Essential Queen: 40 songs that will rock you
50 years ago, Freddie Mercury and Co. released their debut album—and now we count down the tracks that made them one of rock's most unforgettable bands
Music Lists Queen
Fifty years after the release of their eponymous debut album, Queen retains a space near the epicenter of pop culture. It’s not just that guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor are preparing to bring vocalist Adam Lambert out for another Queen tour this fall, nor is their revived role due to 2018’s Academy Award-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody, which won Rami Malek an Oscar for his portrayal of Queen’s late singer Freddie Mercury. It’s that Queen’s outsized, outrageous glam rock remains part of the fabric of modern music, informing both rock survivors and wannabe pop idols alike.
A half-century of hindsight makes Queen’s unique qualities all the more notable. Their influences were evident—it’s difficult to imagine the group without either Led Zeppelin or the Beatles’ Abbey Road—but the band’s four forceful personalities combined in increasingly idiosyncratic ways over the course of their career. Queen was the only band where each member wrote smash hits in their own right, with May, Mercury, Taylor, and bassist John Deacon all developing complementary songwriting styles and embellishing their bandmates’ compositions with distinctive flair. Their fluid collaboration is evident throughout the following list of 40 songs which run the gamut from earnest balladry to crunching hard rock, while finding space for disco, high camp, new wave, and AM pop—a range that only Queen could deliver.
74 Comments
Solid list! Even if I’d toss “Radio Ga Ga” into a ditch and replace it with “It’s Late.”
I never warmed up to Radio Ga-Ga. But I think Breakthru deserves a spot on this list. I always thought it was a banger.
Lived with an acting student in uni who got a bit part in that Queen Musical that was run a while back, and apparently his only singing part was some sort of chorus singing “Radio Ga Ga”. So, for like a month, all I heard was “All we hear/Is radio ga ga” over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and fucking over. I’m not saying I should’ve strangled him. I’m also not saying the thought hadn’t crossed my mind. Pretty sure the judge would’ve let me off with a warning.
I cannot tell you how much I despise that fucking song. Love the band, but if that wasn’t their creative nadir, I don’t know what is. It’s, like, “Margaritaville”-level awful for me.
I love Margaritaville, but I’d join you in throwing Radio Gaga in a ditch. I don’t know how Lady Gaga heard that song and thought, “I really need to name myself after this song!”
It’s like the second stupidest name for a pop star, after “Grimes”, who chose her name because she chose “grime” for all three of her favourite music genres on MySpace despite not knowing what it is, because of fucking course.
Oh, yeah, and that was on top of it being their singularly worst song. Bland, banal, and boring. I cannot help but think it was a joke to record it, surely – these are the same guys who did “Bohemian Rhapsody”, a song where they got so creative with the mixing it was impossible to perform live and they nearly wore out the master tapes as they dubbed and redubbed.
Nadir seems a little harsh. Either way, if “Radio Ga Ga” is your worst song, you’re doing better than most.
Don’t forget Radio Goo-Goo . . .
It gave us one of the greatest moments in concert history though
I knew who Queen was at the time of Live Aid, but seeing the entire crowd at Wembley imitating the clapping from the video showed me (and maybe a bunch of others) just how powerful a reputation these 4 guys had.
Nonsense. “Radio Ga Ga” easily belongs in the Top 5.
Whatever charms “Radio Ga Ga” may have, they have always eluded me.
“Brighton Rock” should be in the top 10.
But I don’t see anyone putting up much of an argument about the top two.
It’s Late is an absolute monster that belongs in the top half of this list.
I wouldn’t ditch Radio Ga Ga but It’s Late deserves mention over a couple of selections here.
Amazing band – loved everything and never got sick of them no matter how high they got in rotation. That’s the best compliment a professional broadcaster can give to the guys, and the doc. (Love me some B. May PhD.)
Solid list with some deeper cuts which I enjoy.I would probably add Prophet’s Song on there somewhere. I get why Bohemian Rhapsody is #1 (and I would not argue with it being at #1), but I don’t know if it’s Queen’s best rhapsody (of which they have a few).
Crikey, that’s a take. A Kind of Magic is an amazing soundtrack album, an amazing album full of memorable songs, and a soundtrack that truly elevates the film it’s attached to. It’s one of the great 80’s soundtracks. If you’re going to dis any of Queen’s film work, Flash Gordon is one great song and a lot of incidental filler.
Flash Gordon does contain a killer wedding march though
It is just Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, played in the Bryan May style. Which is great, yes.
A Kind of Magic is so ridiculously stacked they throw in a great song from a completely different soundtrack:And yet! They don’t have the cover of “New York, New York”.
Being a geek during the 80’s (Highlander, Flash Gordon and Iron Eagle) is why I’ve been a fan of Queen since then.
Same. It was highlander for me.
I remember being a fan of Flash Gordon and being one of the very few people in the theater for Highlander. I was already a Queen fan by that point.
They were my first concert. Kind of spoiled live shows for me for a couple of years because my expectations had been set way too high afterwards.
