Queen in Review

I have always loved best-of compilations in theory but in practice they always leave me underwhelmed. They typically miss personal favorites or include duds that don't belong anywhere near the words "greatest" or "hits." But there are some bands that I like but are either too hit-and-miss or have too many albums or I don't love them enough to want it all so therein lies the greatest dilemma of our times: Spring for the less than perfect collection or shell out tons of money for a discography that will never get listened to?

I choose option 3 - search through all the albums and hand pick your personal favorites to create a unique and custom made compilation of only the brightest and best. It's a great way to quickly familiarize yourself with a band and after a few weeks of intense study and analysis you can ignore 90% of their output and never visit them again. It's an insane waste of time for sure but it is one of my favorite hobbies.

Queen was the latest band that I picked apart and put back together as I saw fit. They had some spotty compilations come out in the 90s thanks to Wayne's World and the "Bohemian Rhapsody" renaissance but the greatest hits album from 1981 is pretty untouchable. 14 nearly perfect songs and no crap. It is one of the first tapes I remember loving as a child and my admiration for it has never waned over 26 years. It's so flawless that I figured they had to have amazing deep cuts somewhere in their back catalog. I am sad to say, they really don't.

I picked over each album from 1973's Queen to 1982's Hot Space and came up with very little worth keeping other than the songs on Greatest Hits. How could this be? Aside from the 13 songs on this compilation that I kept (sorry, "You're My Best Friend") I only found 10 other songs worth saving. How is it possible that there were only 10 other worthy tracks over the course of 10 albums? It's because Queen is the weirdest and most erratic band to ever grace the pop charts. Just look at that photo up there. They're like the Logan's Run house band. Freddie Mercury alone is worth an in depth assessment but it will have to wait. Over the next week or two I will explore each album so you can join me on the strange journey through Queen's development and I promise, there will be no "Radio Ga Ga."