Top Ten Queen Songs

Top Ten Queen Songs

Queen

Queen is a band that was formed in 1970 in England with primarily four members, lead singer Freddie Mercury, lead guitarist and vocals Brian May, Roger Taylor who played drums and vocals and last but not least John Deacon who played bass guitar.

Originally May and Taylor were performing for a band called Smile, but when Freddie Mercury joined they agreed to call their new band Queen.

The rest is history as they produced many albums and singles and acheived international fame and made a ton of money in the process.

This is a list of their top 10 songs of all time.

Number 10: I want to break free

While not the most popular Queen song, I think this song is underrated and really should be higher on this list. This song might be interpreted to mean that Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury was trying to show that he wanted to break free from his life. But the actual reason they made this song is because they were just trying to poke fun at popular UK TV Show Coronation Street.

Hitting number 1 on the charts in six different countries, though notably the US was not one of them. Simply because they based the song on a British TV show which Americans didn’t watch. Also since they had to compete with Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna among others in the mid-eighties.

Number 9: Killer Queen

One of the most well known Queen songs, maybe because it has their band name in the song. Mercury himself said that this song is about a local prostitute he knew, but many Queen fans don’t think this is the real meaning. They think it’s really about the band itself.

This song wasn’t as popular as “I Want To Break Free” worldwide but it did do better than it in the US, peaking at 12 on Billboards 100, as opposed to “I Want To Break Free” which peaked at 45 in the US.

Number 8: The show must go on

This one is probably the most meaningful Queen song besides for “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Released in 1991 just six weeks before Freddie Mercury died, other band members including Brian May had reportedly told Mercury to stop making the song because he was so ill. But Freddie being Freddie told them not to worry about him, so he just downed a few shots of vodka and then proceeded to have a great recording session finishing the recording of the song.

The song wasn’t meant to be about this but it quickly became popular to explain the song to mean that even though Freddie Mercury had HIV/AIDS and was seriously sick he still managed to create this masterpiece.

Peaking at 40 on the US Weekly charts this was a great success of a song especially since Mercury was so ill at the making of this song.

Number 7: Under pressure

It is said that this particular Queen song was made when the band members and David Bowie went out to drink one night and made this song based on the stresses of life. Some believe that this song is about people frowning upon Freddie Mercury’s sexuality as he had come out as bisexual prior. While others say this song is about just the plain responsibilities of love and marriage.

This song just like the last one on this list peaked at 40 in the US charts. This song was really popular for some reason in Europe in countries such as France, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands among other countries.

This song was not initially popular at all, but it gained popularity very swiftly after it was performed live by Queen at the huge Live Aid concert, which was made in order to raise money for a famine in Africa.

Number 6: Crazy little thing called love

This one is funny because it sounds kind of like Elvis Presley a bit. But Freddie Mercury said that he wrote it in his bathtub. Inspired by his previous marriage to Mary Austin and his ongoing love for her. He is singing about how crazy love actually is, and how hard it is to make it work out.

This one was popular right off the bat and reached number 1 on the charts in five countries including the US, which is very impressive for a song created in ten-minutes in a bathtub.

He said it was to his advantage that he wasn’t very good at playing the guitar because it forced him to make the song very simple and simple is often better for pop songs.

Mercury had a knack for having an extreme talent for composing pop and rock songs.

Number 5: Who wants to live forever

This one also had a quite unusual beginning which completely suites this band. Brian May was sitting at the back of a car when he was thinking about the 20-minute scene in The Highlander when a character dies, sorry I never watched it. This gave him an idea why doesn’t he make a song about living forever. In the film version Freddie Mercury does all of the vocals, but in the album version May does the vocals for the first verse only and Mercury does the rest.

When recording this song Queen also had Michael Kamen and the National Philharmonic Orchestra which provided the strings, brass and the percussion. John Deacon didn’t take part in this production or the performances.

This song didn’t do well at all in the charts, not even making the US’s top 100 Billboard, making it at 77^th in the UK and peaking at number 2 in Germany.

This soon became a popular funeral song as it was voted the fifth most popular funeral song in England.

Number 4: Somebody to love

Somebody to Love is about a man asking God why even though he works so hard he still can’t find love. At the end of the song this man accepts hope and decides to keep trying.This song was sung by Queen in a gospel style which was inspired by the music of all-time great Aretha Franklin.

While this may not be one of their most popular songs it’s this high on the list partially because this was one of the bands favourite songs, so it must be good.

It peaked at number nine in the US and number five in Canada, though it was at number two in the UK for a time.

This was an especially meaningful song for Freddie Mercury because of his complicated love life.

Number 3: Don’t stop me now

This song is considered by many to be one of the greatest rock song of all time. So why is it number 3 on this list and not one?

Simply because Queen was such an amazing band that they had so many songs that were all time greats.

This song is a highly energetic, uplifting song. It’s possible that this is because the singer and composer of this song, Freddie Mercury was in a very high and exhilarating period of his life.

So the excitement and pleasure the lead singer had when singing this song caught on to many of the fans and is still on of the most popular rock songs today.

It hit #1 on UK’s Rock and Metal charts in 2018 and was on the charts in many other countries.

Number 2: We are the champions/We will rock you

These two masterpieces are put together since they are usually performed one after the other at concerts and the like.

We are the champions: This is a very recognizable song partly because it was the main theme song for the 1994 World Cup. What’s even more amazing about this song is that the composer of this song, again lead singer Freddie Mercury had football (soccer in Canada and the US) in mind when writing this song!

It has an overall theme of Mercury always wanting to be be victorious and the greatest.

We will rock you: This one may be even more well known than We are the champions, since the beat of CLAP-CLAP-STOMP is extremely popular in the whole world. It had that beat not by accident John Deacon who wrote the song made that beat on purpose so that it could better engage the fans at Queen live events.

It peaked at #7 on US Hot Rock Songs in 2018.

Number 1: Bohemian rhapsody

This one practically speaks for itself as one of the most amazing songs of all time. This is probably the greatest rock song of all time.

There is much specualtion as to what message Mercury was trying to convey here. English author Tim Rice believes that this song is primarily about Mercury saying that he’s gay. With various lines in the song suggesting that he’s gotten rid of his straight self and is now fully engaged in his gay life.

It reached #1 in the charts in 12 countries and recieved an incredible amount of awards and accolades.