Queen's songs have fascinated fans for decades, and their greatest hits can make even the
largest stadium audience sing and clap hands like there's no tomorrow. But what did it take to create these massive tunes
Let's take a look at some of the stories behind Queen's most popular songs
We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions are so catchy and easy to join in on, it almost
seems like they were specifically designed that way. Well, they were. Both songs were actually inspired by a concert Queen played at a U.K. venue called Bingley
Hall on May 29, 1977. The band was already accustomed to gigs where fans were singing along, but Bingley Hall
was a game-changer. According to Brian May, the audience was so loud that they turned the event into a giant
impromptu rock choir. The band had to stop the show and allow the crowd to perform for them instead of the other
way around. After that, both May and Freddie Mercury wanted to craft songs specifically meant for a song
audience participation. May contributed the stomping, hand-clapping, We Will Rock You, while Mercury came up with
the powerful We Are the Champions. Freddie Mercury had a lifelong relationship with a woman named Mary Austin
Austin actually briefly dated Brian May, and she met Mercury sometime after her relationship
with May ended on good terms. The singer's feelings toward Austin were quite genuine, as they lived together for seven
years, and he reportedly said she was the only person he truly loved
However, Queen's popularity grew, and Austin felt uncomfortable in Mercury's new celebrity circles
Thinking that Mercury would eventually lose interest in her, she tried to break up with
the singer, but he refused to let her go, and tried to keep them together by writing
several songs about her. Love of My Life was the most famous of those songs, but ultimately, it wasn't enough
Mercury soon came clean with numerous infidelities with men, and the surprised Austin finally
left it. So I enjoyed the fact that he was able to be honest and frank with me
However, they remained extremely close for the rest of Mercury's life, and Austen became something of a muse to him
Their relationship was so strong that Austen dropped everything to devote herself to Mercury's care as he was dying
and Mercury left her the lion's share of his fortune. Don't Stop Me Now is an empowering anthem
to feeling completely unstoppable and taking on the world. But after Mercury's death in 1991
May revealed that the song was about a particularly difficult period in the vocalist's life
At the time, Mercury was at his most hedonistic, and the rest of the band members were worried
about their friend, who basically wrote an ode to his own dangerous excesses
Still, even the singer's death wasn't enough to cast a shadow over the song's gleeful ode
to decadence. Despite not performing particularly well on the charts when it was released as a single
Don't Stop Me Now has become one of Queen's most popular tracks. In 1981 David Bowie met Queen in Switzerland where the five musicians decided the best way to get acquainted would be to jam together John Deacon broke the ice with the iconic bass line for Under Pressure and the group
descended into a wine-and-drug-fueled marathon jam fest that turned into a song
The famous vocals were recorded by the tripping singers letting out whatever crossed their minds
This peaceful coexistence endured a small crack the very next day, when Bowie remixed
the track into a version that Freddie Mercury disliked. The two had an intense argument, but didn't seem to bear a grudge
We were friends, and sometimes when different artists come together at the right time, and
if the characters are right, that's more important than anything. Now I'm Here is a song about the most classic of rock song subjects, touring
As Queen Complete Works describes, Brian May started working on the autobiographical song
while the band was on the road, supporting Mott the Hoople in 1974
However, the actual writing process was difficult because May's year was plagued by illness
from gangrene to hepatitis to an ulcer. He was so worried that his bandmates would replace him because of his health troubles
that he became deeply depressed. Yeah, I would like to tell you that there was a glimmer of hope there, but there wasn't
at that time, no. Instead, the rest of the band doubled down on their support, and they focused on writing
new material as they waited for him to heal. May thanked them for the vote of confidence with Now I'm Here, which became one of the
most performed songs in the band's career. If you pay attention, you'll find that You're My Best Friend isn't actually just about friendship
It's actually bass player John Deacon's love song to his wife, Veronica
The year was 1975, and the only song Deacon had written for the band was the unassuming misfire
At the time, the band had an electric piano that Freddie Mercury hated, so Deacon hauled
it home and started learning to play. He describes You're My Best Friend as the song that simply came out of the piano when
he was practicing, and to this day, he feels that it sounds best on that particular instrument
The rest of the group was so floored that they even released the poppy tune as the follow-up
single to Bohemian Rhapsody. Radio Gaga, one of Queen's most famous songs, was also one of their most controversial single choices
Capitol Records weren't pleased that their expensive signing's first single release was
going to be a song that turned the downfall of radio into a rock chant
Capitol president Jim Mazza even drafted some less controversial lyrical ideas and sent
them to the band. But it's unclear if any of the changes were ever implemented
Roger Taylor says the song wasn't meant to be a statement against radio and actually criticized
the era's emphasis on music videos. The band had also acquired some clips from Fritz Lang's Metropolis and decided to use
those in the music video for the song. As a result, the song that's criticizing music videos produced one of Queen's finest music videos
According to Denise Sullivan of All Music Somebody to Love is Freddie Mercury heart testimony to the universe a ballad that functions as a pleading soul question In a life without love what God function
It's easy to see all this desperation and heartbreak as the singer's own
Roger Taylor offered an alternate interpretation in an interview with Circus Magazine
saying that the band was actually just influenced by Aretha Franklin, and they were deliberately playing things pretty loose to get that gospel style
So, is this Freddie Mercury's personal scream of anguish, or just a rock band attempting
to pay homage to the Queen of Soul? In fact, it's entirely possible to do both at the same time
Still one thing is certain, leave it to Queen to create a gospel song about how God may
not be all that, and still have it reach number two on the charts
I Want It All is an anthem to determination. Queen, album by album, says the track was inspired by Brian May's second wife Anita Dobson
When they were still a new couple, Dobson was present at the band's concert at Wembley Stadium
Some people recognized her and applauded for her, but instead of being intimidated with
the huge masses, she said what would become the song's chorus, "...I want it all, and I want it now.