I was that nerdy kid who thought Iron Eagle was better than Top Gun. One Vision rocks!
I tear up whenever I heard Under Pressure, David fucking Bowie is playing 2nd fiddle to Freddy and he has to because Freddy is such a fucking monster in this and most songs.
Never felt like 2nd fiddle to me, more that it was less Bowie’s song than Freddy’s song and Bowie played the support role, if that makes sense. IIRC Bowie didn’t even perform the song live until he did a Freddy tribute concert in the 90s
It’s 90% Queen’s song. It started from a half finished tune they had recorded during the Sheer Heart Attack sessions (written by Taylor) called “Feel Like” but they never could find the glue to bring the song together until they ran into Bowie while recording Hot Space. Deacon came up with the bassline, Bowie and Freddie wrote some lyrics and the final song crystalized
Here’s the song in its unfinished form
It’s such an emotional song. That whole coda, for lack of a better word, starting with “and love’s such an old fashioned word” is so much longer than you’d expect it to be, and it keeps building and building telling us these truths we *really need* to hear, like someone grabbing you by the lapels telling you to LISTEN, only to drop right back down at the end. It gets my heart racing every time.
Yeah it brings out all the emotions in me and then it makes me think of Live Aid as well and how at a show with all these Giants this little skinny man Freddy just crushed everyone and stole the show. The song makes you think so much about yourself and the world and Freddy makes me think of what an actual STAR is.
I loved Queen as a kid: around 1980 or 81 I got the Live Killers album and I just thought they were the best. As a kid, I honestly thought Bowie was the far lesser artist to Queen.I was a very, very stupid kid because as an adult while I still like Queen, it’s not even close how much better Bowie was.
I would have assumed Queen didn’t have 40 good singles until I saw this list and, well, okay. I guess they were better than I thought.That Highlander song deserves to be higher up. Some of these are fun but not great. Bicycle Race? GTFO
Oh boy. Queen’s best song at #40 and actual filler that would never make a 5CD Best Of box set in the top 20. Talk about comment-bait.
No Ogre Battle or Black Queen? Queen II deserves a lot more love.
“We Will Rock You” is ‘interesting’ in that it’s a more or less a capella ditty with a guitar solo tacked on. It’s kind of amazing how enduring it has been. It’s just a chant. I, personally, don’t think it bears repeat listening. However, the fast version of the song that they played in concert, now that actually fucking rocks.
I am good with this. The usual fare sure but some deeper cuts I enjoy made the list. ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ and ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ were my first loves as they used great beats and told great stories.I personally loved the fact that Buddy and Baby in Baby Driver bonded over their ‘killer track’ Brighton Rock and the fact that Buddy’s brother played the Sheer Heart Attack album so loud Buddy knew it by heart. The look of them grooving out to Brian May owning that fat guitar sound just exemplifies how Queen fans are on the same wavelength even while being in 2 totally different mindsets. That and the both of them responding to Bats asking ‘what you ladies listening to?’ with a unanimous shout of “QUEEN!”Oh and one lone personal vote for Cool Cat. It was a late comer but I always dug that slow calypso rhythm and relaxed delivery. Good for a long slow drive in a beach town after surfing.
You missed “It’s Late” and “One Vision.”
purely for the GIMME GIMME GIMME FRIED CHICKEN, line at the end .
Not listed here but referred to, “Princes of the Universe,” the theme song Queen performed for the Highlander TV show starring Adrian Paul, was when I loved Queen before I knew what Queen was. Then I learned what Queen was and have been devoted ever since. This was a great write-up, too. Nice shout to Dwight Yoakam.
Princess of the Universe is actually from the movie. The show just reuses it.
The head which at this time has no name
At 54 I am too young to have really partook in the arena rock era but old enough to have appreciated the music. Queen (along with Styx, AC/DC, The Who, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath) got me through the horrid pop of the 80s and prepared me to love the Grunge that replaced it. I still have Queen on my regular mix for road trips.
Queen is the only big rock band I regret being too young to have seen. That sure would have been something.
Exactly!
Replying to you for the sake of conversation… Also, I’m not trolling.I just don’t get Queen. I have very broad tastes and I’m generally fine with post-60s rock and roll but I find Queen overrated. I like Under Pressure a lot but that’s about it. The rest of their hits don’t seem to me to be any better than any of the AOR-rock radio hits Gen Xers were blasted with in the 80s (Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Boston, the Who, Foreigner, Led Zep, etc.). I’ve never heard anything but their hits so maybe that’s where I’m going wrong. I like Under Pressure a lot but hate Bohemian Rhapsody because I’ve heard much better prog rock “suites” than that. Mercury is a great singer, sure, but it just seems like so much standard, boring rock music. Maybe it’s because I never heard much of them during my teen years and I’m too old now. Please recommend deeper cuts?
Now I’m HereComing SoonWe Will Rock You (fast version)
“Hammer to Fall” and “I Want it All” are two of my favorites on the list. Both are traditional rock songs. “Headlong” and “Invisible Man” are two other rockers.
