Queen were that rare thing: a band with four brilliant songwriters. Such were the talents of guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, bassist John Deacon and late singer Freddie Mercury that they all wrote hit singles for the band during their original 22-year career, including We Will Rock You, Radio Gaga, Another One Bites The Dust and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Such an abundance of songwriting skill was reflected in the success of their albums and singles, with their 1975 hit Bohemian Rhapsody becoming one of the biggest selling singles in history and 1981’s Greatest Hits album following suit. As guitarist Brian May acknowledged, having four people fighting to get their songs heard counted in the band’s favour.
“There was huge songwriting competition in Queen, no doubt about it,” May told Classic Rock in 2011. “It was a major factor in pushing us onwards. We were very conscious that we had to reach inside ourselves to keep up.”
However he viewed the competition within the band, May expressed admiration for bandmate Freddie Mercury’s approach to writing songs.
“Occasionally Freddie would write fast, but a lot of the time he’d go home and scheme and scheme, and come back with stuff written all over a pad of his dad’s notepaper,” May said. “He’d spend time developing ideas. But there are exceptions, where he’d get the song in one bite. And often they’re the ones that connect.”
“Freddie mainly used the piano for songwriting, but there were times when he’d get inspiration when he wasn’t around his instrument. It could be any experience; a skate on the pond. One of the last songs he wrote, A Winter’s Tale [which appeared on 1995’s posthumous Made In Heaven album], was written purely sat looking out on the mountains from the other side of Lake Geneva. He could obviously hear it all in his head, although he didn’t have any musical instruments with him. I remember him coming into the studio and saying: “I’ve got this idea… just give me a few minutes.” Then he brought it to life. That’s a beautiful track, actually.”
May held up A Winter’s Tale and the title track of 1989’s The Miracle as two of his favourite Freddie Mercury-penned songs. But he told Classic Rock there was one Mercury song above all others that he never tired of playing live: We Are The Champions.
The anthemic track was released as a double A-side single with We Will Rock You in October 1977, appearing on the same year’s News Of The World album. The song was famously written as a tribute to the songs fans, with the ‘we’ in the title referring to them. It’s was subsequently adopted as an anthem by several sports teams, and it immediately became a fixture in Queen’s set, right up to their most recent dates in 2024. And according to May, he has never got tired of playing it.
“I’d say my favourite Freddie song to play is We Are The Champions – still,” he told Classic Rock. “I don’t know how many times I’ve played it, but it always pulls something out of you,”. “It’s one of those songs where even if the winds are blowing in the wrong direction it still sounds good.”
