Interesting question...

My five Queen tracks to proselytize with:

The March Of The Black Queen
The Prophet's Song
Good Company
The Millionaire Waltz
Innuendo

I generally recommend people the diversity of SHA, ANATO, ADATR and NOTW, since they cover so many styles of music on those four records.

QueenZone's screwing up on me and not posting stuff the right way for some reason. :P

I finally decided to take a look back at this thread and realized it had gotten a much better response than I had anticipated. Many good lists, I like a lot of them.

[QUOTE] [b]malicedoom wrote:[/b]
Now THIS is an awesome thread. Great idea.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE] [b]master marathon runner wrote:[/b]
(Good post by the way)[/QUOTE]
Thanks!

[QUOTE] [b]1sharppencil wrote:[/b]
diverse enough? that's why I love this band...[/QUOTE]
Same! I love musical diversity, as opposed to having the exact same mood in almost every song.

[QUOTE] [b]MadTheSwine73 wrote:[/b]
One from each album that aren't hits:
Great King Rat
The March of the Black Queen
In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited
The Prophet's Song
Long Away
My Melancholy Blues
Jealousy
Rock It (Prime Jive)
The Hero
Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)
I Go Crazy
One Year of Love
Was It All Worth It
Ride The Wild Wind
A Winter's Tale[/QUOTE]
I like that, that's a good variation of the original "Just pick 5 songs" question.

[QUOTE] [b]Panchgani wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]ParisNair wrote:[/b]
if i wanna shock someone i'd make them listen to rain must fall.[/QUOTE]
I am slightly ashamed ... Rain Must Fall makes my list of one song per album.
[/QUOTE]
That's okay, I like RMF a lot too! Don't really understand why it's generally pretty hated, but oh well. Same goes for Keep Passing the Open Windows.

[QUOTE] [b]Bigfish wrote:[/b]
not again..[/QUOTE]
Oh, has this been done before? Ah well, nothing's original anymore.

[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b]
Just 5 ? That will pretty hard.
Liar
'39
The Prophet's Song
The Millionaire Waltz
Dead On Time
Was It All Worth It ?
I'm sorry, I just can't go below 6[/QUOTE]
I made it just 5 to make the question somewhat challenging, but you can cheat if you want.

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
don't understand why the question should ever be necessary ...unless queen really are a singles-only band not to be taken seriously on an album level?
just a thought: but this may be the case. after all whenever "greatest album lists of all time" are constructed you always get only queen compilations appearing...no opera or races.
whereas other rock bands don't have "best ofs" appearing in these lists...even the who and beatles who released loads of singles....
beatles - revolver, sg pepper, abbey rd
who - live at leeds, who's next
as for floyd and zeppelin - who have both released compilations....only proper studio albums make these lists
so perhaps that's it? queen are a joke rock band[/QUOTE]
They're not a joke band, of course, but not really respected for what they really are nearly as much as they need to be. I know several people that are legitimate fans of classic rock (they know a lot about the back catalogues of Led Zep, The Beatles and such) who don't really think much of Queen mainly because they're tired of hearing Bo Rhap and WWRY/WWATC. That's partially why I created this thread in the first place. So, unfortunately, for me anyway, the question is somewhat necessary.

I totally agree with The Real Wizard's comments. I never really thought of it that way, that Queen's biggest songs are bigger than them, so most of their back catalogue gets lost in the mix, whereas bands like The Beatles are more popular as a band than for just a few individual songs.

"Are there single Beatle tracks that are as iconic as BoRhap and We Are The Champions? I honestly don't think so."

I'm not a Beatles fan by any stretch, but seriously?

i agree ^^^^
there are at least half a dozen beatles tracks as iconic as bo-rhap

1. yesterday - the most performed/copied/covered song in history (after happy birthday)
2. hey jude - 7 mins long and always played in full on radio
3. strawberry fields/penny lane - the beatles double-A - shows to very contrasting elements of the band at that time...and both still stand up as classics....strawberry fields first big hit to use tape reversing techniques as an instrument
4. hard days night - still that opening chord is a "mystery"
5. let it be - the perfect rock/pop ballad.

May I add:

6. Something
7.  Michelle

brENsKi, I have to say I kind of disagree. Some of those songs are pretty popular, sure (although I'd be a bit hard-pressed to find non-Beatles fans singing Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields). Bohemian Rhapsody is played on the radio over and over and over again where I am, people can have huge sing-a-longs with it, on scales that Let it Be and Hey Jude may come close to but not quite. Did you notice how, at the Olympics opening ceremony, a LOT of people were not singing along to "na na na na naa, na na na naa, Hey Jude!" and so it could hardly be heard, but the booming chorus to "We Will Rock You" could be heard just fine during the closing ceremony. It's stuff like that makes me think Queen's most popular songs have a bit of a higher stature in culture than The Beatle's most popular songs.

Then again, maybe it's kind of a regional thing. Maybe Beatles songs are more popular in the UK than in North America. I wouldn't know, and I don't think you would know very well either.

Also, I've heard that statistic about Yesterday, but to be honest it sounds like kind of a load of bullshit to me. Is there any way to clarify if it's actually as popular as people claim it to be?

[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]
brENsKi, I have to say I kind of disagree. Then again, maybe it's kind of a regional thing. Maybe Beatles songs are more popular in the UK than in North America. I wouldn't know, and I don't think you would know very well either.
[/QUOTE]
you know what, we'll have to agree to disagree on this as much of what we say is subjective to each viewpoint.
[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]
Also, I've heard that statistic about Yesterday, but to be honest it sounds like kind of a load of bullshit to me. Is there any way to clarify if it's actually as popular as people claim it to be?[/QUOTE] sorry tho, i won't let this one go.how can you say it sounds like aload of bullshit when you don't even understand where the statistic/fact comes from?
it comes from the fact that the performing rights for covering any songs must be paid for if you have a performance licence....so therefore any band that is part of the musicians unions or any entertainer with a licence MUST ALL pay to cover of copyrighted songs
and the song that has received the most of these? "yesterday"

Indeed, gotta give it that - Yesterday is by far the most covered song ever.

Popularity is naturally a subjective thing, but I'll still stick to my guns that no Beatles song is bigger than The Beatles, and that Queen's biggest songs are bigger than they are. That *stomp stomp clap* is just indelibly printed into the memories of billions of people, many of whom have never heard of Queen.

But anyone who has heard Yesterday knows it is by The Beatles, and Paul McCartney in particular.

Slightly late to the punch, but:
- Flick of the Wrist
- Spread Your Wings
- The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
- My Fairy King
- Long Away

Those aren't the best 5, just the first 5 good ones I thought of. I tried to go more by which are great as well as somewhat accessible. Two songs with 'fairy' in the title might be a bit much.