Greatest Hits

by

Queen

Edit

How do I review what isn't here? Strong Queen fans will know all 17 songs. Most of their biggest hits are here. Most. Not all. Not even one of the biggest songs they've ever had.

Even an American Idol contestant knows "Bohemian Rhapsody" is part of the rock-n-roll canon. What was Hollywood Records thinking to leave out such a great hit?

What is here is mostly good. Freddie Mercury's range and dramatic intonations, paired with guitar maestro Brian May's capacity to ignite a note, and songs like "Killer Queen" go from being interesting to incredible.

Part of the problem was Queen. They had too many good hits gracing more than one genre. Most bands wish they had the difficulty of choosing greatest hits choices.

Questionable choices are obvious: "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy."

"Seven Seas" has a hard rock, guitar-driven sound but does not meet the usual Queen level of quality.

"Good Old" is a nice demonstration of Freddie Mercury's great voice, but lyrically is weak.

The closest economical solution is to buy instead "Queen - Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2" Get all the songs below except "Keep Yourself Alive." 34 songs in all.

Missing from the play list:

* Bohemian Rhapsody

* Under Pressure

* Tie Your Mother Down

* Keep Yourself Alive

* Radio Ga Ga

The play list:

* We Will Rock You

* We Are the Champions

* Another One Bites the Dust

* Killer Queen

* Somebody to Love

* Fat Bottomed Girls

* Bicycle Race

* You're My Best Friend

* Crazy Little Thing Called Love

* Now I'm Here

* Play the Game

* Seven Seas of Rhye

* Body Language

* Save Me

* Don't Stop Me Now

* Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy

* I Want to Break Free

Why four stars after criticizing what is missing? These are still great tunes, every one of them. The weakest song is still better than much of the radio fodder today.

Anthony Trendl

editor, HungarianBookstore.com

I'm starting to get angry at all these compilation CDs that are hitting the shelves. It's not just Queen it's all these bands that have been around for 20 + years. There are "Greatest Hits", "The Best of", "Classics", "Ultimate Collections" etc. ... but if you inspect them you always find 1 or 2 great songs on a different compilation and have to decide, "which songs can I live without?".

I thought I did this when I decided to go with Queen's Greatest Hits. During my inspection I concentrated on some of the minor songs, only to find out later that `Bohemian Rhapsody' was NOT on it. (Yeah my bad but COME ON!) So I thought "Do I return it and get the Platinum Collection?" Well there is a bunch of stuff (on the 3rd CD) that I'd never listen too and it's missing songs off of "Classic Queen" like `Tie Your Mother Down' and some others. So I went out and bought "Queen Classics" along with an empty CD case that holds two CDS. So now I can combine "Queen's Greatest Hits" and "Classic Queen" into my very own custom made "Very Best Greatest Hits Ultimate Collection of Queen".