Don’t Stop Me Now! Why Queen’s Greatest Hits is the ultimate zombie album
Name: Queen’s Greatest Hits.
Age: 40.
Appearance: The original cover featured a photograph of the band taken by Lord Snowdon.
Status: No 1.
I’m sure it was, back in the day. No, it justhit No 1 on the iTunes albums chart.
That’s weird, but so is the iTunes albums chart. True, but Queen’s Greatest Hits is also looking likely to be No 1 in the UK official albums chart when it’s published on Friday.
That’s also weird, but there’s no telling what people will download these days. Perhaps, but of the album’s midweek chart tally of 4,000 sales, 86% were physical copies.
I don’t understand what you mean by “physical copies”. The album has been re-issued for its 40th anniversary, including a special CD version and a limited-edition cassette that comes in five colours.
Did they do any on wax cylinder? What am I supposed to do with a cassette? Maybe you could listen to it in your parents’ car.
My parents have an electric car. And Spotify. The point is, this will be the album’s fifth week at the top of the charts, if you count the four weeks it spent there in 1981.
Which greatest Queen hits are on it? That’s a very good question.
Thank you. What’s the answer? Going back to 1981, the answer is: it depends.
I don’t understand. Different tracks were included in different territories, depending on which songs charted where. For example, the US version includes Under Pressure, which is not on the UK version.
Interesting. Don’t Stop Me Now is on the UK and Japan editions, but not the US one.
Sorry, when I said “interesting”, what I meant was “that’s enough, nerd”. Anyway, the anniversary rerelease sticks to the original UK track listing.
A lot of these old greatest hits compilations are cropping up again, aren’t they? Yes, Abba and Creedence Clearwater Revival have also reappeared, but Queen’s Greatest Hits is perhaps the greatest of all greatest hits albums.
How so? It’s still the bestselling album of all time in the UK – and the only one to chalk up 6m sales, as it did in 2019.
That’s amazing. The zombie album has also spent a total of 952 weeks on the album chart in the past 40 years, making it …
Sorry, when I said “That’s amazing” … I get it.
Do say: “I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky, like a tiger defying the laws of gravity!”
Don’t say: “OK, Mr Fahrenheit, which way does the cassette go in?”