Top 10 Best Queen Songs For Your Favorite Playlist

We list some of the best Queen songs you can add to your favorite playlist. Some of their best-selling singles include “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Fat-Bottomed Girls”, “We Will Rock You”, “We Are the Champions”, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, and “I Want to Break Free”. Estimates of their record sales range from 250 million to 300 million, making them one of the world’s best-selling music artists.

Bio: Who is Queen?

Queen is an English rock band originally consisting of four members: vocalist and pianist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bass guitarist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor. Although generally dismissed by critics, Queen crafted an elaborate blend of layered guitar work by virtuoso Brian May and overdubbed vocal harmonies enlivened by the flamboyant performance of front man and principal songwriter Freddie Mercury. Queen went on to became one of the most innovative and successful rock bands of the 1970s. Also, their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert went down in history as a legendary performance. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2018 they were awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Top 10 Best Queen Songs

1. Bohemian Rhapsody

Released in 1975, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” quickly become one of the most controversial and celebrated songs of its day. The song was recorded originally for Queen’s studio LP A Night at the Opera. Realising its chart potential, the band drummed up support among radio DJs for the unusually long (5:55 minutes) track to be released as a single. It was, despite having broken every rule in the pop-hit-writing manual, an instant commercial success. It became the Christmas single of 1975, held its own at the top of the UK singles chart for nine weeks, and had sold more than a million copies by the end of January 1976. Freddie himself declared that the interpretation of the song is all down to the individual. ‘It’s one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it,’ he once said. ‘I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them…”The song’s name was also used as the title for the Oscar-winning 2019 film Bohemian Rhapsody, a Queen biopic charting the band’s success, and in 2018 the song became the most streamed song of the 20th century.

Stream “Bohemian Rhapsody”

2. Don’t Stop Me Now

“Don’t Stop Me Now” is widely considered to be one of the many classic songs Freddie Mercury wrote. He wrote the song for Queen’s 1978 album Jazz while staying in Montreux, Switzerland. The 12th song on the album, it was released as a single in early 1979. The song begins with Mercury’s piano playing, with John Deacon and Roger Taylor adding a bass guitar and drums backing track. It also showcases an example of Queen’s trademark multitrack harmony vocals for the chorus. The 2004 horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead featured the song in a hilarious, pivotal moment, giving the song a second wind that’s extended to commercials, concerts and even the end credits of Queen’s own blockbuster biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. In 2014, Rolling Stone readers voted “Don’t Stop Me Now” as their third-favourite song by Queen.

Stream “Don’t Stop Me Now”

3. Another One Bites The Dust

“Another One Bites The Dust” has proven to be a formidable song in the British rock legends’ discography – and a staple of early ’80s radio as well. The song hit the top of the charts instantly and has become Queen’s biggest single to date, selling more than 7 million copies worldwide. The band recorded the track for their eighth album, The Game, but were not going to release it as a single. Later on it would become apparent that Michael Jackson was behind Queen’s biggest selling single of all time. John Deacon mentioned that “Michael Jackson actually suggested we release it as a single. He was a fan of ours and used to come to our shows.” Freddie Mercury later retold the whole story, which involved Jackson urging the band to do it.

Stream “Another One Bites The Dust”

4. Under Pressure

“Under Pressure” was a once-in-a-lifetime pairing and a unique superstar collaboration. The single by Queen and David Bowie, completed its rapid climb to the top of the UK charts on November 21, 1981. In both recent and archive footage, the band told how they were joined by Bowie in Montreux, Switzerland and came up with the song during a boozy recording session. Bowie recalled: ‘They were recording there and, David [Richards, record producer] knew that I was in town, and phoned me up and asked me if I’d come down, if I’d like to go down and see what was happening.’ Queen drummer Roger Taylor revealed it was Bowie’s idea for the group to write their own song with him. He said: ‘Well, I think the process was we were all drunk, and in the studio, and we were just for fun playing all sorts of old songs… and I think David said, “Look, hang on a minute, why don’t we write one of our own?”‘ Bassist Brian May said it was John Deacon who came up with the song’s riff with Roger adding that he forgot what he came up with after they went to get something to eat. Luckily, Roger eventually remembered what his band mate did with Brian saying: ‘And by that time, David was very impassioned with it and he had a vision in his head I think.’ The song became Queen’s second number-one hit in their home country and Bowie’s third, and also charted in the top 10 in more than ten countries around the world.

