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New Section – Queen Songs Written By each Queen Member

New Section – Queen Songs Written By each Queen Member

by | Jul 9, 2021 | Shanes Queen Site

New Section – Queen Songs Written By each Queen Member

I have added a new section to the site which discusses “Queen Songs Written By each Queen Member” thus highlighting the contribution each Queen member made to the songwriting for the band Queen. This list of songs only relates to Queen songs written by those band members and is on the back of the existing A-Z of Queen songs which is on the site.

Queen are quite unique in music circles in that each member of the band has written a Top 5 hit. Freddie wrote Bohemian Rhapsody, John wrote Another one Bites the Dust, Brian wrote Now I’m Here and Roger wrote Innuendo, but there are a number of songs which you may not know who wrote them, so I did some research and I have now documented the songs and the writers.

The interesting thing is that around 1986 Queen started writing as Queen and not as individuals, and example of an early song credited to Queen was ‘One Vision’, I’m sure you can recall the video where you see Queen writing the song in the studio. In the past every member became very precious about having their song on an album, but by writing as Queen it made the song writing process better. Brian May actually said that he didn’t know why they didn’t do it year before.

There are certain Queen songs and I alwasy forget who actuallywrote them, for example Save Me is always a song I attribute to Freddie but it was actually written by Brian May (obvious when you hear the piano playing). Likewise when ever I heard the song Get Down Make Love, because it has such a big bass riff, I think it was John Deacon who wrote it, but it was actually Freddie Mercury who penned that track.

So if you want to know Who wrote which Queen song, then the links to the Queen Songs Written By each Queen Member sections are below.

Queen Songs written by Freddie Mercury

Queen Songs written by Brian May

Queen Songs written by John Deacon

Queen Songs written by Roger Taylor

These pages are quite new and are difficult to research and compile so if you spot any anomalies or errors please do let me know at webmaster@shanemcdonald.ie

 

The above list of Queen songs written by each memeber came in very handy for me because I was trying to compile a list of all the songs Freddie wrote. Why you might ask? Because I’m putting together a setlist for a Freddie show which is part of the Celebrating Queen Tribute Band … watch out for our dates in late 2021 and 2022 !
Brian May, Back to the Light, Reissue now on Pre-Order

Brian May, Back to the Light, Reissue now on Pre-Order

by | Jun 22, 2021 | Brian May News, Queen Albums

Brian May, ‘Back To The Light’ Rerelease available to Pre-Order Now

If you love the 1992 Brian May album Back to the Light, you have more options to love it with this Remastered Reissue  

Back to the Light reissue will be Released August 6 on the following formats ;  CD, Vinyl, Picture Disc Vinyl, Cassette, Digital Download & Streaming Formats

The Back to the Light re-issue is available to Pre-order Now: https://BrianMay.lnk.to/BackToTheLight

Brian may opsted on his Instagram feed a very non-cryptic teaser about the new album re-issue, saying “Anybody fancy a season of BM re-releases with lots of juicy extras? …. We’re working on a plan!”

It has been almost 30 years since Back to the Light was released. It remains one of my favourite albums and in my view it has sttod the test of time. It was a great success for Brian as it reached number 6 in the charts on it’s initial release. One of the songs from the album even made an appearance at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert when Brian played Too Much Love will Kill You.

Back to the Light has some fantastic songs and some have even made their way into the Queen Set List, for example Last Horizon. Some fantastic performances from the late great Cozy Powell on percussion is also a feature of the album. Brian even won an Ivor Novello award for ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ winning the award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. If you were around in the early 90’s you probably even remember the Ford motor company using a version of  ‘Driven by You’ or their adverts.

It is a very poignant album as Brian wrote it between 1998 and 1992 during which time he lost his dad, Freddie and also separated from his first wife.

What’s new on this Reissue? 

The reissue of the Back to the Light album will be available as a Collector’s Edition box set featuring an exclusive white-vinyl LP,  a 32-page book, a 12” art print, two CDs, a download card and an enamel badge set and presented in a beautiful lift-lid box. A 1,000 only limited-edition of the same box-set is available exclusively on Queen Online Store with a Brian May signed 12” art print.

