Greatest Hits (Queen album)

Greatest Hits

1981 UK, U.S., Canada and Japan editions
Greatest hits by Queen
Released November 8, 1981
Genre Rock
Length 57:20 (UK edition)
Label Parlophone (UK)
Elektra (US, Canada, Japan)
Hollywood (US)
Producer Queen, various
Professional reviews
Queen chronology
Greatest Hits
(1981)		 Greatest Hits II
(1991)
Alternate cover
1992 U.S. edition

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the British rock group Queen. When released in November 1981, the record consisted of Queen's best-selling singles since their first chart appearance in 1974 with Seven Seas of Rhye, until their most recent album at the time, The Game. There was no universal track listing or cover art for the album, and each territory's tracks were dependent on what singles had been released there and which were successful. In some cases, despite the band's popularity, not enough songs were issued as singles to fill a compilation album, so album tracks were used as filler. In some countries Under Pressure was included, which had been released as a single earlier in the year.

In the United Kingdom, Queen's Greatest Hits spent four weeks at number one after release, eventually becoming the country's best-selling album of all time.[1] Combined with Greatest Hits II, it became the definitive Queen compilation. The 17-track British Greatest Hits disc was released in the U.S. on its own for the first time, with a few bonus tracks, in 2004 under the name Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You Edition, which by 2006 had sold 522,000 units, exceeding the record companies expectations. The compilation is Queen's most commercially successful album ever, having sold more than 25 million copies, rendering it one of the best-selling albums worldwide.

Contents

History

There was no universal track listing or cover art for the Greatest Hits album, and each territory's tracks were dependent on what singles were released there and what tracks charted. In some cases, despite the band's popularity, not enough songs were issued as singles to fill a compilation album, and a few album tracks were used as filler. Some examples of these were "Sweet Lady" and "Love of My Life", neither was released as a single in any country, but appear on some regions' 1981 Hits release. In the UK and the U.S., where solid numbers could be collected, the standard was raised again by only including top twenty Hits.

The U.S. ended up with its original edit of Queen's first single release, "Keep Yourself Alive", which had been re-released in the U.S. in 1975 (original release was 1973) after the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Also, because of the delay in release dates between the UK (out first) and the U.S. (almost a month later), the U.S. was able to add "Under Pressure" (Queen's duet with David Bowie) to its Hits collection, as it was released during that interim.

In Argentina and Brazil, the LP edition included the same list of UK Greatest Hits minus "Seven Seas of Rhye", and including "Love of My Life" (Live Killers version). CD version is the same as the British.

The album was spotlighted in a different way in 1990, when Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman referred to the curious (and fictional) way that any cassette tape left in a car for more than two weeks will turn into a copy of Queen's Greatest Hits in their novel Good Omens.

In 1991, Queen sought to issue a second Greatest Hits collection worldwide, this time with a standard track listing. However, the band had just changed record labels in the US, from Capitol to Hollywood Records, who were keen on a massive promotion of the band's back catalog. The problem was that Elektra still held the US rights to that first 1981 collection (despite being Hollywood's US licencée). Hollywood Records decided to not release Greatest Hits II to the U.S. market, but instead created their own collection, Classic Queen (1992). This compilation was made up of tracks such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Under Pressure" (which had already appeared on the Elektra 1981 Hits collection) as well as newer tracks ("A Kind of Magic" and "Radio Ga Ga"). Some tracks were not even singles in the U.S. ("One Year of Love") or anywhere ("Stone Cold Crazy"). Though well received, this collection would eventually pose the problem of overlapping track lists in the future.

Hollywood Records, later that year, re-released a companion collection Greatest Hits with similar artwork (on a red background, where Classic Queen was on royal blue). Commonly referred to as the Red Greatest Hits, it features most of the '70s tracks absent from "Classic Queen" (including "Another One Bites the Dust" [1980], "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Killer Queen").

In 2004, to promote the Las Vegas production of the musical "We Will Rock You", Hollywood Records released Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You Edition which was the UK Greatest Hits with three bonus tracks.

Track listing

This section includes the track listings for the original Greatest Hits and closely-related albums only. For other compilations, including the second and third Greatest Hits albums, see the relevant articles. On this album Mercury has ten songs, Brian May has five and John Deacon has two. Roger Taylor had not released any singles with the group at that time.