Stream “Under Pressure”

5. We Will Rock You

“We Will Rock You” is a Queen anthem often heard at football stadiums accompanied by clapping and arm waving. The rhythm is irresistible: stomp, stomp, clap, stomp, stomp clap. As expected, the song became one of Queen’s most famous songs and a moment of audience participation at the band’s shows. It also was picked up at sports events, particularly in the US, when hockey and baseball games would play the track over the PA. Brian May recalled one of the occasions that inspired the song: “[It] was at Bingley Hall [near Birmingham, England] where the audience sang every song and then we went off stage and they carried on singing and then they sang [the de facto Liverpool F.C. football anthem] “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Rolling Stone ranked it number 330 of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in 2004, and it placed at number 146 on the Songs of the Century list in 2001. In 2009, “We Will Rock You” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

Stream “We Will Rock You”

6. We Are The Champions

“We Are The Champions” was released in 1977 by Queen as part of their behemoth double-sided single that also included “We Will Rock You”, which became ubiquitous anthems at sporting events in Britain and the United States. Freddie Mercury, who wrote the song himself, said: “I was thinking about football when I wrote it. I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. Of course, I’ve given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant.” The song was a worldwide success, reaching number two in the UK Singles Chart, number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In 2009 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

Stream “We Are The Champions”

7. Crazy Little Thing Called Love

“Crazy Little Thing Called Love“, Freddie Mercury’s homage to Elvis, which he wrote in minutes — in a bathtub — kicked off the group’s best year on the U.S. charts. The song peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and became the group’s first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US in 1980.

Stream “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”

8. I Want To Break Free

The second single from Queen’s 11th studio album The Works, “I Want To Break Free” gained notoriety primarily for its controversial music video. The video featured the band dressed as the cast of the popular soap opera Coronation Street and has Freddie Mercury dancing with members of the Royal Ballet Theatre. Mercury plays a housewife who wants to “break free” from his constraining life. “We had done some really serious, epic videos in the past, and we just thought we’d have some fun,” said Roger Taylor. “We wanted people to know that we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, that we could still laugh at ourselves. I think we proved that.”

Stream “I Want To Break Free”

9. Somebody To Love

“Somebody to Love” is a soul-searching piece that questions God’s role in a life without love. Through voice layering techniques, Queen was able to create the soulful sound of a 100-voice choir from three singers: Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor. Mercury’s fascination and admiration for Aretha Franklin was a major influence for the creation of this song. “Freddie wanted to be Aretha Franklin,” says guitarist Brian May, “you have to bear this in mind, and that explains everything. He loved Aretha. And, this was his Gospel epic. It kind of followed in the steps of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the sense that we were building up these multiple vocal parts, but this time we were being a Gospel choir, instead of being an English choir.” “Somebody To Love” reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

Stream “Somebody To Love”

10. Radio Ga Ga

Queen drummer Roger Taylor was the one responsible for the band’s hit “Radio Ga Ga” from the album The Works (1984). The original title of this song was “Radio Ca-Ca”. This came about after Taylor’s son, Felix said, “Radio, caca!” when he tried to express that the radio was bad. Taylor liked the title, but the rest of the group objected. Interestingly, Lady Gaga, got her stage name from the song. The track became one of the band’s most famous songs and reached the first position on the charts in 19 countries at the time. The success made the band play the song at every concert they performed until their last one with Freddie Mercury in 1986. The music video for the song also uses footage from the 1927 silent science fiction film Metropolis. It received heavy rotation on music channels and was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in 1984.

Stream “Radio Ga Ga”

Honorable mentions

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