Greatest Hits (Queen album)

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Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits cover
1981 UK and U.S. editions
Greatest hits by Queen
Released November 2, 1981
Genre Rock
Label EMI/Parlophone
Producer Queen, various
Professional reviews
Queen chronology
Flash Gordon
(1980)		 Greatest Hits
(1981)		 Hot Space
(1982)
Alternate cover
1992 U.S. edition
1992 U.S. edition

Greatest Hits is a 1981 Queen compilation. The record, released on November 2, 1981, is the UK's all-time best-selling album.[1] Combined with Greatest Hits II, it became the definitive Queen compilation. While a domestic release with different tracks but the same cover art was available in the U.S. in 1981, the British release was available to United States customers only by import until the 1995 release of Greatest Hits I & II, which combined the two discs. The seventeen-track UK 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.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1981, Queen released Greatest Hits worldwide. However, there was no universal track listing or even cover art. 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 were released as singles 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. This rigid criterion was a trademark of Queen's desire to only market the best. Queen's official website queenonline.com (QOL) issued a "Greatest Video Hits 1 - Official Press Release on **Fri 20 Sep 02**" stating "Compiled directly from the band's phenomenally successful 'Greatest Hits "1"' album, which has to date sold in excess of 43 million copies worldwide".The hits on the album collectively sold over 110 million worldwide. In 2006, QOL informed that Greatest Hits 1 has sold in excess of 5.6 million in the UK, making it UK's best selling album ever.

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 edition included the same list of UK Greatest Hits minus "Seven Seas of Rhye", and including "Love of My life" (Live Killers version).

Jumping ahead to 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 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 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.

[edit] 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.

1981 UK edition
Has a photograph of the band as its cover.
# Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Bohemian Rhapsody" (from A Night at the Opera, 1975) Freddie Mercury 5:55
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 4:16
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 3:48
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
57:20
1981 U.S. edition
# 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" (from 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" (from Queen, 1973) May 3:32
14. "Play the Game"     3:28
48:34
1992 U.S. edition
Has a red cover with the Queen crest design.
# 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"     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"     4:22
58:43
2004 U.S. edition (Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You)
Same track listing as UK 1981 edition, followed by three additional tracks.
# 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, 1982)   3:39
20. "Tie Your Mother Down" (from Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl, 1982) May 6:22
69:17

[edit] Charts

Country Peak position Certification Sales
United States 11[2] 8x Platinum[3] 8,500,000
United Kingdom 1[4] 18x Platinum[5] 5,500,000[1]
Germany 1 3x Platinum 1,500,000
Australia 1 14x Platinum 1,000,000
Canada 1 3x Platinum 800,000
Austria 1 4x Platinum 200.000
Argentina 1 7x Platinum 450.000
France 1 2xPlatinum 700,000
South Korea 560,000
Italy 1,000,000
Israel Gold 20,000 Switzerland 5[6] 5x Platinum 250,000
Brazil Platinum 250,000
Netherlands Platinum 250,000
Spain 1 500,000
Japan 9 Gold 150,000
New Zealand 1 9x Platinum 150,000
Denmark 2x Platinum 100,000
Finland 3[7] 2x Platinum 55,000
Portugal 1 Gold 20,000
Greece Gold 25,000
Singapore Platinum 150,000
Czech Republic Gold 100,000
Hong Kong Gold 300,000
Preceded by
Shaky by Shakin' Stevens		 UK Albums Chart number one album
December 14, 1981 - December 19, 1981		 Succeeded by
The Visitors by ABBA

[edit] 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

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Queen head all-time sales chart, BBC, 2006-11-16, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6151050.stm> 
  2. ^ Whitburn, Joel, The Billboard Albums, Record Research 
  3. ^ Certified Awards, Recording Industry Association of America, <http://riaa.com/gp/database/> 
  4. ^ Roberts, David (2006), British Hit Singles & Albums, London: Guinness World Records Limited 
  5. ^ Certified Awards, British Phonographic Industry, <http://www.bpi.co.uk/platinum/platinum.html> 
  6. ^ Queen, Swiss Charts, <http://swisscharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Queen> 
  7. ^ Queen, Finnish Charts, <http://finnishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Queen> 
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Queen
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Queen I Tour · Queen II Tour · 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 ·
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