Left alone with big fat Fanny - she was such a naughty nanny

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

09/07/21 : Greatest Hits - Queen



I'm not sure I really needed to listen to this, but I did anyway.  I was intrigued as to whether there would be any tracks on it I didn't know though...

...and yeah - I didn't know "Now I'm Here" (and it's really not very good).  I also needed my memory jogged for "Save Me" and "Play The Game", but all the rest I could happily sing along to without the album playing.  I don't think I really need to provide an opinion - Queen are just Queen, aren't they?  Utterly ridiculous but that's the appeal (if such things appeal to you)

This was at #2 this week - ostensibly because it had been reissued for its 40th anniversary, but it had already been in the top 30 for the previous year and a half, so it's not like it was ever really away.  All told, it's been in the charts for 986 weeks so far so I suspect it will be in the news in another 14 weeks - but it's only 3rd in the list of "most weeks on the chart" (5 points for each - I'd have only got one of them).  We didn't have any new entries in the top 10 this week and with Elton John and Fleetwood Mac "best ofs" in there, it's really got a retro theme going on.

Wikipedia has a remarkably small amount for such a successful album (239 milliPeppers) and very little of it is of interest - except for the comments from NME and Melody Maker on release, such as "All of [their songs], besides 'Another One Bites the Dust', are quite repulsive, unbelievably crass insults to their respective genres and uniformly vulgar music".  It's a shame the art of anti-populist snobbery isn't what it once was, but it's also fair to say both Queen and the general public have never really cared what the music press think.  One interesting fact that's hidden away in there is that it took 39 years and 1 month to reach the top 10 in the US (compared with the one week it took over here!).

"Customers also listened to" Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Guns'n'Roses, Kiss and Survivor - that list makes progressively less sense as it goes on.  I suspect most people are aware of most of the tracks on this album - and whether they like them is not going to be impacted by the existence of this album (any more than it's already been impacted by it, anyway).

And the two albums ahead of it in terms of weeks on the chart are Abba Gold (1034 weeks and at #19 this week on a run of 243 weeks) and Bob Marley's Legend (1018 weeks, #38 on a run of 113 weeks) - I always forget about Bob's offering (maybe because I was somewhat underwhelmed by it - shame on me!)

02/07/21 - I don't really see who would like this
16/07/21 - A familiar sound from an unfamiliar name

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