Queen Hit Singles

Let's see which Brian compositions in the 70's had Fred on lead vocals:

* Keep Yourself Alive: Single; flopped.
* Son and Daughter: B-side; not hit material at all.
* Night Comes Down: Not hit material.
* Doing All Right: Not hit material.
* Father to Son: Not hit material.
* White Queen: Not hit material.
* Dear Friends: Not hit material.
* Brighton Rock: Not hit material.
* Now I'm Here: Single, top 15, moderately successful for the time.
* Sweet Lady: Not hit material.
* Prophet's Song: Not hit material.
* White Man: Not hit material.
* Teo Torriatte: Single in Japan.
* Tie Your Mother Down: Single; flopped.
* It's Late: Elektra release; flopped.
* We Will Rock You: Double-A in some territories, huge hit.
* Dreamer's Ball: Not hit material.
* Fat Bottomed Girls: Double-A, medium-sized hit.
* Dead on Time: Not hit material.

So it's not like poor old Brian was shunned by his bandmates, it's that his songs, most of which were excellent, were not hit material at the time. Some of Freddie's gems were overlooked for singles as well (Millionaire Waltz, the first In the Lap of the Gods).

In the Baker/Stone era, there were 28 Brian compositions released as album tracks (I'm counting 'Doing All Right' as his even though it's only half his), out of which 1 was instrumental and 8 he sang himself. Out of the remaining 19, seven were A-sides somewhere. All in all, there were eight A-Sides which were written by Brian in the Baker/Stone era, out of 28 compositions: 28.57%

Regarding John, there were seven of his compositions released as album tracks in the Baker/Stone era, out of which two were also single A-Sides: 28.57%. Exactly the same ratio as Brian.

Now, Fred: 35 of his compositions were album tracks in the Baker/Stone era (considering 'Stone Cold Crazy' as his because he wrote the first version of it, and counting each 'Seven Seas of Rhye' separately), which spawned eleven A-Sides ('Flick of the Wrist' was part of a double-A, both 'Jealousy' and 'Mustapha' were singles somewhere). That's 31.43%, slightly more than Brian or John.

If we compare the ratio of Brian's tracks sung by Freddie which got overlooked for single A-sides in the Baker/Stone era (12 out of 19: 63.16%) against the ratio of Freddie's tracks sung by Freddie which got overlooked for single A-sides in the Baker/Stone era (24 out of 34: 70.59%) you can see that, if anything, John and Brian were given averagely *more* chances to score hits.

The premise of this comparison is flawed. Brian tends to write rock songs, John wrote pop and funk, Freddie writes... well all sorts really. And Rogers earlier songs were definitely more rock rather than pop oriented.
Hit singles tend to be more pop oriented... pop does mean popular after all. Very few out and out rock songs get top 3, or at least used to when the charts actually mattered.

When Brian wrote The Prophet Song I'm pretty sure at no point did he think, ooh, I've not got a hit single here, I should give up, but I'm sure we're all glad he didn't give up and decided to finish it.

Down this path leads the logic that the writers of Britney Spears hits are more worthy than the writers of great rock songs. Which is just BS.

I think of Queen in the mould of The Who and Zeppelin, not Showaddywaddy and Suzi Quatro. (One for the kids there!)

The Who never had a number 1 single and only six top ten singles.. Their most famous song 'Wont get Fooled Again' barely made top 10.
Zeppelin never even released singles in the UK.

For The Who, I meant six top 5 singles... Thanks Wikipedia.

>Brian tends to write rock songs, John wrote pop and funk, Freddie writes... well all sorts really. And Rogers earlier songs were definitely more rock rather than pop oriented.

That kind of labeling is flawed too. Brian is into heavy ballads too, Spread your wings is not that pop or funk.

>Down this path leads the logic that the writers of Britney Spears hits are more worthy than the writers of great rock songs. Which is just BS.

Worthy.... who is talking about worthy musicians or songs?


Queen can't be compared with The Who in this topic. Queen was clearly a band of hits. Queen has a wonderful catalogue of progressive music that's not radio friendly, but all that coexist with the pop oriented music of the 80's and the hits throught all his career.

So it is valid to view their career throught their hits and see the individual contributions to that area .

That's what John Deacon's quote was all about. "We all wrote hits". Did they?

If a 'hit' is only considered making the top three, then an Elton John collection would only have seven tracks.....

As to sales and chart positions that seem surprisingly low, one must also consider when they were released. 'Somebody To Love' was my first 45 purchase (BoRhap was a gift). because I couldn't wait the two weeks for the album to find out what 'White Man' sounded like.

'Tie Your Mother Down' sales and chart position, given the strength of the track, were disappointing. Then again, how many albums were sold because of it? How many didn't buy the single because they already had the album? Trust me, it received tons of airplay on AOR stations before the 45 hit the stands.

'You're My Best Friend', 'The Show Must Go On' etc, all fall into that 'second (or later) single syndrome'. One can only guess what their sales might have been had they been released before their respective albums.

Talk about a 'skewed hit list' !

You're not a a medical journalist by any chance?

Anything that made the UK top 40 is a hit British single in my book.