A quick little post from me this month; what if Queen's trilogy of Greatest Hits compilations were done in the style of the Beatles' Red and Blue Albums? For this post, I'll be adhering to a couple of rules: each compilation must be able to fit onto a single CD (but still presented as four sides below), and the songs must be arranged into more or less chronological order by single release dates.
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Side A (18:09)
1. Keep Yourself Alive - 3:45
2. Liar - 6:24
3. Seven Seas of Rhye - 2:47
4. Killer Queen - 3:01
5. Stone Cold Crazy - 2:12
Side B (19:30)
6. Now I'm Here - 4:10
7. Bohemian Rhapsody - 5:55
8. I'm in Love with My Car - 3:05
9. You're My Best Friend - 2:50
10. '39 - 3:30
Side C (20:09)
11. Somebody to Love - 4:56
12. Tie Your Mother Down - 3:45 (single edit)
13. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy - 2:54
14. Long Away - 3:34
15. We Will Rock You - 2:01
16. We Are the Champions - 2:59
Side D (20:52)
17. Spread Your Wings - 4:34
18. It's Late - 6:26
19. Fat Bottomed Girls - 3:22 (single edit for CD; full version for vinyl)
20. Bicycle Race - 3:01
21. Don't Stop Me Now - 3:29
Total length: 78:40
Out of Queen's fifteen studio albums, their eponymous debut was, for some reason, not represented on any of their Greatest Hits compilations, although "Keep Yourself Alive" did appear on a few foreign variants of the first. It wasn't the only song to appear on alternate versions - "I'm in Love with My Car" appeared on the 2004 American edition as a bonus track, and "Teo Torriatte" appeared on the Japanese version, both 1981 and 2011. Unfortunately, that song didn't make the cut due to time constraints (sorry, Japan).
"Spread Your Wings" appeared on the Belgian, Spanish and German editions as an extra track, and the live version of "Tie Your Mother Down" was included on the Australian release; I went with the studio version instead. The other new additions were "Liar", "Stone Cold Crazy", "'39", "Long Away" and "It's Late". Although not released as a single, "Stone Cold Crazy" did make an appearance on Classic Queen in 1992, and "'39" was released as the B-side of "You're My Best Friend".
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Side A (20:06)
1. Love of My Life (Live) - 3:43 (single edit)
2. Crazy Little Thing Called Love - 2:42
3. Save Me - 3:48
4. Play the Game - 3:30
5. Another One Bites the Dust - 3:35
6. Flash's Theme - 2:48 (single mix)
Side B (18:29)
7. Under Pressure - 3:58 (Greatest Hits edit)
8. Las Palabras de Amor (The Words of Love) - 4:31
9. Back Chat - 4:12 (single mix)
10. Radio Ga Ga - 5:48
Side C (18:38)
11. I Want to Break Free - 4:18 (single mix)
12. It's a Hard Life - 4:08
13. Hammer to Fall - 3:40 (single mix)
14. Is This the World We Created...? - 2:13
15. Thank God It's Christmas - 4:19
Side D (21:01)
16. One Vision - 4:01 (single mix)
17. A Kind of Magic - 4:22
18. Friends Will Be Friends - 4:10
19. Who Wants to Live Forever - 4:57 (Greatest Hits edit)
20. Princes of the Universe - 3:31
Total length: 78:14
All of the tracks on Side A were originally on Greatest Hits, although the live version of "Love of My Life" was included on Argentinian, Brazilian, Mexican and Venezuelan releases instead of "Seven Seas of Rhye". "Under Pressure" was included on the original American and Canadian releases as it was the newest single at the time, although it would later be included on Greatest Hits II. Likewise, "I Want to Break Free" would appear on the 1992 American edition that served as a companion piece to Classic Queen. "Body Language" was also included, but I decided to ditch it in favor of "Back Chat".
"Las Palabras de Amor", "Thank God It's Christmas" and "Princes of the Universe" all ended up on Greatest Hits III, which, for some reason, was a mix of Queen singles, remixes and solo projects. Ideally, it would be a purely Queen release, but that's a whole other topic altogether. The last new addition was "Is This the World We Created"; otherwise, Side C would've been too short at a mere sixteen minutes.
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Side A (17:36)
1. I Want It All - 4:31 (Queen Rocks mix)
2. Breakthru - 4:08
3. The Invisible Man - 3:55
4. The Miracle - 5:02
Side B (19:54)
5. Innuendo - 6:31
6. I'm Going Slightly Mad - 4:22
7. Headlong - 4:38
8. The Show Must Go On - 4:23 (early fade-out)
Side C (22:46)
9. These Are the Days of Our Lives - 4:15
10. Heaven for Everyone - 4:37
11. Too Much Love Will Kill You - 4:20
12. I Was Born to Love You - 4:49
13. Let Me Live - 4:45
Side D (18:13)
14. You Don't Fool Me - 5:24
15. No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young) - 4:11
16. Let Me in Your Heart Again - 4:31
17. Face It Alone - 4:07
Total length: 78:29
The tracks on the first two sides all appeared on Greatest Hits II; "I Was Born to Love You" also appeared on the Japanese iTunes reissue as a bonus track. All other tracks except for the final two show up on Greatest Hits III. I could've easily titled it 1989-1997, but that would ignore everything that came out afterwards. The two final additions are "Let Me in Your Heart Again" from 2014's Queen Forever, and "Face It Alone", an outtake from The Miracle that was finally released as a single in 2022, essentially making it Queen's equivalent to the Beatles' "Now and Then".
Despite how controversial The Cosmos Rocks is, I wanted to include "C-lebrity" to represent the Paul Rodgers period, but again, due to wanting to fit everything onto a single CD, I ended up dropping it, leaving the 2000s unrepresented. Bit of a shame, really, because I really don't think that it should be ignored as if it never happened. Like it or not, it is a part of Queen's history.
However, perhaps for vinyl releases, "Scandal" would be included on Side A between "The Invisible Man" and "The Miracle", "These Are the Days of Our Lives" and "You Don't Fool Me" are respectively bumped up to Sides B and C, and for Side D, "C-lebrity" is included along with "Love Kills - The Ballad". This way, the first three sides each focus on the best of The Miracle, Innuendo and Made in Heaven, respectively, and the last side is the post-1995 period.
That all being said, it was a fun little exercise to try out, and I like how each compilation represents a specific time period for Queen; their early years and initial success (Red), their shift in sound and final touring years (Blue), and the final years of Freddie Mercury and afterward (Green). Truly a fab way to celebrate over fifty years of a great recording career by Her Majesty herself.
