Jazz  by Queen

The seventh album by the British band Queen was released in 1978 and was a mix of hard rock (primarily), pop, and arena rock songs. At the time, it received both positive and negative comments. The album was recorded outside of Britain to avoid paying taxes on the profits it was likely to bring. Thus, the band relocated to Montreux, Switzerland, where the recordings took place. All four members of Queen contributed songs to the album, with most being compositions by Freddie Mercury and Brian May. For the production of Jazz, Queen worked together with producer Roy Thomas Baker.

During the period Queen was in Montreux, the international Jazz music festival was taking place there, which they attended. From there, they were inspired to name the new album Jazz. The idea for the cover was conceived by drummer Roger Taylor, who had recently noticed a similar design on the Berlin Wall during a visit there.

At the time of its release, Jazz reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 6 in the USA, while its total sales now approach 2,000,000 copies.