1981 UK edition (Parlophone)
Has a photograph of the band as its cover.
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Bohemian Rhapsody" (from A Night at the Opera, 1975) Freddie Mercury 5:56
2. "Another One Bites the Dust" (from The Game, 1980) John Deacon 3:36
3. "Killer Queen" (from Sheer Heart Attack, 1974) Mercury 2:57
4. "Fat Bottomed Girls" (single version, from Jazz, 1978) Brian May 3:16
5. "Bicycle Race" (from Jazz, 1978) Mercury 3:01
6. "You're My Best Friend" (from A Night at the Opera, 1975) Deacon 2:52
7. "Don't Stop Me Now" (from Jazz, 1978) Mercury 3:29
8. "Save Me" (from The Game, 1980) May 3:52
9. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (from The Game, 1980) Mercury 2:42
10. "Somebody to Love" (from A Day at the Races, 1976) Mercury 4:56
11. "Now I'm Here" (from Sheer Heart Attack, 1974) May 4:10
12. "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" (from A Day at the Races, 1976) Mercury 2:54
13. "Play the Game" (from The Game, 1980) Mercury 3:33
14. "Flash" (single version, from Flash Gordon, 1980) May 2:48
15. "Seven Seas of Rhye" (from Queen II, 1974) Mercury 2:47
16. "We Will Rock You" (from News of the World, 1977) May 2:01
17. "We Are the Champions" (from News of the World, 1977) Mercury 2:59
Total length:
 57:20
1981 U.S. and Canada edition
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Another One Bites the Dust"     3:37
2. "Bohemian Rhapsody"     5:58
3. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"     2:44
4. "Killer Queen"     3:02
5. "Fat Bottomed Girls"     3:23
6. "Bicycle Race"     3:01
7. "Under Pressure" (later included on Hot Space, 1982) Queen, David Bowie 4:05
8. "We Will Rock You"     2:02
9. "We Are the Champions"     3:01
10. "Flash"     2:49
11. "Somebody to Love"     4:58
12. "You're My Best Friend"     2:52
13. "Keep Yourself Alive" (Single version - mono, 1973) May 3:32
14. "Play the Game"     3:30
Total length:
 47:58
1981 Japan edition
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Bohemian Rhapsody"     5:55
2. "Another One Bites the Dust"     3:33
3. "Killer Queen"     3:00
4. "Fat Bottomed Girls"     3:22
5. "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"     2:32
6. "Don't Stop Me Now"     3:28
7. "Save Me"     3:48
8. "Under Pressure" (later included on Hot Space, 1982) Queen, David Bowie 4:05
9. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"     2:42
10. "Somebody to Love"     4:55
11. "Now I'm Here"     4:15
12. "Teo Torriatte"     5:00
13. "You're My Best Friend"     2:50
14. "Play the Game"     3:28
15. "Flash's Theme A.K.A. Flash"     2:47
16. "We Will Rock You"     2:00
17. "We Are the Champions"     2:58
Total length:
 60:37
1992 U.S. edition
Has a red cover with the Queen crest design.
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "We Will Rock You"     2:02
2. "We Are the Champions"     3:01
3. "Another One Bites the Dust"     3:37
4. "Killer Queen"     3:01
5. "Somebody to Love"     4:56
6. "Fat Bottomed Girls (LP version)"     4:16
7. "Bicycle Race"     3:02
8. "You're My Best Friend"     2:51
9. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"     2:43
10. "Now I'm Here"     4:14
11. "Play the Game"     3:31
12. "Seven Seas of Rhye"     2:48
13. "Body Language" (from Hot Space, 1982) Mercury 4:33
14. "Save Me"     3:48
15. "Don't Stop Me Now"     3:30
16. "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"     2:55
17. "I Want to Break Free" (from The Works, 1984) Deacon 4:22
Total length:
 58:43
2004 U.S. edition (Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You)
Same track listing as UK 1981 edition, followed by three additional tracks.
No. Title Writer(s) Length
18. "I'm in Love with My Car" (From A Night at the Opera, 1975) Roger Taylor 3:12
19. "Under Pressure" (from Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl, 2004)   3:39
20. "Tie Your Mother Down" (from Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl, 2004) May 6:22
Total length:
 69:17

