Top 50 Queen Countdown: 40–31

40. ‘Spread Your Wings’
Written by John Deacon
From the album: News Of The World, 1977

John Deacon had the enviable talent of delivering one knock-out song per album, a reputation he upheld throughout his entire songwriting career, and there are several of his songs in these lists. ‘Spread Your Wings’ is a plaintive power ballad, written about a down-on-his-luck loner named Sammy who grew up believing that he was destined for great things, only to be beaten down by the harshness of reality. What makes the song so effective is its simplicity: as it was submitted for News Of The World, Queen’s back-to-basics album, it sounds like it was recorded in one take in the studio, with very little, if any, studio trickery slathered on. (If it had been submitted for any of Queen’s earlier albums, it would have undoubtedly been tarted up with vocal harmonies and guitar orchestrations, which aren’t necessarily a bad thing.) Far superior is a BBC take, which was recorded live in one take, and features a more muscular backing and a double-time instrumental coda.

39. ‘Bijou’
Written by Queen
From the album: Innuendo, 1991

The definition of bijou is “small and elegant”, and that was the band’s intent with this song. Written by Brian May and Freddie Mercury, the song was modeled off of Jeff Beck’s ‘Where Were You’, in that it’s an inside-out song: May’s guitar wails mournfully where Mercury’s lyrics would be, and in the middle, where a guitar solo would be, is a little vocal interjection from Mercury, who sings a brief, four-line ode to a lover. It’s a neat trick that works astonishingly well, and serves as a beautiful introduction to Queen’s swansong, ‘The Show Must Go On’.

38. ‘Radio Ga Ga’
Written by Roger Taylor
From the album: The Works, 1984

Unlike the consistent pop song-crafter Deacon, Roger Taylor’s track record was a little spottier. It got better, under Mercury’s watchful eye, throughout the 1980s, and when ‘Radio Ga Ga’ was released as the first single from The Works, to have had it credited as a Taylor/Mercury composition wouldn’t have been too far off from the truth. That being said, the lyrics are pure Taylor: bemoaning the also-ran status of radio, once a marvelous invention, now replaced by music television, the song is six minutes of delightful electronic pop-rock, with synthesizers masterfully integrated so that they’re part of the atmospherics, and not just there to be there. With a hard-hitting and memorable chorus, ‘Radio Ga Ga’ rightfully washed away the bad taste of Hot Space and Queen’s questionable excursions into disco.

37. ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’
Written by Brian May
From the album: A Kind Of Magic, 1986

Queen’s mid-1980s output can be summed up thusly: three or four killer singles per album, six or seven mediocre-to-great album tracks. The three albums released in this span – The Works, 1984; A Kind Of Magic, 1986; and The Miracle, 1989 – were million-sellers and platinum records for the band, but were designed with an eye on the charts instead of presenting a unified album. That said, there are some songs on these albums worth finding: ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ is a fairly popular Queen song, and was even released as a single, though it failed to attract much of an audience. But this gorgeous ballad, with keyboards, guitars, Mercury’s powerful, restrained vocals, and the National Philharmonic Orchestra, deserved far better, but being released alongside ‘A Kind Of Magic’ and ‘One Vision’, it’s understandable that a five minute ballad would be pushed out of the consciousness in favor of poppier, rockier stuff – but that doesn’t mean it’s fair.

36. ‘In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisted’
Written by Freddie Mercury
From the album: Sheer Heart Attack, 1974

Queen’s first two albums were rooted more deeply in prog/art rock, so when the comparatively poppy Sheer Heart Attack was released, it was a dynamic shift toward playing the charts while still experimenting with unconventional musical styles. ‘In The Lap Of The Gods’ is an operatic apocalypse, a Dante’s Inferno of otherworldly howling that was the obvious precursor to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – yet its revisited cousin, which closes the Sheer Heart Attack album, is a power ballad through and through, with Mercury admitting his posturing and pretending is all for show, and that there’s depth beneath his exterior. Taking ‘Hey Jude’ as a template, with an extended singalong chorus that’s equally as meaningless (“Woah woah la la, woah wa woo” instead of “Na na na na na na na, na na na na, hey Jude”), ‘In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisited’ entrenched itself as a set closer for the next three years, though ‘We Are The Champions’ would replace it as that pivotal, arm-swaying, lighter-waving concluding anthem.

35. ‘Was It All Worth It’
Written by Queen
From the album: The Miracle, 1989

With Mercury’s health by this point deteriorating, his doctors were certain that he wouldn’t see the end of 1988, so serious was his condition. That he not only survived but thrived for a further three years was a testament to both modern medicine and his willingness to fight. That paints The Miracle in a different light: convinced this was their final album and testament, Queen rebounded with a goofy, lighthearted listen that, apart from its five singles and one strong album track, was an extension of A Kind Of Magic and The Works before it. That one strong album track is ‘Was It All Worth It’, a defiant, semi-autobiographical summation of a life and career full of ups and downs. Embodying not only everything that made Queen Queen, but also some tricks of the ’80s, the song is a six minute tour de force, with the band throwing everything they’ve got at the wall and finding themselves surprised at what sticks. (There’s a synthesized orchestral interlude in there, fer crying out loud.) Mercury’s in fine voice, sounding jovial and not at all regretful, and his gleeful assessment that “It was a worthwhile experience!” would have been a fine way to end a career. That he got one more chance with Innuendo meant that Queen were able to right some wrongs, and end on an even more traditional note.

