The story begins in February 1990 when Disney’s record label Hollywood Records bought the North American distribution rights to Queen’s music from for $10 million. At the time, Queen were successful everywhere but North America so it’s likely that Disney saw potential in the band.

Freddie Mercury died the following year and while it was very depressing, it also caused a resurgence in Queen’s popularity in the US.

Right before he died, Queen released Greatest Hits II, a collection of 17 songs spanning from 1981-1991. However, there was no way Disney was going to release a collection of songs of which only 2 hit the top 30, no one would buy it. So instead, they came up with another idea.

Since Disney’s a film company first and foremost, they decided to make their own version of Greatest Hits II.

Since Disney’s a film company first and foremost, they started by including 6 songs featured in films. These are One Vision from Iron Eagle, 4 songs from Highlander (Hammer To Fall, A Kind Of Magic, One Year Of Love, and Who Wants To Live Forever), and Bohemian Rhapsody from Wayne’s World.

They then included 3 of their older songs from upcoming Hollywood Pictures, those being Keep Yourself Alive and Stone Cold Crazy from Encino Man and Tie Your Mother Down from Super Mario Bros., the latter of which ended up being cut from the film but is still included in the soundtrack.

After that, they added Under Pressure and Radio Ga Ga, the 2 aforementioned songs that hit the top 30, as well as I Want It All, Headlong, and The Show Must Go On, which were popular on rock radio at the time.

But they still had 3 spots left to fill. They could’ve added Princes Of The Universe, Body Language, and I Want To Break Free but there were too many Highlander songs to include the former and Disney were saving the latter 2 for another compilation so instead, they included These Are The Days Of Our Lives, The Miracle, and I’m Going Slightly Mad. They probably included the former because of it’s success in the UK, as well as a way to deter people from just importing Greatest Hits II, which lacks the song. As for the other 2, my guess is that they were just favorites of the person who arranged this album.

So on March 3rd, 1992, they released Classic Queen, suggesting that this is the classic Queen people know and love:

A Kind Of Magic Bohemian Rhapsody Under Pressure (unique mix) Hammer To Fall (single version) Stone Cold Crazy One Year Of Love Radio Ga Ga I’m Going Slightly Mad I Want It All (single version) Tie Your Mother Down (single version) The Miracle (unique edit) These Are The Days Of Our Lives One Vision (album/single version hybrid) Keep Yourself Alive Headlong Who Wants To Live Forever The Show Must Go On

I personally prefer this compilation over Greatest Hits II. For one, it includes 4 songs from the 70’s while the UK version is all 80’s, giving this album more variety. Also, i prefer the order of the songs. It’s nice to end with The Show Must Go On instead of One Vision and having Hammer To Fall early on was a great choice. Not to mention, the alternate mix of Under Pressure is amazing and far superior to the original. I’m sure glad Disney didn’t release Greatest Hits II in North America.

The album was a smashing success, peaking at #4 on the Billboard 200 charts, mostly thanks to the resurgence in popularity after Freddie’s death, as well as Bohemian Rhapsody’s appearance in Wayne’s World, as well as on this album.

So later in 1992, Disney decided to release the first Greatest Hits to the US. However, due to Bohemian Rhapsody’s inclusion on Classic Queen, they had to modify it a bit.

They did this by replacing Bohemian Rhapsody and Flash, both of which were featured prominently in feature films with Body Language and I Want To Break Free, 2 of their more popular 80’s songs left off both the original Greatest Hits and Classic Queen, as well as slightly rearranging the track order, most notably kicking off the album with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. They also used the album version of Fat Bottomed Girls for whatever reason.

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 (single version)

As with Classic Queen, i also prefer this version to the original. I like how it starts off with We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions and how the first half is a collection of Queen’s most popular songs in North America whereas the second half is a collection of Queen’s lesser known songs in North America.

This one only hit #11, not as good as Classic Queen but still pretty good.

People often like to say that the UK did it best when it came to releasing their bands music. They say the same thing about The Beatles, ignoring how much of an improvement Meet The Beatles and Magical Mystery Tour are to their UK counterparts. The same thing can be said here, some might say that these are bastardized versions of the originals and that it’s all corporate greed but when you take a closer look, you’ll realize otherwise. And to those who say that Classic Queen’s incompatible with Elektra’s Greatest Hits, remember that the album had long been out of print by the time this came out and every country that had Under Pressure on Greatest Hits I had the same problem when Greatest Hits II was released, so the incompatibility wasn’t unique to North America.