May placed Dobson's ambitious saying at the heart of a powerful riff rock anthem that
he submitted for the album The Miracle. Although the band was at a point where they had agreed to split all writing credits equally
John Deacon noted that I Want It All was essentially a finished song before they even headed into
the studio. Unfortunately, due to Freddie Mercury's failing health and inability to tour, the powerful
track was never performed live by its original singer. The assorted stories behind Killer Queen are unusual and at odds
The generally accepted story is that the number one single from 1974 is about a courtesan
which was directly confirmed by Mercury himself. Mercury said he wrote the song about a high-class prostitute, and that he wanted to express
that even people from the upper echelons of society can still have flexible morals
However, if you read into the song with a little bit of the band's history, you come
to media personality Eric Hall. He said, Eric, that's about you. I said, what about me
You're a killer queen. Paul was actually in the band's atmosphere during the era, and even worked as their radio
plugger at the time. The BBC repeats Mercury's statements that the song is about a completely fictional call
girl, but Hall himself seems to have confirmed that it's all about him
Why not both? Either way, it boasts some of Mercury's best work
As Roger Taylor said in the documentary Days of Our Lives, "...Killer Queen always felt a bit special
It was very sophisticated, and it was very Freddy." Save Me is a tragic and emotional song about a man whose relationship is falling apart and
who is truly at his wits' end. Brian May wrote it about his friend, who was undergoing the fracturing marital situation
described in the song. Even though he composed the track May wasn the only one pouring emotion into it Freddie Mercury liked to belt the power ballad out like it was a personal statement which might not be too far from the truth As Rolling Stone points out the singer own emotional and relationship issues also
fit into the lyrics surprisingly well. Was the friend May was writing about secretly Mercury all along, or did the song just resonate
with the vocalist? Regardless of the answer, this incredibly heartbreaking song has recently given its
name to one of May's current pet projects, the Save Me Trust, a foundation for, uh, protecting badgers
Brian May here. It seems that for wildlife all around the planet, the candle is about
to burn out. All right, maybe people are reading too much into the song
In early 1980, John Deacon stopped writing simple pop songs and ushered the rest of the
band into the world of funk. Although they had flirted with funk on a couple of tracks
The songs had always sounded like, well, Queen. Deacon introduced crisp, dry drums and a bass-driven rhythm, and a relatively simplistic production
where Freddie Mercury's voice was the only element that was a recognizable Queen staple
Though Roger Taylor vocally opposed releasing Another One Bites the Dust as a single, others
disagreed, and it became a number one hit in the U.S. It was so different from their usual fare that some radio stations actually labeled it as
an obscure single by a little-known African-American R&B band. But the song had another layer to it, the unexpectedly dark lyrics
Although official comments about the words are few and far between, the bullet-slinging
lyrical content is generally agreed to be inspired by the notorious St. Valentine's Day
massacre in Chicago in 1929. When you look past Mercury's cool vocals and the funky bass line, the song does indeed
hide some surprisingly straightforward descriptions of violence. I think we'll go with a little Bohemian Rhapsody, gentlemen
Good call. One of the biggest unanswered questions about Queen is what's up with Bohemian Rhapsody
What's it really about? The answer to what do the literal words mean, according to a leaflet included with an Iranian
cassette of Queen's greatest hits, is that the song is about a young man who has accidentally
killed someone and, like Faust, sold his soul to the devil. He later calls out to God, and God helps him get his soul back from the devil
Okay, fine. That's interesting. but why would Queen write this song? Is it a coming-out song? Maybe it's about Freddie's
youth. Sorry, but we don't know. The best we can do is gather some tiny snippets. No
one who was actually around for the production of the song will say what Freddie was imagining
or describing to them when they worked it all out. Producer Roy Baker was there, but
he told the New York Times it was generally agreed with Queen that Mercury was allowed
to keep the true stories behind their songs a secret. Freddie only ever said that the
The song was about relationships, and the other people who know have all kept buttoned
up so far