Ogre Battle or The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke was rumoured or suggested to be a possible follow-up single to Seven Seas Of Rhye. I can't remember where I read that but it's always been odd why there was only one single.
In my opinion I reckon that this would've been a great single...
A: In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited (edited version with two choruses removed) / B: Stone Cold Crazy
This single would've reflected Queen's live show at this point with both being live staples on subsequent tours.
mooghead · Member since
They would all have been horrendous choices for singles.
SweetCarolina · Member since
Queen - Great King Rat
Queen II - Father To Son
SHA - In The Lap Of The Gods..Rev
ANATO - 39
ADATR - You Take My Breath Away
NOTW - Sheer Heart Attack
Jazz - Dead On Time
The Game - Dragon Attack
Flash - The Hero
Hot Space - Life Is Real
The Works - Tear It Up
A Kind Of Magic - Dont Lose Your Head
The Miracle - Was It All Worth it
Innuendo - I cant Live With You
Made In Heaven - MOther Love
k-m · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]stevelondon20 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]PrimeJiveUSA wrote:[/b]
I always thought Ride the Wild Wind was a missed opportunity. I think it would have been big in the U.S..
Also, Who Wants to Live Forever should have been released as the single in America and would have changed the fortunes for AKOM.[/QUOTE]
It was released in Poland and went to Number 1.[/QUOTE]
Nice to see lots of appreciation here for Ride the Wild Wind. I also think it's fantastic. What I think happened in Poland though is that the biggest Polish radio station at the time, which had a very popular chart show, decided they didn't like Headlong as a single and added The Show Must Go On to their playlist instead. That was in the summer, it did well and peaked at no. 3. It dropped out from the chart in early autumn, around the time it was officially released as a single in Europe. So, the same radio station had to figure out another replacement and they went with Ride the Wild Wind. Initially, it was also doing well, but not as well as The Show... and peaked at no. 14 while Freddie was still alive. It was still in the Top 20 in the week of his death and the following week it started to climb again, eventually reaching no. 1, as you said. The radio DJ who hosted the chart show (and still does) admitted some time later they made a mistake when they added The Show Must Go On to their playlist so early, because it wasn't in the chart anymore when Freddie died and would have been their biggest hit of all time had they waited until autumn. Instead, this proud title belongs to Days of Our Lives which spent 58 weeks in the chart, including 14 at number 1.
PrimeJiveUSA · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]stevelondon20 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]PrimeJiveUSA wrote:[/b]
I always thought Ride the Wild Wind was a missed opportunity. I think it would have been big in the U.S..
Also, Who Wants to Live Forever should have been released as the single in America and would have changed the fortunes for AKOM.[/QUOTE]
It was released in Poland and went to Number 1.[/QUOTE]
That's not surprising to me.
GreatKingFairyFeller · Member since
I’ve always felt a lot of the songs on the 70’s albums seemed like singles. Here’s my attempt though at what should’ve been.
Queen - Son and Daughter
Queen ll - Ogre Battle (long intro would’ve been edited)
SHA - Stone Cold Crazy and Brighton Rock
ANATO - Love of My life or a seriously cut down version of The Prophets Song
ADATR - White Man or The Millionaire Waltz
NOTW - My Melancholy Blues with Who Needs you as the b side
Jazz - If You can’t beat them with Dead on Time as the b side. Maybe Let Me Entertain You with Dreamers Ball as a b side as an American single.
The Game - Dragon Attack
Flash Gordon - The Hero with The Kiss or Football Fight as a B side
Hot Space - Action This Day
The Works - Tear it Up and maybe Man On the prowl
A Kind if Magic - Princes of the universe
The Miracle - Was it All Worth it
Innuendo - A double a side of Bijou and The Hitman
Made in Heaven - Mother Love or My life has been saved
PrimeJiveUSA · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]cobohall wrote:[/b]
Anything off of Hot Space, other than Body Language. Freddie shitting in an empty Sprite can while combing his hair with astroturf would have been a better choice. So, in other words, anything off of Hot Space, or Whitesnake's1982 Saints and Sinners album(which I've never heard) would have been a better single to release. How the fuck did that single happen?[/QUOTE]
Well...in America Body Language was a #11 hit. Here's a list of some famous Queen singles it charted higher than in the U.S.:
Killer Queen
You're My Best Friend
Somebody to Love
Bicycle Race
Fat Bottomed Girls
Flash's Theme
Under Pressure
Radio GA Ga
cobohall · Member since
stevelondon20 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]k-m wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]stevelondon20 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]PrimeJiveUSA wrote:[/b]
I always thought Ride the Wild Wind was a missed opportunity. I think it would have been big in the U.S..
Also, Who Wants to Live Forever should have been released as the single in America and would have changed the fortunes for AKOM.[/QUOTE]
It was released in Poland and went to Number 1.[/QUOTE]
Nice to see lots of appreciation here for Ride the Wild Wind. I also think it's fantastic. What I think happened in Poland though is that the biggest Polish radio station at the time, which had a very popular chart show, decided they didn't like Headlong as a single and added The Show Must Go On to their playlist instead. That was in the summer, it did well and peaked at no. 3. It dropped out from the chart in early autumn, around the time it was officially released as a single in Europe. So, the same radio station had to figure out another replacement and they went with Ride the Wild Wind. Initially, it was also doing well, but not as well as The Show... and peaked at no. 14 while Freddie was still alive. It was still in the Top 20 in the week of his death and the following week it started to climb again, eventually reaching no. 1, as you said. The radio DJ who hosted the chart show (and still does) admitted some time later they made a mistake when they added The Show Must Go On to their playlist so early, because it wasn't in the chart anymore when Freddie died and would have been their biggest hit of all time had they waited until autumn. Instead, this proud title belongs to Days of Our Lives which spent 58 weeks in the chart, including 14 at number 1.
