Greatest Hits (Queen album)

Greatest Hits
Original 1981 edition
Greatest hits album by Queen
Released	2 November 1981
Genre	Rock
Length	57:20 (UK edition)
Label	Parlophone
Producer	Queen, various
Queen chronology
Greatest Hits (1981) Greatest Hits II (1991)
Alternative covers
1992 U.S. edition
2011 Universal Remaster

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
This table needs to be expanded using prose. See the guideline for more information.

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the British rock group Queen. When released in November 1981, the record consisted of Queen's best-selling singles since their first chart appearance in 1974 with "Seven Seas of Rhye", until their most recent album at the time, The Game. There was no universal track listing or cover art for the album, and each territory's tracks were dependent on what singles had been released there and which were successful. In some countries "Under Pressure" was included, which had been released as a single earlier in the year.

Queen's Greatest Hits was an instant success, peaking at number one on the UK Album Chart for four weeks. It has spent 476 weeks in the UK Charts, and is the best-selling album of all time in the UK. It is certified eight times platinum in the United States, and is Queen's most commercially successful album ever having sold more than 25 million copies, rendering it one of the best-selling albums worldwide. Combined with Greatest Hits II, it became the definitive Queen compilation.

History

There was no universal track listing or cover art for the Greatest Hits album, and each territory's tracks were dependent on what singles were released there and what tracks charted. In some cases, despite the band's popularity, not enough songs were issued as singles to fill a compilation album, and a few album tracks were used as filler. Some examples of these were "Sweet Lady" and "Love of My Life", neither was released as a single in any country, but appear on some regions' 1981 Hits release. In the UK and the U.S., where solid numbers could be collected, the standard was raised again by only including top 20 hits.

The U.S. ended up with its original edit of Queen's first single release, "Keep Yourself Alive", which had been re-released in the U.S. in 1975 (original release was 1973) after the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Also, because of the delay in release dates between the UK (out first) and the U.S. (almost a month later), the U.S. was able to add "Under Pressure" (Queen's duet with David Bowie) to its Hits collection, as it was released during that interim.

In Argentina and Brazil, the LP edition included the same list of UK Greatest Hits minus "Seven Seas of Rhye", and including "Love of My Life" (Live Killers version). CD version is the same as the British.

In 1991, Queen sought to issue a second Greatest Hits collection worldwide, this time with a standard track listing. However, the band had just changed record labels in the US, from Capitol to Hollywood Records, who were keen on a massive promotion of the band's back catalog. The problem was that Elektra still held the US rights to that first 1981 collection (despite being Hollywood's US licencée). Hollywood Records decided to not release Greatest Hits II to the U.S. market, but instead created their own collection, Classic Queen (1992), peaking at no.4. This compilation was made up of tracks such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Under Pressure" (which had already appeared on the Elektra 1981 Hits collection) as well as newer tracks ("A Kind of Magic" and "Radio Ga Ga"). Some tracks were not even singles in the U.S. ("One Year of Love") or anywhere ("Stone Cold Crazy"). Though well received, this collection would eventually pose the problem of overlapping track lists in the future.

Hollywood Records, later that year, re-released a companion collection Greatest Hits with similar artwork (on a red background, where Classic Queen was on royal blue). Commonly referred to as the Red Greatest Hits, it features most of the '70s tracks absent from Classic Queen (including "Another One Bites the Dust" [1980], "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Killer Queen").

In 2004, to promote the Las Vegas production of the musical We Will Rock You, Hollywood Records released Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You Edition which was the UK Greatest Hits with three bonus tracks.

Track listing

This section includes the track listings for the original Greatest Hits and closely related albums only. For other compilations, including the second and third Greatest Hits albums, see the relevant articles. On this album Mercury has ten songs, Brian May has five and John Deacon has two. Roger Taylor had not released any singles with the group at that time.

1981 UK edition (Parlophone) & 2011 UK edition (Island) Has a photograph of the band as its cover.
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Bohemian Rhapsody" (from A Night at the Opera, 1975)	Freddie Mercury	5:56
2.	"Another One Bites the Dust" (from The Game, 1980)	John Deacon	3:36
3.	"Killer Queen" (from Sheer Heart Attack, 1974)	Mercury	2:57
4.	"Fat Bottomed Girls" (single version, from Jazz, 1978)	Brian May	3:16
5.	"Bicycle Race" (from Jazz, 1978)	Mercury	3:01
6.	"You're My Best Friend" (from A Night at the Opera, 1975)	Deacon	2:52
7.	"Don't Stop Me Now" (from Jazz, 1978)	Mercury	3:29
8.	"Save Me" (from The Game, 1980)	May	3:52
9.	"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (from The Game, 1980)	Mercury	2:42
10.	"Somebody to Love" (from A Day at the Races, 1976)	Mercury	4:56
11.	"Now I'm Here" (from Sheer Heart Attack, 1974)	May	4:10
12.	"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" (from A Day at the Races, 1976)	Mercury	2:54
13.	"Play the Game" (from The Game, 1980)	Mercury	3:33
14.	"Flash" (single version, from Flash Gordon, 1980)	May	2:48
15.	"Seven Seas of Rhye" (from Queen II, 1974)	Mercury	2:47
16.	"We Will Rock You" (from News of the World, 1977)	May	2:01
17.	"We Are the Champions" (from News of the World, 1977)	Mercury	2:59
Total length:			57:20

