This is Queen The Greatest
– a weekly celebration of Queen’s
outstanding songs, performances and
achievements from the last 50 years.
Earlier in the series we celebrated how
all four members of Queen are
extremely talented song writers –
each responsible for their fair share
of Queen’s most successful chart hits.
We all know the songs,
but who the composer actually was
may come as a surprise.
And so this week we continue
this celebration of the songs,
and who wrote them, by highlighting
five classic hits that all came from
Queen’s phenomenal Bass Player –
John Deacon.
Before we look at some of the songs
John composed,
it’s worth remembering that,
as part of the group, his contribution to
some of Queen’s most iconic moments
is evident – not least this instantly
recognisable riff from the collaboration
between Queen and David Bowie,
Under Pressure.
While it is true John didn’t write
as many songs as his band mates,
he’s still responsible for some
of the biggest hits, so let’s begin
our journey through some of them.
It is on Queen’s third album,
‘Sheer Heart Attack’, where John’s
first composition, ‘Misfire’, appears,
however, on the next album, his second
song became a single that would go on to
sell over a million copies
in the US alone,
‘You’re My Best Friend’.
1977 saw the release of fan favourite,
‘Spread Your Wings’.
…then in 1980, Queen released
‘Another One Bites The Dust’.
With over 7 million copies sold,
not to mention over a billion streams on
Spotify, this global hit by John is
the band’s biggest selling single.
More chart topping success followed
in 1984 with ‘I Want To Break Free’, which
also resulted in this legendary video…
And then for the ‘A Kind Of Magic’ Album,
John teamed up with Freddie to
create ‘Friends Will Be Friends’.
So there we have five classic Queen songs,
written by the brilliant John Deacon.
Still to come later in the series are the
hits originated by Freddie and Brian –
but until then,
see you for the next instalment
of Queen The Greatest.