[/QUOTE]
It's a fantastic song. It also benefits from a freaking amazing solo!
rockchic65 · Member since
^^^ Agreed, Ride The Wild Wind is one of my favourites.
cobohall · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]PrimeJiveUSA wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]cobohall wrote:[/b]
Anything off of Hot Space, other than Body Language. Freddie shitting in an empty Sprite can while combing his hair with astroturf would have been a better choice. So, in other words, anything off of Hot Space, or Whitesnake's1982 Saints and Sinners album(which I've never heard) would have been a better single to release. How the fuck did that single happen?[/QUOTE]
Well...in America Body Language was a #11 hit. Here's a list of some famous Queen singles it charted higher than in the U.S.:
Killer Queen
You're My Best Friend
Somebody to Love
Bicycle Race
Fat Bottomed Girls
Flash's Theme
Under Pressure
Radio GA Ga
[/QUOTE]
Tried to respond twice and user error, sorry.
Anyway, good point about BL charting higher than those other songs! I had no idea. But of all those songs it is the only one that received no certification (silver/gold/platinum). And it is the only one that is not remembered after all these years, except by die hard fans. And the only song that probably isn't played on US radio (you mentioned the US charts, so I mention the radio). And probably did more to hurt album sales rather than promote sales.
k-m · Member since
^^ Some good points there re Body Language. This shitty song benefited hugely from the success of The Game singles, there was a lot of anticipation in the States for something new from Queen, that's why it charted relatively high. Unfortunately for them, the bubble burst real fucking quick after that and the album sales were a disaster. No. 23 compared to The Game's few weeks at no. 1, that's surely quite a setback!
AlbaNo1 · Member since
Queen’s singles stats in the US are pretty dire. Body Language must have got in that high somehow off the back of the Another One Bites The Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love through some record company trickery. It doesn’t make sense.
Nathan H · Member since
I don't really see the point of why Queen would've released any more singles in the 80s and 90s other than the ones they released as all the albums had at least four of them at least - perhaps alternative yes but non additional. The only exception is the soundtrack for Flash Gordon where the only other song which is single material is The Hero but Queen rarely released two singles consecutively both written by the same member, it literally never happened in the band's entire single career. TBH, I think Queen made mostly the right choices with UK singles but there were a couple mistakes IMO.
There are certainly several songs from the 70s which could've made great singles, it was a shame that most of the albums only had two singles. You And I and In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited I reckon are two of the most commercial ones. Though Stone Cold Crazy is a very influential track, I don't think it would've made a good single as it's very niche - it would only really appeal to heavy metal fans. Also, radio playlists would've not played heavy tracks early in the morning already limiting a possible market. This is probably why Queen's only three heavy, rock 'n' roll Top 10 singles in the UK are Seven Seas Of Rhye, One Vision and I Want It All. (TBH, I don't even think SSOR fits into this category as it's appearances on Top Of The Pops made it look more like glam rock compared to anything else. Also, I Want It All was seen as a comeback from Queen to the general public after their gap of nearly three years which may be the reason why the song charted at #3.) The matter of radio playlists is probably why Queen didn't release any more of these songs like Dead On Time, Put Out The Fire and Princes Of The Universe. Tie Your Mother Down was a single flop, which sort of made Queen rethink their singles strategy.
k-m · Member since
I think you might be missing the point, entirely.
[QUOTE] [b]Gen Z Music Fan wrote:[/b]
I don't really see the point of why Queen would've released any more singles in the 80s and 90s other than the ones they released as all the albums had at least four of them at least - perhaps alternative yes but non additional.
> Yes, that's what we're talking about, alternative singes, I think. No-one claimed here they should have released 6 singles from each album.
The only exception is the soundtrack for Flash Gordon where the only other song which is single material is The Hero but Queen rarely released two singles consecutively both written by the same member, it literally never happened in the band's entire single career. TBH, I think Queen made mostly the right choices with UK singles but there were a couple mistakes IMO.
> That's an interesting point actually, worth looking into.
There are certainly several songs from the 70s which could've made great singles, it was a shame that most of the albums only had two singles. You And I and In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited I reckon are two of the most commercial ones. Though Stone Cold Crazy is a very influential track, I don't think it would've made a good single as it's very niche - it would only really appeal to heavy metal fans. Also, radio playlists would've not played heavy tracks early in the morning already limiting a possible market. This is probably why Queen's only three heavy, rock 'n' roll Top 10 singles in the UK are Seven Seas Of Rhye, One Vision and I Want It All.
> Here, I think you jumped too easily from the 70s and proper heavy songs to stuff like OV and IWIA which are still very radio-friendly in my opinion. Pop-rock.
(TBH, I don't even think SSOR fits into this category as it's appearances on Top Of The Pops made it look more like glam rock compared to anything else. Also, I Want It All was seen as a comeback from Queen to the general public after their gap of nearly three years which may be the reason why the song charted at #3.)
> Don't know. Three good weeks in the top 10 in a very saturated market at the time, that's a hit.
The matter of radio playlists is probably why Queen didn't release any more of these songs like Dead On Time, Put Out The Fire and Princes Of The Universe. Tie Your Mother Down was a single flop, which sort of made Queen rethink their singles strategy. [/QUOTE]
> Dead on Time would have never been a good single, too complicated and not catchy enough. The other two, fuck knows.
