AMG Review of Classic Queen

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Essentially, this 17-track album is a second-volume Queen's Greatest Hits, picking up the story from that album's 1981 release and taking it to the end of Queen's career. But the album also contains a few tracks -- "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Keep Yourself Alive," and "Under Pressure" -- that appeared on that first set, as well as a couple -- "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Tie Your Mother Down" -- from the same era. The remaining 12 tracks, culled from The Works, A Kind of Magic, The Miracle, and Innuendo, represent songs that were not big hits in the U.S. Nevertheless, with a resurgence of interest in Queen and the second coming of "Bohemian Rhapsody," courtesy of #Wayne's World, this album returned Queen to platinum status and the U.S. Top Five for the first time since the early '80s.