34. ‘Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love)’
Written by Brian May
From the album: Hot Space, 1982

The Hot Space album is the unloved bastard child in Queen’s discography: detrimentally experimental with its fusion of funk, disco, and rock, it was a year or two early: the rock world was still reeling from the mass-produced strains of Lipps, Inc., and didn’t need four white, British guys to tell them to get on the dance floor. (It didn’t help that most of the dance songs weren’t very danceable.) But the second side of the album is more traditional Queen, and May, the most ill-at-ease with his band’s excursions, was the most eager to return them to what they knew best. ‘Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love)’ is a flowery ballad that successfully combines synthesizers with acoustic instruments, and comes out smelling sweeter than most everything else. Inspired by Queen’s 1981 South American tour and the warm reception they received there, Mercury occasionally slips into Spanish, sounding like an innocent choirboy, and the result has divided fans – some absolutely adore it, others find it to be a hamfisted rewrite and locale shift of ‘Teo Toriatte (Let Us Cling Together)’ – but isn’t that what Hot Space was all about, anyway?

33. ‘The Millionaire Waltz’
Written by Freddie Mercury
From the album: A Day At The Races, 1976

O, fair listeners! Come hither betwixt legions of admirers to bathe in the glory that is Sire Mercury’s fine wealth! Swoon as he’s perched upon a piano stool, resplendent in a fine lurex suit, as he croons a decadent waltz of the perks of prosperity! Gasp as Lord May leads an orchestra of bewigged Mays, plucking delicate notes of a most exquisite nature! For at today’s outing at the races, Their Royal Majesties request your pounds, shillings, and pence be tossed upon the stage, so that Sire Mercury may festoon himself further with extravagance! May his beloved torch song to fortune forever ring in your hearts, your ears, and your minds, for these are affluent times indeed!

32. ‘Tenement Funster’
Written by Roger Taylor
From the album: Sheer Heart Attack, 1974

Taylor’s songwriting development wasn’t exactly a hit-the-ground-running process. His debut, ‘Modern Times Rock’n'Roll’, was a nifty pastiche of Mott the Hoople’s boogie-woogie glam-rock, while ‘The Loser In The End’ lumbered and galloped without any kind of consequence (though it confirmed that he quite liked John Bonham’s style of drumming). ‘Tenement Funster’, then, is his submission to the songwriter litmus test, and, as the saying goes, the third time’s the charm. Finding his voice as a slacker rebel, rejecting a humdrum existence by angering his neighbors with loud music and wooing girls, Taylor delivers a stellar composition, alternately dark and humorous, which paves the way for his best-known song, ‘I’m In Love With My Car’.

31. ‘Father To Son’
Written by Brian May
From the album: Queen II, 1974

The logical progression of albums is such: the debut gets out all of the material that the band has been living with and slogging endlessly onstage for two or three years, while the second is a grab-bag of songs that were rejected from the debut, mixed with newly-written material, and produced in a manner which is entirely to the band’s liking. At the mercy of a producer on their first album, the band will usually capitulate to common sense, but let their imaginations run wild – and refuse to be told no – on their sophomore effort. With that in mind, Queen II could have easily been called And The Kitchen Sink, as the band throw in every trick of their limited trade, no matter how murky the soup may get. (Fun fact: they were considering calling the album Over The Top, which would have been more apt – and imaginative.) The album attempts to tell a nonlinear story of mystical, mythical worlds, with gods, goddesses, ogres, faeries, black queens, white queens, mothers, fathers, and generation gaps. It’s not entirely successful, but it’s my personal favorite Queen album, so I’m bound to stick up for it no matter what. ‘Father To Son’ is a towering epic, of the passage of a kingdom from one generation to the next. Winding its way through several musical styles – starting off as a ballad before becoming a rocker that would make The Who blush, it ends with an acoustic singalong that blends into the next track – the song is a bit too epic, meandering from time to time with little regard for arrangement. But it allows May to run full reign on his homemade guitar, delivering blistering solo after blistering solo, while the rhythm section of Taylor and Deacon burble excitedly behind him. Unfortunately, it was destined for obscurity, though it remained a concert favorite and was even a show opener for a while – and if you’re used to Queen opening a concert with a fast, electric arrangement of ‘We Will Rock You’ or the anthemic ‘One Vision’, then this little bit of information gives you an indication of Queen’s early days stage presence.

---