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81 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still Great Even Without "Bohemian Rhapsody", April 13, 2005
How do I review what isn't here? Strong Queen fans will know all 17 songs. Most of their biggest hits are here. Most. Not all. Not even one of the biggest songs they've ever had.
Even an American Idol contestant knows "Bohemian Rhapsody" is part of the rock-n-roll canon. What was Hollywood Records thinking to leave out such a great hit?
What is here is mostly good. Freddie Mercury's range and dramatic intonations, paired with guitar maestro Brian May's capacity to ignite a note, and songs like "Killer Queen" go from being interesting to incredible.
Part of the problem was Queen. They had too many good hits gracing more than one genre. Most bands wish they had the difficulty of choosing greatest hits choices.
Questionable choices are obvious: "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy."
"Seven Seas" has a hard rock, guitar-driven sound but does not meet the usual Queen level of quality.
"Good Old" is a nice demonstration of Freddie Mercury's great voice, but lyrically is weak.
The closest economical solution is to buy instead "Queen - Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2" Get all the songs below except "Keep Yourself Alive." 34 songs in all.
Missing from the play list:
* Bohemian Rhapsody
* Under Pressure
* Tie Your Mother Down
* Keep Yourself Alive
* Radio Ga Ga
The play list:
* We Will Rock You
* We Are the Champions
* Another One Bites the Dust
* Killer Queen
* Somebody to Love
* Fat Bottomed Girls
* Bicycle Race
* You're My Best Friend
* Crazy Little Thing Called Love
* Now I'm Here
* Play the Game
* Seven Seas of Rhye
* Body Language
* Save Me
* Don't Stop Me Now
* Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
* I Want to Break Free
Why four stars after criticizing what is missing? These are still great tunes, every one of them. The weakest song is still better than much of the radio fodder today.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some of Queen's Greatest Hits, June 9, 2003
Queen released albums from 1973 to 1995. In that time Queen made a lot of music that was "great". Thus, as with most artists that have been around for more than 20 years, it is impossible to capture all of their hits or best music on a single CD. Recently this difficulty was recognized with a boxed set of three CDs that captured a much greater cross section of their music.I consider this collection of Queen music their popular music. Much of it was mellow or radio friendly, and thus much of it hit the top 10. Given that Queen had a very eclectic repertoire, you'll find quirky songs such as "Fat Bottomed Girls" next to the mellow love song "Somebody to Love". Queen's progressive rock and harder rock songs are only barely represented on this particular collection, though strains of their harder edge show through in songs like "Bicycle Race" and "Another One Bites the Dust". In many ways Queen was an album group. While most of their albums stop short of being true concept albums, most of their albums did have a theme. Also, their music was organized carefully to provide a presentation of the music that was greater than the sum of the individual songs. Thus, listening to a "greatest" collection does little to express the true scope of this group. I recommend this CD as one that provides a small sampling of Queen, and some of their more mellow music at that. You need to also have "Classic Queen" to additional hits such as "Bohemian Rhapsody". You may also want to consider "The Platinum Collection: Greatest Hits I, II and III", which is perhaps the most comprehensive set short of buying albums. Though this CD is lacking in its breadth, I still give it 5 stars because Queen was such a great group, and the songs here do represent a small portion of their incredible talent.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite all the hits, but it's a start!, February 13, 2006
With the greatest hits album of "Queen", we don't have all the hits, for a band of their magnitude of success has to eventually release a dual CD set (which they did) that can cover all the ground. Before that though, we had "Classic Queen" and "Queens Greatest hits".
Greatest hits gives the fans the arena stomping anthems "We will rock you" "We are the champions" and "Another one bites the dust" which have been embraced by sports teams, players, and gym and stadium soundsets everywhere. The soothing song "You make me live" is on here, with vocalist Freddie Mercury in prime form. Fun, funny and catchy pop songs like "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle race" grace the track listing as well. There are lesser known, non radio played songs like "Now I'm here" "Play the game" and "Seven seas of rhye" that we get to explore. The 17 track album rounds out with the powerful, uplifting song of "I want to break free". It's not all of the greatest hits, but considering how many this band really had, you can't put them all on one album. This however, was a great start to help celebrate one of the greatest bands of the past 50 years, whose music I never tire of listening to.
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