The Works (Queen album) 19 November 1984, and promotional copies were indeed pressed ("QUEEN 5") and sent out (b/w "Keep Passing the Open Windows"), but the band opted for a Christmas single ("Thank God It's Christmas"). The fifth track on "The Works", "Machines (Or 'Back to Humans')", came about as an idea by Taylor, and May collaborated with him and finished it. Producer Reinhold Mack programmed the synth-"demolition" using a Fairlight CMI II Sampler, and the song is sung as a duet between a double-tracked Mercury (singing in harmony with himself), and a robotic Taylor (using a Roland VP330 Vocoder). The instrumental remix of
Hard Candy Christmas sings the verses. Parton's version of the song was released as a single in October 1982, reaching number 8 on the U.S. country singles chart in January 1983. In 1998, the song re-entered the country charts and peaked at number 73 based on unsolicited airplay. Though not expressly a "Christmas song", Parton's recording received some airplay on country stations around the holiday seasons during the 1980s and 1990s; Parton also performed the song on Bob Hope's Christmas Special in 1988. During the late 1990s, when RCA reissued Parton's 1984 holiday album with Kenny Rogers, "Once Upon a Christmas", Parton's recording