Charts

Country Peak position Certification Sales
United Kingdom 1[2] 19x (formally 11x) Platinum*[3] 5,600,000[1]
United States 11[4] 8x Platinum[5] 8,500,000
Germany 1 7x Gold 2,000,000
Australia 1 14x Platinum 1,500,000
Canada 1 3x Platinum 500,000
Austria 1 4x Platinum 250.000
Argentina 1 7x Platinum 500.000
France 1 2xPlatinum 750,000
South Korea 600,000
Italy 6x Platinum 1,000,000
Israel Gold 20,000
Switzerland 5[6] 5x Platinum 300,000
Brazil Platinum 300,000
Netherlands Platinum 300,000
Spain 1 500,000
Japan 9 Gold 200,000
New Zealand 1 9x Platinum 200,000
Denmark 2x Platinum 100,000
Finland 3[7] 2x Platinum 55,000
Portugal 1 Gold 20,000
Greece Gold 25,000
Singapore Platinum 200,000
Sweden 2x Platinum 150.000
Czech Republic Gold 100,000
Hong Kong Gold 15,000
Preceded by
Shaky by Shakin' Stevens		 UK Albums Chart number one album
November 14, 1981 – December 11, 1981		 Succeeded by
Chart Hits '81 by Various Artists

Release history

Date Region Label Catalog number
November 2, 1981 United Kingdom EMI/Parlophone
November 3, 1981 United States Elektra Records 564
September 15, 1992 United States Hollywood Records 61265
August 17, 2004 United States Hollywood Records 162465

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Queen head all-time sales chart, BBC, 2006-11-16, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6151050.stm 
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (2006), British Hit Singles & Albums, London: Guinness World Records Limited 
  3. ↑ Certified Awards, British Phonographic Industry, http://www.bpi.co.uk/platinum/platinum.html 
  4. ↑ Whitburn, Joel, The Billboard Albums, Record Research 
  5. ↑ &ndash Certified Awards, Recording Industry Association of America, http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=greatest%20hits&artist=queen&format=&sort=Artist&perPage=25 &ndash 
  6. ↑ Queen, Swiss Charts, http://swisscharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Queen 
  7. ↑ Queen, Finnish Charts, http://finnishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Queen 
Queen
Brian May · Roger Taylor
Freddie Mercury · John Deacon
Studio albums
Queen · Queen II · Sheer Heart Attack · A Night at the Opera · A Day at the Races · News of the World · Jazz · The Game · Hot Space · The Works · A Kind of Magic · The Miracle · Innuendo · Made in Heaven
Soundtracks
Flash Gordon
Live albums
Live Killers · Live Magic · At the Beeb · Live at Wembley '86 · Five Live (with George Michael) · Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl · Queen Rock Montreal
Compilations
Greatest Hits · Greatest Hits II · Classic Queen · The 12" Collection · Queen Rocks · Greatest Hits III · Stone Cold Classics · The A–Z of Queen, Volume 1 · Absolute Greatest
Box sets
The Complete Works · Box of Tricks · Ultimate Queen · The Crown Jewels · The Platinum Collection · The Singles Collection Volume 1 · The Singles Collection Volume 2 · The Singles Collection Volume 3 · The Singles Collection Volume 4
Videography
We Will Rock You · The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert · Greatest Video Hits 1 · Queen at Wembley · Queen Rocks · Greatest Video Hits 2 · We Are the Champions: Final Live in Japan · Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl · Queen Rock Montreal
Tours
Sheer Heart Attack Tour · A Night at the Opera Tour · Summer Gigs 1976 · A Day at the Races Tour · News of the World Tour · Jazz Tour · Crazy Tour · The Game Tour · Hot Space Tour · The Works Tour · Magic Tour
Related articles
Discography · Awards · Live performances · Songs · Queen + Paul Rodgers · Ibex · Larry Lurex · Smile · The Cross · Queen: The eYe · We Will Rock You (casts) · Queen at the Ballet · Deacy Amp · The Official International Queen Fan Club · The Mercury Phoenix Trust · Mountain Studios · Red Special · Spike Edney · Jim Beach · John Reid · SingStar Queen · Return of the Champions · The Cosmos Rocks · Live in Ukraine
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