Queen Album: “Greatest Hits I & II”

Queen is, without question, one of the greatest rock bands of all time. With their incomparable lead singer Freddie Mercury and their canon of some of the greatest songs ever to hit the airwaves, Queen are legends. And of course, with most legendary bands, they have several greatest hits collection out on the market for casual fans. In 1995, Hollywood Records released the two disc collection "Queen - Greatest Hits Vols. 1 & 2". It contains 34 tracks, is digitally remastered and has most of their hits. How does it hold up? Read on for the positives and negatives.

Positives:

-If you're a casual Queen fan who is only interesting owning their biggest hits, than this is an almost ideal collection, as you will find "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody To Love", "We Are The Champions", "Another One Bites The Dust" and all the other classic Queen hits.

-You will also get a lot of rarely heard tracks such as "Seven Seas Of Rhye", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Now I'm Here", "Save Me", and "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy".

-Disc two contains a lot of excellent European hits that the North American audiences might not be familliar with, such as "Radio Ga Ga", "I Want It All", "The Show Must Go On", "I Want To Break Free", "I'm Going Slightly Mad" and "Who Wants To Live Forever".

-The liner notes are excellent.

-All of the songs sound absolutely fantastic.

-It's relatively cheap and easy to find.

Negatives:

-The first disc does not fill the eighty minute time limit, clocking in at a mere 58:29. That means there was enough room to include "Tie Your Mother Down", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Stone Cold Crazy" and possibly "Body Language".

-If I'm not mistaken, "Bicycle Race" is edited.

-Disc two failed to include what might be my favorite Queen song ever, "These Are The Days Of Our Lives". I would've knocked off "One Vision" to include that song.

-Hollywood Records also has two single disc Queen collections out on the market, "Classic Queen" and "Greatest Hits". On their own, they don't really stand their ground, as both are missing a great many Queen classics. But when purchased together, you could not ask for a more comprehensive Queen collection, as they are even better than this collection. They include all the missing songs I mentioned as well as some other interesting gems. The only downside is that those cds do not include "Breakthru", "The Invisble Man", "Friends Will Be Friends", "Innuendo" and "It's A Hard Life". My advice is to get the two single disc collections and download the songs I just mentioned, so that way a casual fan will have all the Queen he or she will ever need.

Bottom line: as great as this collection, I recommend "Classic Queen" and "Greatest Hits", both purchased together. Download the songs on here that are missing from those two and you'll be set.

This double-CD is by far the most complete of all the greatest hits and best of collections by this theatrical UK band. Although they weren't always highly regarded by rock critics, Queen's popularity is remarkably enduring. That is perhaps explained by the fact that they didn't only offer over-the-top schlock-rock, but created remarkable versatile music, especially in the hit singles.

This is best demonstrated on Disc One, where the faux-classical Bohemian Rhapsody appears next to the funky dance classic Another One Bites The Dust. There's also the rockabilly flavoured Crazy Little Thing Called Love, power ballads like the impressive Somebody To Love and anthemic numbers like We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions.

On Disc Two my favorites include the catchy Under Pressure (with David Bowie) and the hypnotic, synth-driven Radio Ga Ga. Above all, Queen's strength lies in their gripping melodies, innovative arrangements and spectacular harmonies. Their best work dates from the seventies and eighties but even the later singles have lost none of their sing-along appeal.

This is a great compilation of ageless songs from one of the top UK bands of all time and it comes with a fact- and photo-filled booklet tracing their history and their achievements. An album set that definitely ought to be in every rock lover's collection.

Queen is one of my all time favorite groups, so it's no surprise that I really love this collection of songs. It also fixes up the mess created by Hollywood Records when they released "Classic Queen" and then "Greatest Hits".

One problem I do have with this collection is that I prefer the full versions of "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Hammer To Fall" over the single versions that appear on this collection. And why were other songs like "Under Pressure" and "I'm Going Slightly Mad" chopped up as well? The other problem I have with this collection is that it's missing "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Keep Yourself Alive" (the only thing that Hollywood did right was include them on "Classic Queen").

Putting those two things aside, I would recommend anyone who wants to get into Queen's music to start with this 2 CD set.

I'll tell you. 12 songs (six on each set). So it comes down to what you like. I'll take these six songs from Classic Queen:

1. Stone Cold Crazy

2. One Year of Love

3. Tie Your Mother Down

4. These are the Days of Our Lives

5. Keep Yourself Alive

6. Body Language

over these six songs from Greatest Hits I and II any day of the week:

1. Flash

2. Innuendo

3. It's a Hard Life

4. Breakthru

5. The Invisible Man

6. Friends Will be Friends

Any questions?

It is so hard to imagine Greatest Hits records these days. They all seem to be anticipated very well at first, but they all seem to lack a lot of great songs in the process. It just never ends. Even some of the greatest Rock N' Roll bands also have that problem. That comes with the case of Queen. Although Freddie Mercury died several years ago, his feeling for what Pop music is in the industry, was more imaginitive and creative than anything that has ever come out. Still, there are a whole amount of people who want to cash in on Queen. Recently, Britney Spears, Pink, and Beyonce Knowles conjured their version of We Will Rock You for a Pepsi commercial, which was the worst remake ever, considering they don't have what Queen had, a legacy.

Queen Greatest Hits 1 & 2, released in 1994, was a combination plate of the first two Queen hits collections. The songs that Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor created were all their own. The legacy Queen made is truly felt right here. The first disc contained hits from their days in the 70's and early 80's. The songs include a wide amount of hits including operatic classics Bohemian Rhapsody, Bicycle Race, and Somebody To Love, as well as classic Rock anthems like We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. The songs range here so well by Queen from Rock, R&B, Dance, Opera, and much more.

The second disc is where their popularity failed in the U.S. during the 80's, but still recieved massive airplay in Europe. The songs here are also widely recieved including Radio Ga Ga, The upbeat Invisible Man, Under Pressure with David Bowie, the dramatic Innuendo, and one of their most covered classics The Show Must Go On. The only dissapointment with this collection, is that a vast amount of songs here could've been added, including live performances, and songs like Tie Your Mother Down. Largely considering, the first disc was much shorther than the second one in the process.

Considering with this collection, a lot of fans might be torn into 2 different directions. In 2002, the colection was reissued with the Greatest Hits Volume 3. Another factor is that both collections are about the same price too. If you can't find this collection, get The Platinum Collection instead. It is one of the best Greatest Hits collections out there.