of Queen The Greatest Live features epic archive footage of the band performing Jailhouse Rock on Christmas Eve 1975 at the Hammersmith Odeon.
The video was captioned: “Queen’s ferocious reboot of Jailhouse Rock was anything but reverent, adding rocket fuel and proto-punk energy. With Roger Taylor revving the tempo, Brian pulling out his best supercharged Scotty Moore guitar licks and Freddie throwing flowers to the crowd – while balloons and blow-up dolls float through the air – it’s the most anarchic encore imaginable.”
As Roger Taylor recently reflected: “On Jailhouse Rock, we could go a bit mad…”