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
Last Christmas album. In the UK, despite it being a B-side track, the song is regularly played throughout music channels during the festive season. The two official music videos got more than 60 million views on YouTube combined. It was released as part of their Christmas album, "It's Christmas Time". <nowiki>*</nowiki> Based on downloads alone, but did chart at number 10, as it was the B-side to "What Hurts the Most". The song was covered by Alcazar from Sweden as the sixth single to be released from their third studio album "Disco Defenders", released in 2009. The single was only released digitally