• Track: One Vision
• Artist: Queen
• Album: A Kind of Magic
• Year: 1986

Lyrics:

(God works in mysterious ways, mysterious ways)
(Ah…)

Hey!
One man, one goal
(Ha!) One mission
One heart, one soul
Just one solution
One flash of light
Yeah, one god, one vision

No wrong, no right
I’m going to tell you
there’s no black and no white
No blood, no stain
All we need is one worldwide vision

One flesh, one bone, one true religion
One voice, one hope, one real decision
Whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh
Give me one vision
Yeah!

No wrong, no right
I’m going to tell you there’s no black and no white
No blood, no stain
All we need is one worldwide vision

One flesh, one bone, one true religion
One voice, one hope, one real decision
Whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-yeah
Whoa-yeah, whoa-yeah!

I had a dream when I was young
A dream of sweet illusion
A glimpse of hope and unity
And visions of one sweet union
(But a cold wind blows)
(And a dark rain falls)
And in my heart, it shows
Look what they’ve done to my dream, yeah

One vision!
(So) Give me your hands
Give me your hearts
I’m ready!
There’s only one direction
One world, (and) one nation
Yeah, one vision

No hate, no fight
Just excitation
All through the night
It’s a celebration
Whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-whoa-oh-oh-whoa-oh-oh yeah

(One, one, one, one, one, one)
(Hey!)
(One vision)
(One vision)
(One vision)
(One vision)

One flesh, one bone, one true religion
One voice, one hope, one real decision

Give me one night, yeah
Give me one hope, hey
Just give me, ah
One man, one man
One bar, one night
One day, hey, hey
Just gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme
Fried chicken!
(Vision)
(God works in mysterious ways, mysterious ways)

Get It:

The expanded deluxe version of A Kind of Magic is available at Amazon:

In the mid-1980s, Queen was the defacto standard artist for movie soundtracks. In fact, in a 12-year stretch between 1978 and 1990, Queen contributed (or created entirely) to 25 movie soundtracks. When I started this post, the movies Iron Eagle, Highlander, Wayne’s World, and Flash Gordon immediately came  to mind. However, it wasn’t until I started doing some research that I learned just how many tracks Queen contributed to various movie soundtracks—some of which were among the biggest hits of the day.

Chief researcher Chippy von Bushytail spent the better part of the evening researching and came up with the following list of Queen appearances in movies during the aforementioned 12-year period:

• 1978 – FM – We Will Rock You
• 1980 – Flash Gordon – Flash Gordon Soundtrack
• 1984 – Revenge of the Nerds – We Are the Champions
• 1986 – Highlander – Princes of the Universe, Gimme the Prize (Kurgan’s Theme), One Year of Love, Who Wants to Live Forever, Hammer to Fall, Don’t Lose Your Head, New York, New York, and A Kind of Magic
• 1986 – Iron Eagle – One Vision
• 1991 – Highlander II: The Quickening and A Kind of Magic
• 1992 – Breaking the Rules – Crazy Little Thing Called Love
• 1992 – Encino Man – Stone Cold Crazy and Keep Yourself Alive
• 1992 – Peter’s Friends – You’re My Best Friend
• 1992 – Wayne’s World – Bohemian Rhapsody
• 1993 – National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 – Bohemian Rhapsody
• 1993 – Son In Law – Crazy Little Thing Called Love
• 1993 – Super Mario Bros.- Tie Your Mother Down
• 1994 – D2: The Mighty Ducks – We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions
• 1996 – Mr. Wrong – Crazy Little Thing Called Love
• 1997 – The Big One – We Will Rock You
• 1997 – Grosse Pointe Blank – Under Pressure
• 1998 – Small Soldiers – Another One Bites the Dust (Wyclef Jean remix)
• 1998 – Stepmom – Under Pressure
• 1999 – 200 Cigarettes – Another One Bites the Dust
• 1999 – Any Given Sunday – We Will Rock You
• 1999 – Mickey Blue Eyes – We Are the Champions
• 2000 – High Fidelity – We Are the Champions

I tasked our mad squirrel researcher with determining the most-used rock songs in movie soundtracks, but he came up with nuts. That’s what you get for hiring a squirrel to be your fact man, I guess.

In any event, today’s track was one of my favorite songs during my senior year in high school. I remember hearing it for the first time while in the theater watching Iron Eagle, and thinking that it (both the song and the movie) was brimming with excitement. Some 32 years later, I watched the clip from Iron Eagle in which One Vision was featured (see below) and I have to tell you that movie screenwriting, acting, and special effects have come a long way since 1986. What thrilled me then made me wince today.

Nonetheless, One Vision remains one of my favorite rock tracks from the era, and like all Queen songs, it reminds me of how much better the world was with Freddie Mercury in it.

Video:

The high-energy video for One Vision is below. Note that this is the extended version of the track; the radio version was to cut and does not feature the longer intro or the drum and guitar bridge. The radio version was a crime.

And purely for nostalgic reasons, here is the clip from the movie Iron Eagle (starring Jason Gedrick and Louis Gossett, Jr.) in which One Vision appeared in 1986. Watch as Air Force pilots Doug Master and Col. Charles “Chappy” Sinclair get 1980s jiggy with their F-16 Fighting Falcons.

And because we have a few electrons to spare, here is the video for Princes of the Universe, which was included on A Kind of Magic and was featured in the movie, Highlander. There can be only one! (Sorry for the criminally close-up shot of Freddie’s pit hair in the video still shot that almost looks as though a small, furry woodland creature is nestled under his arm…)

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