Greatest Hits | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Greatest hits album by | ||||
Released | 26 October 1981 | |||
Recorded | 1973–1981 | |||
Studio | Various | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 58:19 (UK edition) | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Various | |||
Queen chronology | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the British rock band Queen, released worldwide on 26 October 1981. [1] The album consisted of Queen's biggest hits since their first chart appearance in 1974 with "Seven Seas of Rhye", up to their 1980 hit "Flash" (though in some countries "Under Pressure", the band's 1981 chart-topper with David Bowie, was included). 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 1992, the US version of the album Classic Queen was released following the band's rekindled popularity in the nation. [2]
Greatest Hits is the band's best-selling album to date, with total sales of over 25 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. It reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, spending four weeks at the top and sold consistently well throughout the 1980s, becoming the fourth-biggest selling album of the decade. The single "Under Pressure", which was released the same week as Greatest Hits, also topped the UK Singles Chart.
As of October 2024, Greatest Hits has spent 1,125 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified 23× platinum with sales of over seven million copies, making it the best-selling album of all time in the UK.
Greatest Hits peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 in November 2020, the second-slowest ascent to the top ten of the US album chart in history. Among the longest charting albums in the US, as of November 2024, it has spent 618 weeks on the Billboard 200 and has been certified 9× platinum in the US. It has also been certified 15× platinum in Australia, 10× platinum in New Zealand, and 3× platinum in Canada. Following the release of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018, it re-entered the charts worldwide.
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 territories, 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 of which was released as a single in any country but appear on some regions' 1981 Hits release. In the UK, the album was limited to the Queen singles that had reached the top 20 in the UK singles chart up to that point, plus "We Will Rock You", which had been the B-side of "We Are the Champions".
The US ended up with its original mono edit of Queen's first single release, "Keep Yourself Alive", originally released in 1973 and re-released in the US in 1975, following the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody". The US version also added "Under Pressure", Queen's collaboration with David Bowie, which was released the same week as Greatest Hits and subsequently topped the UK Singles Chart and reached the top ten in many charts around the world. However, the song was not included on the European versions of Greatest Hits – according to Queen's business manager Jim Beach, this was because the longer manufacturing time required to press records in Europe meant that several hundred thousand copies of the album had already been pressed up before the song had been recorded. [3]
In Argentina and Brazil, the LP edition included the same track listing as the UK Greatest Hits, minus "Seven Seas of Rhye" and including "Love of My Life" ( Live Killers version). The CD version is the same as the British version.
The cover photo that appeared on the UK and US release was taken by Lord Snowdon at his home studio, using only natural light. For the 1981 release, the photo was skewed, but was later presented as it was originally taken for the 2011 re-release. [4] [5]
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 catalogue. The problem was that Elektra still held the US rights to that first 1981 collection (despite being Hollywood's US licensee). Hollywood Records decided not to release Greatest Hits II to the US market, but instead created their own collection, Classic Queen (1992), peaking at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. [2] 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"). [6] Some tracks were not even singles in the US ("One Year of Love") or anywhere ("Stone Cold Crazy"). [6] Though well received, this collection would eventually pose the problem of overlapping track lists in the future.
Later that year, Hollywood Records 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", "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.
Greatest Hits was released alongside Greatest Flix, a 60-minute compilation released on VHS video, LaserDisc, and CED Videodisc of all the videos Queen had made up until that point in chronological order, and Greatest Pix, a 96-page paperback book edited by Jacques Lowe which featured photos of the band taken by Neal Preston. [3] Although Greatest Flix only listed 17 videos on its sleeve, it contained two videos for "We Will Rock You". The video for "Killer Queen" had been shot especially for Greatest Flix, as no video had been made for the song on its original release in 1974. [3] In the US, the release of Greatest Flix was scheduled for 15 November 1981 on Warner Home Video, but distribution was switched to EMI Music after the band's management disagreed with Warner's recent decision to move to a rental-only programme instead of selling their videos. [7] In 1992, Hollywood Records released a VHS version to accompany the album, simply called Greatest Hits.
Greatest Flix (1981)
Note: On the sleeve notes of the video, "We Are the Champions" is incorrectly listed after the two versions of "We Will Rock You".
