The song, Under Pressure, which appeared on the Queen album Hot Space, evolved from a jam session the band had with David Bowie at its studio in Montreux, Switzerland, therefore it was credited as co-written by the five musicians. According to Queen bassist John Deacon (as quoted in a French magazine in 1984), the song's primary musical songwriter was Freddie Mercury, though all contributed to the arrangement.

There has been some confusion about who created the song's famous bassline. John Deacon said (in Japanese magazine Musiclife in 1982, and in the previously mentioned French magazine) that David Bowie had created it. In more recent interviews, Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have credited the bass riff to Deacon; Bowie also said on his website that the bassline was already written before he became involved. In any case, the September 2005 edition of online music magazine Stylus singled out the bassline as the best in popular music history.

Rapper Vanilla Ice sampled this song without permission for his biggest hit, the commercially successful Ice Ice Baby. His response to criticism relied upon the addition of one note not present in the original. No lawsuit was filed, but it is likely that Vanilla Ice settled out of court with Queen and Bowie.