Back to the Light will also be released on vinly, CD, as a Deluxe 2 x CD set, on retro Cassette and the long awaited digital and streaming formats. There is a bonus called Out of the Light available in the box set, and on the 2 CD and digital formats. A limited-edition 1 x LP Picture Disc will also be available exclusively on Queen Online Store.  … At the time of writing this some of these had sold out within the hour !

Brian has actually rewritten the album’s sleeve notes to include lovely a tribute to the late, great Cozy Powell. So lots of nice touches to show this is more than just a re-release.

 

Back to the Light reissue, Track Listings

BACK TO THE LIGHT

1. The Dark (May)

2. Back To The Light (May)

3. Love Token (May)

4. Resurrection (Words: May. Music: May, Powell, Page)

5. Too Much Love Will Kill You (May, Musker, Lamers)

6. Driven By You (May)

7. Nothin’ But Blue (Words: May. Music: May, Powell)

8. I’m Scared (May)

9. Last Horizon (May)

10. Let Your Heart Rule Your Head (May)

11. Just One Life (May)

12. Rollin’ Over (May)

 

OUT OF THE LIGHT

1. Nothin’ But Blue – Guitar Version (May, Powell, Makin, Nicholls)

2. Too Much Love Will Kill You – Guitar Version (May, Musker, Lamers)

3. Just One Life – Guitar Version (May)

4. Driven By You Two (May)

5. Driven By You – Ford Ad Version (May)

6. Tie Your Mother Down (Featuring Slash) (May) Live on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 5th April 1993

7. Too Much Love Will Kill You (May) Live at the Palace Theatre, Los Angeles, 6th April 1993

8. ’39 / Let Your Heart Rule Your Head (May) Live at the Brixton Academy, 15th June 1993

9.  Last Horizon (May) Live at the Brixton Academy, 15th June 1993

10. We Will Rock You (May) Live at the Brixton Academy 15 June 1993

11. Driven By You – Cozy and Neil Version ’93 (May)

So, What do you think?   Will you be buying the Back to the Light reissue? Personally I am very tempted to get the 2 CD set, my only issue is that I don’t use my CD player and the streaming / download might be the option I will go for. If you have comments or a favourite track from this album please leave a comment below.

 

Queen Greatest Hits 1 to be Re-released in New Formats

Queen Greatest Hits 1 to be Re-released in New Formats

by | May 28, 2021 | General Queen News

The UK’s biggest selling album of all time and achieving the album with the third longest chart run on the UK Official Charts,  Queen’s Greatest Hits 1 is to be rereleased in brand new formats to mark the 50th Anniversary of the greatest band ever – Queen.

It’s amazing to think that it is 40 years since the original release of Queen’s Greatest Hits 1. With this new release there will be a Collector’s Edition CD with and exclusive slipcase cover & a very retro Cassette version.

The new Greatest Hits rerelease is available to pre-order on the Queen Online store at https://www.queenonlinestore.com/Queen/The-Greatest/

This Limited Edition Queen Greatest Hits Rerelease is sure to be one that collectors will want to snap up. Queen’s Greatest Hits 1 was released on the 26th October 1981. By this stage I would guess that every family must have a copy of this somewhere sonsidering the amazing sales this album has had since it is the first and only album to have sold over 6 million copies in the UK (at the time of this blog post sales have exceeded 6.76 million sales) with global album sales of Queen’s Greatest Hits in excess of 25 million which is truly amazing.

Also if you look at the chart success and the chart lobgevity of the album, Queen’s Greatest Hits has now spent over 950 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, and the album has been certified a whopping 22 times platinum.

With a new generation of Queen fans coming on stream on the back of Bohemian Rhapsody and also the fact that Adam Lambert has brought with him a young audience as Queen+Adam Lambert tour the world, it is no wonder that this album keeps popping up in the top 10 of the album charts every so often, even though it is 40 years old.

