Queen have been part of the soundtrack of my life since I was a small child. The band were local to us growing up and as it happened my mum worked with Freddie’s mum when I was young, so we always followed the progress and success of the band.
Their back catalogue is wide and extensive so I’m jumping in at the point where I started buying their records. Well, I say I buy it but at this stage it was actually my dad who had the greatest hits cassette (alongside Jazz the 1978 LP by Queen) in our old red Ford Escort Estate.
Queen’s first greatest hits album is an almost perfect greatest hits. Mainly because it only included the singles that graced the top twenty, daring to overlook some of my favourite songs of the band such as Tie Your Mother Down, Spread Your Wings (Mercury’s voice never sounded better) and Love Of My Life that fared less well chart-wise.
At the time of Queen’s Greatest Hits album they also released an 18 track ‘Greatest Flix’ VHS compilation which we’d regularly rent from the local video shop. It’s only now as I’m writing this that I realise that this is probably where I got my love of Spread Your Wings (looks like the same video shoot as We Will Rock You) and Tie Your Mother Down from.
Starting the process
For my 13 Songs compilation I’m going to start with the Greatest Hits album and work my way through their repertoire from there. Actually I’m a pretty big Queen fan so I’ll rattle off the songs from that album that I’m not going to include – that’ll make it quicker and easier.
Out goes: Save Me, Flash, Now I’m Here, Play The Game, Seven Seas of Rhye, Bicycle Race, You’re My Best friend, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy – love ’em all but there not for this compilation.
That leaves as my starting point
- Another One Bites The Dust
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Killer Queen
- Fat Bottomed Girls
- Don’t Stop Me Now
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Somebody To Love
- We Will Rock You
- We Are The Champions
Not a bad start. Some pretty legendary tracks among that lot.
Following the Greatest Hits album the band’s output took a strange turn as the band took a more danced-based focus. The best thing to come out of this era was Under Pressure the duet with David Bowie. That – being one of my all time favourite songs – certainly makes the shortlist. I remember buying the single on the weekend of release and how disappointed I was that they hadn’t made a proper video for it.
It wasn’t until The Works in 1984 and the re-emergence of May and Taylor’s rockier sound that band regained their relevance to me (and so it seems the record buying public). The album saw four singles released from it: Radio Gaga, I Want To Break Free, It’s A Hard Life and Hammer To Fall. Of these I’m only going to put forward Radio Gaga, as I think there are other tracks that are better than those I’m leaving out.
Next up Queen released A Kind Of Magic (1986). I enjoyed this album at the time, being as it was an unofficial soundtrack to the movie Highlander, but nothing on this LP stands out as being quite what I want for the thirteen compilation. One Vision comes close but there might be other songs of a similar ilk that I might prefer. I saw the band touring this album and hearing Tie Your Mother Down at Wembley reignited my love of the track, so that’s back in the running.
In the running…
- Another One Bites The Dust
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Killer Queen
- Fat Bottomed Girls
- Don’t Stop Me Now
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Somebody To Love
- We Will Rock You
- We Are The Champions
- Under Pressure
- Tie Your Mother Down
- Radio Gaga
Moving onto The Miracle (1989) and at this stage of Queen’s output my musical taste had changed somewhat and just one track from this album makes it onto the shortlist – I Want It All grabs place thirteen. But with two Queen albums yet to come there might just be some changes to the list.
In 1991 Queen released Innuendo, their last album recorded with Freddie Mercury before his tragic death. This was their most creative and impressive album since Jazz in the 1970s.
The title track, a spralling 6 and a half minute epic is peak Queen, I’m going slightly Mad, and these are the days of our lives and The Show must go on – all singles – the top tracks on the album. But this compilation idea means making every track unskippable, which for me rules out Days of Our Lives and Innuendo. And while I’m Going Slightly Mad is one of my faves I’m not sure it’s better than anything left on the list. So that just leaves Show Must Go On, but what will that replace? I can decide later.
The posthumous Queen release Made in Heaven LP offered nothing worthy of adding to the list.
A quick scan over the early Queen material to make sure I haven’t missed anything and I think I’ve got the final thirteen (well 14). Time to whittle down and sort out the running order.
- Another One Bites The Dust
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Killer Queen
- Fat Bottomed Girls
- Don’t Stop Me Now
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Somebody To Love
- We Will Rock You
- We Are The Champions
- Under Pressure
- Tie Your Mother Down
- Radio Gaga
- I Want It All
- Show Must Go On
I’ve decided. Goodbye “I Want It All” and I have the final list.
The final thirteen
Now for the running order. Considering having this made into a custom vinyl.
Side A
- We Will Rock You
- Fat Bottomed Girls
- Under Pressure
- Killer Queen
- Don’t Stop Me Now
- Bohemian Rhapsody
Half running time: 22.58
After hearing this I’m sad to say Tie Your Mother doesn’t quite fit in, instead I’m going to go back to a John Deacon track I’d previously dismissed. I Want To Break Free makes the cut.
Side B
- Somebody To Love
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Radio Gaga
- Another One Bites The Dust
- I Want To Break Free
- We Are The Champions
- The Show Must Go On
Half running time: 28.41
Check out this playlist on my Spotify channel.
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