Greatest Hits (1992 US edition)
Note: New videos were created for Now I'm Here, Seven Seas Of Rhye and Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy for this collection, as they did not previously have music videos.
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [8] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [9] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [10] |
Initial reviews of the album in the British music press were negative. In NME Barney Hoskyns said, "All of [their songs], besides 'Another One Bites the Dust', are quite repulsive, unbelievably crass insults to their respective genres and uniformly vulgar music. It was only when Queen took vulgarity to its absolute limit that they stood out." [11] Melody Maker 's Adam Sweeting stated, "I've never been the slightest bit interested in Queen's ridiculous pomposity and Freddie just makes me snigger, but I suppose songs like 'Killer Queen' are sort of catchy, while anything as preposterous as 'We Will Rock You' deserves an award if only for bad taste". [12]
However, retrospective reviews have rated the album higher: Ira Robbins gave Greatest Hits a B+ rating in Entertainment Weekly upon its reissue in 1992, [9] and AllMusic awarded the record four and a half stars out of five. [8] In an interview in 2003 as part of the Arte television programme Music Planet 2Nite, Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien hailed the album as "impeccable" and "absolutely genius". [13]
In the UK, Greatest Hits debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and climbed to number one the following week, spending four weeks at the top. The album continued to sell well throughout the 1980s, appearing on several UK year-end charts, and by the end of the decade it had become the fourth-biggest selling album in the UK during the 1980s, with sales of over 1.9 million copies. [14] By 2006, Greatest Hits had become the best-selling album in the UK and the first album to sell more than five million copies there. [15] In February 2014, Greatest Hits became the first album in the UK to sell over six million copies, [16] [17] and it was claimed that one in three families in the UK owned a copy. [18] In June 2022, Greatest Hits spent its 1,000th week on the UK Albums Chart, and in July 2022, it reached seven million sales, with one in four households in the UK estimated to have a copy of the album. [19] As of October 2024, the album has spent 1,125 weeks in the top 100 of the UK Albums Chart. [20]
In the US, Greatest Hits sold moderately well on initial release in 1981, obtaining a platinum certification. [21] It reached a new peak of number 11 on the Billboard 200 chart on its reissue in 1992, [22] and finally made the top ten of the Billboard 200 in November 2020 when it peaked at number eight, as a result of a Walmart sale on various vinyl albums on 14 November 2020. The 39 years and one month that the album took to reach the top ten of the Billboard 200 is the second-longest ascent to the top ten in the history of the US album chart. [23] One of the longest charting albums in the US, as of November 2024 it has spent 618 weeks on the Billboard 200. [24] Greatest Hits has now been certified nine times platinum in the US for sales of nine million copies, making it the band's best-selling album in that country. [21] [25] It is also the band's best-selling album to date, with total sales of over 25 million copies. [26] [27]
This section includes the track listings for the original Greatest Hits in its various forms. For other compilations, including the second and third Greatest Hits albums, see the relevant articles.