Queen Greatest Hits ReRelease Date

So for those who want to have this new limited edition Queen Greatest Hits Rerelease, you can have it from July 2 when it is released globally.
Don’t forget you can Pre-Order from the link above.

There is also a number of other Queen Greatest Hits products you can enjoy including a Collector’s Edition Clear Cassette, a Collector’s Edition CD With Exclusive Slipcase Cover signed by Brian May and Roger Taylor, bundled with all 4 band member colour cassettes and a Greatest Hits gold plated badge (limited to 1000 signed copies), a Collector’s Edition Frosted Cassette which comes in Aqua, Pink, Green and Blue for Freddie, Brian, Roger and John respectively and also other things like badges, haps and tote bags.

Queen’s Greatest Hits

The classics like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We are the Champions’ and ‘Killer Queen’, are all piano-based​ brilliance from Freddie – is then mixed with Brians guitar riffs of ‘Now I’m Here’ and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’. They could easily have added a few others like ‘Tie Your​ Mother Down’ or ‘Sail Away​ Sweet Sister’ and they wouldn’t have looked out of place… but some of these tracks did end up on foreign Greatest Hits albums. It remains one of my favourite albums and I’m joined in that by millions others through-out the world.

Please feel free to leave your comments on this Queen Greatest Hits Re-Release below …

Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert – On this Day in 1992

Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert – On this Day in 1992

by | Apr 20, 2021 | General Queen News

Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert April 1992

It was on this day, April 20 1992, that the world’s best musicians assembled at Wembley stadium for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, to pay tribute to Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury, and at the same time raise awareness about HIV and AIDS through the newly formed Mercury Phoenix Trust.

Freddie Mercury died on Sunday 24th November 1991, only 24 hours after publicly admitting that he was living with HIV/AIDS. After Freddie died, the remaining members of Queen along with with their manager Jim (Miami) Beach to organise a tribute concert to celebrate the life, legacy and music of Freddie Mercury, Less than 5 months after his passing, the music world along with 72,000 fans filled Wembley to pay tribute to the lover of life, singer of songs, one Freddie Mercury. The Easter Monday event was broadcast live on BBC2 television and was also simulcast on radio to 76 countries around the world, reaching an estimated total audience of up to one billion. (Just imagine what that would have been like today with global streaming etc)

Artists such as George Michael, Liza Minnelli, Metallica, Extreme, Def Leppard, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield, Seal, Guns ‘n’ Roses,Paul Young, Metallica and many others joined the remaining members of Queen to perform a huge selection the Queen hits. The band’s collaboration with George Michael with his performance of Someone to Love became a chart topping hit via the Queen Five Live EP. At that stage many people actually thought that George Michael would be the new lead singer of Queen, he was that good.

The show started with Brian, John and Roger on stage together. Brian May opened and said “Good evening Wembley and the world. We are here tonight to celebrate the life, and work, and dreams, of one Freddie Mercury. We’re gonna give him the biggest send off in history!” … and they did just that.

Great Performances at the Freddie Mercury Tribute

There were fantastic performances from Extreme and powerful renditions from Metallica who did Stone Cold Crazy. The show was also remembered for a very interesting duet with Guns ‘n’ Roses lead singer and Elton John and performed Bohemian Rhapsody.

Other great Highlights of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert included Annie Lennox and David Bowie performing a wonderful rendition of Under Pressure (along with Annie Lennox’s fantastic makeup), Lisa Stansfield performing I want to Break Free (hoover in-tow) and Extreme who did a Queen Medley.

This was also the last full concert for Queen’s bassist John Deacon who stepped away from performing after this show.

One thing which was obvious was that many of the stars had to transpose the songs down, because they couldn’t reach the high notes of the songs … one performer said “I just couldn’t do a Freddie !”

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert will live long in the memory of those who were either lucky enough to be at it, or who atcually saw it live on TV. A fitting tribute to a frontman, singer, song-writer, musician and lover of life.

