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EXCLUSIVE: fun. Cover Queen’s ‘Radio Gaga’

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While touring with Paramore in the U.K. earlier this year, fun. frontman Nate Ruess decided to add a supremely arena-friendly cover to his band’s setlist: Queen’s “Radio Gaga.” Hear an exclusive stream of fun.’s live version below.

“We were playing these crazy stadiums and thought we should play songs that catered to the size of the rooms, since our songs don’t really do that,” Ruess tells SPIN.

Ruess — the former singer of the Format, who plays in fun. with Steel Train’s Jack Antonoff and Anathallo’s Andrew Dost — was blown away by the reception from fans in Queen’s home country. “When we first played it, they even did the Live Aid clap!” he says.

But fans didn’t go quite so gaga when they played it back home in the States. “We were so amped on it and the reaction that it got that we put it into our headlining set at [New York’s] Webster Hall,” says Ruess, who first got into Queen after seeing the famous “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene in Wayne’s World. “It ended up being a giant lull in the U.S. setlist and was never played again.”

The cover is one of seven songs on a new Winter Rarities EP being released December 21 by pop-punk label Fueled by Ramen. It’s an iTunes exclusive, and will only be on sale through January 3. Check out the tracklisting below — it also boasts songs by the Swellers and Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars.

What do you think of fun.’s cover version? Tell us in the comments.

LISTEN: fun., “Radio Gaga”

Fueled by Ramen 2010 Winter Rarities EP tracklisting:
1. A Rocket To The Moon, “No One Will Ever Get Hurt”
2. Travie McCoy feat. Bruno Mars, “Billionaire (Acoustic)”
3. The Swellers, “Montreal Screwjob”
4. VersaEmerge, “Father Sky”
5. This Providence, “Your House (Acoustic Cover)”
6. The Cab, “Bounce (Suarez Remix)”
7. fun., “Radio Ga Ga (Live Queen Cover)”