I guess it depends on what type of AOR/Queen you want to hear. Sort of prog metal? Queen II comes to mind and that’s almost all deep cuts.
I remember being a Teenager alone with my girlfriend watching Queen at Live Aid. It was just stunningly majestic and memorable.
The Show Must Go On is far too low (top ten for me, especially given the context) and I’ve have found room for both It’s Late and These Are The Days of Our Lives ahead of some of the other stuff, but a solid list overall.
I’m sorry but any top 40 Queen list that doesn’t include “Liar”, “March of the Black Queen” or “Prophets Song” is invalid to me. I appreciate the write up though, it was a fun read.
Fuck slideshows but I love the music they did for Highlander. Princes of the Universe is so dope.
20. “I Want To Break Free” (1984)The video where we all realized that Roger Taylor had a cute pair of legs and didn’t look half bad as a girl.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is definitely overplayed. There have been vast periods of time that I couldn’t listen to it at all. But sometime during the last decade I was thrilled witnessing my daughters listen to it for the first time and fall in love with it. It made me feel strongly that every future generation will be amazed when they first hear it. I say it definitely, easily deserves that # 1 spot.And I get emotional over ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ every time I hear it. It’s just epic. Top 10 for me.And shout out to deep-track, ‘Dragon Attack’. Brian May gets a bit metal on that song.
“Show must go on” is too low on this list. I still love how over the top Queen songs are, but also how honest and earnest they are. A lot of bands are shallow with their songs, but there’s this young innocents to them. I was in a game of Destiny 2 with a teen, and I said to him, “We are gonna do this like a Queen song.” And he listed about 12 songs before he got to “Don’t Stop Me Now,” which was the song I wanted to pick, ”Damn, why did they have so many hits?”And also Brian May’s guitar work is more awesome as you grow older.
I need a lightning bolt of absurdity.
I wonder who was the bigger act at the time they recorded Under Pressure, Bowie or Queen.
I guess it depends on your definition. Bowie was a far greater cultural phenomenon, and definitely more influential, but Queen were probably shifting more units. Hence Bowie hiring Nile Rodgers and making Let’s Dance soon afterwards.
It’s nigh fucking impossible to ever get to comments on this bullshit website. I really miss the old Av club
I remember using “Get Down, Make Love” to test out stereos I was looking at back in 1976 or so, and getting some funny looks from other people in the shop. Good times…
Under Pressure is a terrible song. It’s popularity is baffling to me. Trite lyrics, a bass-line genuinely better used by Vanilla Ice, two lead singers who have produced better work on almost everything else they’ve done, the ghastly false drama build at the end and the most that’ll-do instrumental work from Queen pretty much of their whole career (no mean feat, considering News of the World).
I was living in London when Live Aid happened. A bunch of friends watched all or part of it at my house, between 5 and 20 people drinking all day long. I remember figuring I would to take a leak when Queen came on, maybe cook up some spaghetti to soak up the alcohol. They had lost all relevance during the punk era and honestly me and my mates thought they were kind of a joke. Everyting I had read about Freddie Mercury suggested he was much diminished.And then… That Set.If I had a one-time-only time machine, I would have to seriously consider going back to 1985 and finding some way to scrounge up tickets to Wembley, just so I could say I was there.
Two points …firstly kudos for including ‘39 its the least Queen sounding Queen song (to me anyway) and a weird space shanty about the problems of faster than light time dilation ..a subject that doesn’t crop up in songs as much as it should do.Secondly , I wont stand for the “A kind of Magic” shaming . Princes of the Universe is fantastic!Its cheesy , it has Christmas bells , and it has the line I have inside me blood of kings(yeah!) and yet rocks!Also bonus points for Gimme the Prize , Four and a half minutes of Queen rocking out including Clancy Brown monologing “Its better to burn out than fade away!”
Queen liked big butts before it was cool
I would have put Headlong and definitely One Vision on this list. I still can’t believe Freddy got away with “Fried Chicken” at the end.
“I’m In Love With My Car” could be replaced by many, many amazing songs off Queen II. That is all.
UGH – Get Down, Make Love is one of the worst (and most lunk-headed) songs from Queen.
I wonder why “White Men” didn´t make the List, which could also be an Anthem for the current Zeitgeist 😀
‘39 is my favorite song about relativity
Some of my personal favorite Queen songs.
at 3:43 Freddie Rings in the song with a beautiful melodic tone that makes the song fire!
Miracle is rarely talked about and often forgotten, but it’s the perfect Queen cheese platter.
One of the stranger Queen tracks and videos. It makes a reference to playing video games. Brian May’s laser shooting solo is as unique as it gets. Brilliant!
This track is blazing as af! Brian May’s solo will have you tearing down the walls!
This isn’t Queen. It’s Freddie’s solo work. I think this his best solo track. At 1:35 you’ll fall in love with Freddie all over again. He’s having so much fun in this track and music video. He’s so alive and his voice is so whimsical and elegant. It flies like an angel through the clouds.