What’s your facourite Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert memory … leave a comment below…

Killer Queen voted best song on Sheer Heart Attack

Killer Queen voted best song on Sheer Heart Attack

by | Apr 18, 2021 | General Queen News

After weeks of voting, Killer Queen was voted the best song on Queen’s 3rd Studio Album

If you have been following this site for a while then you will know that we have been running the ‘Champions of Queen League‘ to determine the best songs on all of Queen’s Studio Albums. Up to this point we have done 3 albums; Queen, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack.

The most recent set of polls saw the 13 tracks on Sheer Heart Attack go head to head. This tool place over 13 rounds of polls and 78 individual head-to-head votes.

In total 2,431 votes were cast in the Sheer Heart Attack polls and the final table was very close, with two songs always leading the pack. Those two songs of course were Now I’m Here and Killer Queen. It was Killer Queen which was voted the Best song.

How was Killer Queen voted Best song on Sheer Heart Attack?

Throughout the voting process Now I’m Here and Killer Queen lead the way. Each of these songs won all of their respective rounds in the head to head polls. The final reckoning for these two songs came when they went head to head themselves. Killer Queen eventually won 72% of the vote and Now I’m Here had to settle for 2nd place with 28% of the vote.

Each song got 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw in the head to head polls.

The final table for the Sheer Heart Attack – Champions of Queen League was as follows;

Best song on Sheer Heart Attack

The Overall Results

As can be seen, Killer Queen won 12, Now I’m Here won 11 and Brighton Rock came in 3rd place. 4th place saw a respectable position for In the Lap of the Gods Revisited and Flick of the Wrist was in 5th spot. A firm favourite amongst fans, Stone Cold Crazy was in 6th spot with the (non revisited) Lap of the Gods in 7th spot. Lily of the Valley, Tenement Funster, Bring back that Leroy Brown, She Makes Me, Misfire and Dear Friends prop up the table in that order.

 

Next Up…

The next album on the Champions of Queen League will be ‘A Night at the Opera’ which is bound to throw up a few good contests, e.g. Bohemian Rhapsody Vs The Prophets Song. All of these votes and head to head rounds will be split between Twitter Polls and also Online Polls so please do check in with the Champions of Queen League webpage every few days for updates. 

 

What do you think – Was the result correct with Killer Queen voted Best Song on Sheer Heart Attack? Leave a comment below with your thoughts ….

Watch the accompanying Video for Killer Queen being voted best song on Sheer Heart Attack

I have a video on YouTube which details the top 5 songs in this poll.

Click Here
Queen Win the Absolute Radio ‘World Cup of Classic Rock’

Queen Win the Absolute Radio ‘World Cup of Classic Rock’

by | Apr 11, 2021 | General Queen News

Queen win the Absolute Radio The World Cup of Classic Rock poll

Queen thrash Guns N’ Roses in the final round…

For a few weeks, the popular radio station Absolute Radio were running a series of head to head knockout polls to determine who the greatest rock band of all time was? After a few weeks of voting, it was no surprise that Queen were crowned the overall winners of the Absolute Radio “World Cup of Classic Rock”. In the end Queen beat Guns N’ Roses in the final head to head.

The polls started off with 32 shortlisted rock bands and the polls were run via the Absolute Classic Rock’s Twitter page. There were some great polls running and I was very surprised to see Def Leppard and Thin Lizzy going out on the very first set of polls. There were also some very close polls, some only separated by 1 or 2%

Queen overcame Meat loaf (winning by 89%), Pink Floyd (winning with 71%), Iron Maiden (winning with 78%) and AC/DC (winning with 67%) before winning the whole contest against Guns ‘n’ Roses. Not just winning it but they went Stone Cold Crazy on the US band – Queen eventually won with 76% of the vote … Pure Champions !

Guns ‘n’ Roses came 2nd, AC/DC came third and Hendrix was second.

You can check out the full rundown of each poll at https://planetradio.co.uk/absolute-radio/music/news/the-world-cup-of-classic-rock/

 

As a result of the World Cup of Classic Rock win…

Due to the fact that Queen won the World Cup of Classic Rock poll, Brian May will be on Absolute radio talking about 3 Queen albums which will be played in full, each Monday evening on Absolute Radio. This will kick off with Brian talking about ‘A Night at the Opera’. Take a look at the AbsoluteRadio tweet below for more details.

