Queen Hit Singles

I've been watching Magic years once again and John says something about how nice is that they all have hit singles in the band but looking at the charts what do we have? :

1974 - (2 UK) - Killer Queen (Freddie)
1975 - (1 UK) - Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie)
1976 - (2 UK) - Somebody to love (Freddie)
1977 - (2 UK) - WATC / WWRY (Freddie / Brian)
1979 - (1 US / 2 UK) - Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Freddie)
1980 - (1 US) - Another One Bites the Dust (John)
1981 - (1 UK) - Under Pressure (Queen)
1984 - (2 UK) - Radio Gaga (Roger)
1984 - (3 UK) - I Want To break Free (John)
1986 - (3 UK) - A Kind of Magic (Roger)

So up to 1987, Brian's only hit was WWRY and maybe because it was right next to WATC ?

1989 - (3 UK) - I Want it All (Queen)
1991 - (1 UK) - Innuendo (Queen)


So if we measure a band by their hits, Queen is mostly Freddie, then John / Roger and at last Brian... (it gets closer if we understand I want it all, as mostly his composition).

Interesting because in terms of performance, Brian is always almost paired with Freddie.

Let's discuss!

The best chart for a Brian song in UK, it's Flash, charts number 10, remember that in UK, WWRY was not released as a single, only WATC

And Queen have many top 20 hits, despite not top 10, some singles made good charts.

And that's the issue of measuring a band by hits. Also, a hit isn't just top 3.

LucasDiego wrote:

WWRY was not released as a single, only WATC

WWRY & WATC was a double A-side single.

KumoNin, not in UK, in this place was b side, in other places, like USA and Japan, was the AA side

Define hit? You are assuming anything that isnt a top 10 single isnt a hit.

mooghead wrote:

Define hit? You are assuming anything that isnt a top 10 single isnt a hit.

Save Me was like... 11?

Well you get my point.

Whilst the later credits all went to 'Queen' collectively, tracks such as I Want It All, The Show Must Go On, Scandal and a few more were all written by Brian, and a strong co-write on Too Much Live a Will Kill You. Don't forget Fat Bottomed Girls too

For example:
The Invisible Man charts 12, despite this track was in GH2, is not a hot
The Show Must Go On charts 16, but it's a hit single

Statistics are one thing, but in this case they don't really illustrate Brian's standing/overall contribution to Queen.

I think Brian liked the number 11 more than he likes badgers.

who cares, if Brian had not a hit in top 1,000,000. The sound of his guitar in live environment is pure genius. Each time I hear Brian play Battle Theme and Flash live it sends shivers down my spine.

Brian wrote The Prophet's Song, is enough for me.

Well this entire thread is based on the idea that chart success is the measure for the merit of songs. Of course Brian was more important than these figures make him seem.