On the 17-track UK editions, Freddie Mercury was the writer of ten of the songs, Brian May five and John Deacon two. Roger Taylor hadn't written any songs that had been released as singles for the band at that point.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Bohemian Rhapsody" (from A Night at the Opera , 1975) | Freddie Mercury | 5:57 |
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 | 3:22 |
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 | 3:48 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
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 | 3:00 |
Total length: | 58:44 |
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 in mono, from Queen , 1973) | May | 3:32 |
14. | "Play the Game" | 3:30 | |
Total length: | 47:58 |
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" | 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" (single version, from A Day At The Races, 1976) | May | 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 |
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" | 3:34 | |
16. | "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" | 2:55 | |
17. | "I Want to Break Free" (single version, from The Works , 1984) | Deacon | 4:22 |
Total length: | 58:43 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
18. | "I'm in Love with My Car" (rare original single mix, 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 | 3:52 |
Total length: | 69:17 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
18. | "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" (From A Day at the Races, 1976) | May | 5:07 |
Total length: | 63:00 |
In addition to the variations above, the official biography Queen: As It Began by Jacky Gunn and Jim Jenkins states the following variations on the original UK track listing:[ citation needed ]
Queen
Additional personnel (original UK release)
Additional personnel (original North American release)
Additional personnel (1991 North American release)
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Argentina (CAPIF) [144] | Diamond | 506,916 [145] |
Australia (ARIA) [146] | 15× Platinum | 1,050,000^ |
Austria (IFPI Austria) [147] | 4× Platinum | 200,000* |
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil) [148] | Platinum | 250,000* |
Canada (Music Canada) [149] | 3× Platinum | 300,000^ |
Finland (Musiikkituottajat) [150] | Platinum | 55,058 [150] |
France (SNEP) [151] | 2× Platinum | 200,000‡ |
Germany (BVMI) [152] | 7× Gold | 1,750,000^ |
Italy (FIMI) [153] sales since 2009 | 2× Platinum | 100,000‡ |
Japan (RIAJ) [154] | Gold | 100,000^ |
Netherlands (NVPI) [155] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [156] | 10× Platinum | 150,000‡ |
Poland (ZPAV) [157] | Gold | 10,000‡ |
Portugal (AFP) [158] | Gold | 10,000^ |
South Korea | — | 536,546 [159] |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [160] | Gold | 50,000^ |
Sweden (GLF) [161] | Gold | 50,000^ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [162] | 5× Platinum | 250,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [163] | 25× Platinum | 7,500,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [21] 1981 release | 9× Platinum | 9,000,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [21] 1992 release | 5× Platinum | 5,000,000‡ |
Summaries | ||
Worldwide | — | 25,000,000 [26] |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Date | Region | Label | Format | Catalog number |
---|---|---|---|---|
26 October 1981 | United Kingdom | EMI | LP / cassette | EMTV 30 |
United States | Elektra | LP | 5E-564 | |
1990 | Soviet Union | Melodiya | LP | А60 00703 001 [164] |
15 September 1992 | United States | Hollywood | CD | 61265 |
17 August 2004 | United States | Hollywood | CD | 2061-62465-2 |
3 January 2011 | United Kingdom | Island | CD | 2758364 |
Number Ones is a greatest hits album by American singer Michael Jackson. It was released on November 18, 2003, by Epic Records. Number Ones was Jackson's first standalone compilation album with Epic Records, after the release of the first disc of HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I in 1995. The album included Jackson's singles that reportedly reached number 1 in charts around the world, hence the album's name. Number Ones also features the last original single released during Jackson's lifetime, "One More Chance", released four days after the release of the album.
Greatest Hits is a posthumous double-disc greatest hits album by American rapper 2Pac, released by Amaru Entertainment, Death Row Records, Interscope Records, and Jive Records on November 24, 1998.
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Greatest Hits is a greatest hits album released by American rock band the Foo Fighters on November 3, 2009.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American rock band Bon Jovi, released on October 29, 2010.
Greatest Hits... So Far!!! is the first greatest hits album by American singer-songwriter Pink. It was released on November 12, 2010, by Jive Records, in celebration of Pink's first decade on the music scene. The album features Pink's biggest hits from all her studio albums. Its track list differs depending on region, with four new tracks, only two of which are included in the North American edition.
Diamonds is a greatest hits album by English musician Elton John spanning his hits from 1970 to 2016. The album was released on 10 November 2017. It was released in a single disc version, a 2-CD version, a 3-CD deluxe box set, and a 2-LP vinyl version. The two disc and vinyl versions have either as many or fewer songs than the previous multi-platinum collection.
Bohemian Rhapsody: The Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the Queen biographical film of the same name. The soundtrack features many of the band's songs and unreleased recordings including tracks from their legendary concert at Live Aid in 1985. The soundtrack was released by Hollywood Records and Virgin EMI Records on 19 October 2018, on CD, cassette and digital formats. The soundtrack was later released on 8 February 2019, as a vinyl double album specially cut at Abbey Road Studios. A limited and much sought after double picture disc edition of the album, as well as a 7" coloured single featuring the original "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"I'm in Love with My Car" pairing, was also released on Record Store Day, 13 April 2019. The disc artwork takes its inspiration from the photography of Denis O'Regan. In November 2019, the soundtrack received an American Music Award for Top Soundtrack.
Queen did their Greatest Hits, and the first one is impeccable, isn't it? It's absolutely genius.