 

Queen Release the Queen Rock Tour Mobile Game

Queen Release the Queen Rock Tour Mobile Game

by | Mar 3, 2021 | Queen Fun

Queen have launched a mobile game called Queen Rock Tour on the 50th Anniversary of Queen. The new mobile game Queen Rock Tour allows you to play along with the band and the Queen back catalogue. Players can re-live classic Queen Concerts from the Rainbow to Wembley.

Upon the launch of the Queen Rock Tour game on 1st March, Brian May said that you could ” Be a Lockdown Rock Star! “

Unfortunately, this mobile game is the closest we are going to come to experiencing a Queen Tour in 2021, as the effects of Covid continue to impact live music across the world.

The concept of the game is that it is a play-along rhythm game, similar to games like GuitarHero. Apparently this is the first official Queen mobile game. There was a mobile game called “Play the Game” but this was probably not endorsed by Queen (either way it is no longer available on the AppStore)

The new Queen Rock Tour game allows fans to experience the thrill of playing live with Queen on the event of their Golden Jubilee. Although we would all lobe to be stomping our feet at a live Queen concert, the best we can do in lockdown is to stomp our thumbs all over our mobile devices. You can play along with Brian’s guitar, Freddie vocals and piano riffs, Johns Bass and Rogers Drum playing. All you have to do is stay on rhythm and score as many points as you can.

There are 20 songs included on the game including Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions, Radio Ga Ga and many many more. There are also various venues you can play including the Rainbow and Wembley Stadium.

The graphics are amazing and you can even stylise your band with icon outfits from the bands 50 year career. You will also see images which up to now may not have been seen by many and you will learn nots of Queen facts along the way.

Probably the last time we saw an official computer game with Queen’s music was ‘Queen: The Eye’ back in 1997.

This game is another way the Queen are reaching a new audience and a new generation of Queen fans. Building on the success of the recent tours with Adam Lambert and also the resounding success that was the Bohemian Rhapsody BioPic which took 4 Oscars at the 2019 Academy Awards, and many other awards along the way.

From what I can see the game has been very positively received in the Queen community.

You can find out more about the Queen Rock Tour mobile game at www.queenrocktour.com
Download free in the Apple App Store and on Google Play

The Best Song on the Queen II Album is Revealed

The Best Song on the Queen II Album is Revealed

by | Feb 13, 2021 | General Queen News, Interesting Queen Items, Shanes Queen Site

What is The Best song on Queen II

The Best Song on the Queen II Album is Revealed after 1,998 votes were cast in the Queen II Champions of Queen League.

Since late November 2020 I have been running the Queen II Champions of Queen League, with the goal of finding out what the public think is the best song on Queen’s second album. In total 1,998 votes were cast between the Shane’s Queen Site website and the associated Twitter Account @shanesqueensite.

Because there were 11 songs on the album, an odd number, one song in each round got a ‘bye’ and was not included in that rounds polls.

The content on the album is so strong that it was hard to sometimes decide which was the better song. How can you decide between Ogre Battle and White Queen or Fairyfellers Master Stroke and Seven Seas of Rhye? The voting public really wanted to share their views, considering the Queen I vote got 1,451 votes the voting strength was very much increased in this round.

The final Champions of Queen League is shown below as is the review video on my Shane’s Queen Site YouTube Channel.

 

Please Join in with the Sheer Heart Attack polls which will run from the 15th February via the website and Twitter – Click here to visit the main Champions of Queen League page. 

Queen II - Best song on Queen II Album

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Recent YouTube Videos from Shane’s Queen Site

Recent YouTube Videos from Shane’s Queen Site

by | Jan 19, 2021 | Shanes Queen Site

These are some Recent YouTube Videos from Shane’s Queen Site

In the past few weeks I have added some Shane’s Queen Site YouTube videos which include Piano Tutorials, Covers, and Backing Tracks. I have a few of these listed below incase you missed them.