1981 U.S. and Canada edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Another One Bites the Dust"		3:37
2.	"Bohemian Rhapsody"		5:58
3.	"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"		2:44
4.	"Killer Queen"		3:02
5.	"Fat Bottomed Girls"		3:23
6.	"Bicycle Race"		3:01
7.	"Under Pressure" (later included on Hot Space, 1982)	Queen, David Bowie	4:05
8.	"We Will Rock You"		2:02
9.	"We Are the Champions"		3:01
10.	"Flash"		2:49
11.	"Somebody to Love"		4:58
12.	"You're My Best Friend"		2:52
13.	"Keep Yourself Alive" (single version in mono, from Queen, 1973)	May	3:32
14.	"Play the Game"		3:30
Total length:			47:58

1981 Japan edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Bohemian Rhapsody"		5:55
2.	"Another One Bites the Dust"		3:33
3.	"Killer Queen"		3:00
4.	"Fat Bottomed Girls"		3:22
5.	"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"		2:32
6.	"Don't Stop Me Now"		3:28
7.	"Save Me"		3:48
8.	"Under Pressure"		4:05
9.	"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"		2:42
10.	"Somebody to Love"		4:55
11.	"Now I'm Here"		4:15
12.	"Teo Torriatte" (single version, from A Day At The Races, 1976)	May	5:00
13.	"You're My Best Friend"		2:50
14.	"Play the Game"		3:28
15.	"Flash's Theme A.K.A. Flash"		2:47
16.	"We Will Rock You"		2:00
17.	"We Are the Champions"		2:58
Total length:			60:37

1992 U.S. edition Has a red cover with the Queen crest design.
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"We Will Rock You"		2:02
2.	"We Are the Champions"		3:01
3.	"Another One Bites the Dust"		3:37
4.	"Killer Queen"		3:01
5.	"Somebody to Love"		4:56
6.	"Fat Bottomed Girls (LP version)"		4:16
7.	"Bicycle Race"		3:02
8.	"You're My Best Friend"		2:51
9.	"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"		2:43
10.	"Now I'm Here"		4:14
11.	"Play the Game"		3:31
12.	"Seven Seas of Rhye"		2:48
13.	"Body Language" (from Hot Space, 1982)	Mercury	4:33
14.	"Save Me"		3:48
15.	"Don't Stop Me Now"		3:30
16.	"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"		2:55
17.	"I Want to Break Free" (from The Works, 1984)	Deacon	4:22
Total length:			58:43

2004 U.S. edition (Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You) Same track listing as UK 1981 edition, followed by three additional tracks.
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
18.	"I'm in Love with My Car" (From A Night at the Opera, 1975)	Roger Taylor	3:12
19.	"Under Pressure" (from Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl, 2004)		3:39
20.	"Tie Your Mother Down" (from Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl, 2004)	May	6:22
Total length:			69:17

2011 Japan Reissue Edition From the bonus track for japan, Available in iTunes.
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
18.	"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" (From A Day at the Races, 1976)	May	5:07
Total length:			63:00

In addition to the variations above, the official biography Queen: As It Began by Jacky Gunn and Jim Jenkins states the following variations on the original UK tracklisting:

Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela had Love Of My Life (live) instead of Seven Seas Of Rhye.

Belgium and Spain had Spread Your Wings as an extra track.

Australia had Tie Your Mother Down and Keep Yourself Alive but not Don't Stop Me Now, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy or Seven Seas Of Rhye.

Bulgaria had Death On Two Legs and Sweet Lady as extra tracks.

Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel and Netherlands had Under Pressure as an extra track.

Charts

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Austrian Top 75 Albums	1
German Albums Chart	1
Netherlands Top 100 Albums	1
New Zealand Top 40 Albums	1
UK Albums Chart	1

Chart (1982)	Peak position
Norwegian Top 40 Albums	21

Chart (1992)	Peak position
Australian Top 50 Albums	8
Canadian Top Albums	4
French Compilations	5
Hungarian Top 40 Albums	12
Swedish Top 60 Albums	21
Swiss Top 100 Albums	5
US Billboard 200	11

Chart (2004)	Peak position
US Catalog Albums	2

Chart (2007)	Peak position
US Hard Rock Albums	5

Chart (2008)	Peak position
Spanish Top 100 Albums	63

Chart (2011)	Peak position
Belgium (Wallonia) 100 Albums	78
French Top 200 Albums	56
Mexican Top 100 Albums	53

Preceded by Shaky by Shakin' Stevens

UK Albums Chart number one album 14 November 1981 – 11 December 1981

Succeeded by Chart Hits '81 by Various Artists

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
Argentina (CAPIF)	3× Platinum	180,000x
Australia (ARIA)	14× Platinum	980,000^
Austria (IFPI Austria)	4× Platinum	200,000x
Brazil (ABPD)	Platinum	250,000*
Canada (Music Canada)	3× Platinum	300,000^
Germany (BVMI)	9× Gold	2,250,000^
Sweden (GLF)	Gold	50,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)	5× Platinum	250,000x
United Kingdom (BPI)	11× Platinum	5,678,610
United States (RIAA)	8× Platinum	8,000,000^
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Release history

Date	Region	Label	Format	Catalog number
2 November 1981	United Kingdom	EMI/Parlophone	LP	EMTV 30
3 November 1981	United States	Elektra Records	LP	5E-564
15 September 1992	United States	Hollywood Records	CD	61265
17 August 2004	United States	Hollywood Records	CD	2061-62465-2
3 January 2011	United Kingdom	Island Records	CD	2758364

See also

• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom
• List of best-selling albums in Australia
• List of best-selling albums in Germany