How to Play ‘I Want to Break Free’ – Full Song

This has been requested a few times so I decided to spend some time and do a decent video showing the intro, verse, solo and bridge for the song.  Each section is broken down and explained. The end of the song has the top down view of how to play the full song from start to finish. 

How to Play “Seven Seas of Rhye” – Full Song

This is one of the signature pieces which Freddie loved to play, you may recall his fast fingers of the Wembley concert. Here, as usual, I break the song into intro, verse, bridge, instrumental and final verse / fade out. The end of the song has the full song played at tempo from start to finish.

Under Pressure Cover by Celebrating Queen

This cover is from the Queen tribute band Celebrating Queen , and I am delighted to be keyboard player in this fantastic band.

This is the cover of under pressure by celebrating Queen recorded between Budapest, Las Vegas and myself here in Waterford Ireland.

Follow me on YouTube

The Shane’s Queen Site YouTube is designed to bring you the very best Queen information on that channel. I mainly do Queen Piano Tutorials but I also do some music and general videos as well as synth rundowns etc. In 2022 I will be bringing you on tour as I join the Celebrating Queen Tribute Band in the USA. So you can come behind the scenes with me as I perform my role as Celebrating Queen Keyboardist and Musical Director. So click the link below and subscribe to Shane’s Queen Site on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Shane's Queen Site YouTube Channel

Click the link to Subscribe to the Shane's Queen Site YouTube Channel which has piano tutorials, Queen reviews, the latest Queen news, Queen Covers, Queen Tribute Bands and much more...

SUBSCRIBE
Queen on TV over Christmas 2020

Queen on TV over Christmas 2020

by | Dec 24, 2020 | General Queen News

Queen programmes on TV Christmas 2020

This is a brief listing of the various Queen and Queen related TV programming available to enjoy over the Christmas period. I’m sure you have seen many of these Queen programmes before but if you are drowning in the usual Christmas films you may want to switch over to some great music. So this is the round up of Queen on TV Christmas 2020 (and I don’t mean HRH)

United Kingdom & Ireland

Queen: Live at Wembley -:- Christmas Day 6:30pm (Sky Arts) & New Year’s Eve 10:40pm (Sky One)
Queen: The Magic Years -:- Christmas Day 3:30pm (Sky Arts)
Queen Live in Rio -:-  Sunday 27th December 8.00pm (Pick)
Freddie Mercury: The Tribute Concert -:- Christmas Day 4:45pm (Sky Arts) & Sunday 27th December 9.15pm (Pick) & New Year’s Eve/Day 12:15am (Sky One)
Queen & Adam Lambert: The Show Must Go On -:- New Year’s Eve/Day 2:15am (Sky One)

Czech Republic

Hungarian Rhapsody – Live In Budapest  -:- 31st December 10.20pm (Czech TV)

Italian TV

Queen + Bejart – Ballet For Life  -:- 24th December 5am (Sky Arte)
Queen Rock The World  -:- 24th December 4am (Sky Arte) & 6th January 10am (Sky Arte)
Live At Wembley Stadium  -:- 26th December 8.00pm (Sky Arte)
Live At The Rainbow  -:- Monday 28th December 5.45pm (Sky Arte)
Hungarian Rhapsody – Live In Budapest  -:- Tuesday 5th January 6.45pm (Sky Arte)

 

Netherlands

Queen & Adam Lambert: The Show Must Go On  -:- Christmas Day 9.20pm (NTR)

Romania

Hungarian Rhapsody – Live In Budapest  -:- Thursday 31st December 8.20pm

 

What Queen Programmes on TV Christmas 2020 will you be watching?

If you haven’t previously seen many of the items below, my favourites from this TV list of Queen programming for Christmas 2020 are;
– Queen Live at Wenbley 86,
– Queen + Adam Lambert: the Show Must Go On,
– Queen Rock the World   and
Queen Live at the Rainbow.
So, lots of Great Queen TV programming to keep you entertained this Christmas.

If you have a favourite of all the Queen on TV Christmas 2020, or even would rather see some different Queen concert or documentary on TV this Christmas, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Happy Christmas to you all from Shane’s Queen Site!