THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

126-Queen-We Will Rock You.

1977-It has never been released as an official single ‘A’ side in the UK, but it did reach Number 2 as the ‘B’ side of ‘We Are the Champions’ (see also best songs 208.)

Best Bit-At 1.33. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

Brian Harold May CBE was born on July 19th, 1947, in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, England, he was a founding member of Queen in 1970, and at the time of writing Queen remain active with both May and Roger Taylor being the only two official members. Brian May is considered to be one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and always features highly in best of lists. He has also written many of Queen’s best loved songs including the UK 1991 Number 1 single ‘The Show Must Go On,’ and ‘Brighton Rock’ (see also best songs 918) the fans live favourite, which is considered by some music critics to feature one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. In 2005 Brian May was appointed a ‘CBE’ for his services to the music industry, and also for his charity work. Away from music he achieved a ‘PhD’ degree in astrophysics from the Imperial College London in 2007, he had first begun studying for the ‘PhD’ in 1971, but had put the study’s on hold, as he pursued music instead. Brian May has released three solo studio Albums, and one live Album between between 1992-2000, and 21 singles as the lead artist between 1983-2022, for the discography of Queen see best songs number 3.

‘We Will Rock You’ is the opening track on Queen’s sixth studio Album, ‘News of the World,’ and was written by Brian May, with the production being by Mike Stone (1951-2002) who had also produced all of Queen’s five previous studio Albums. ‘We Will Rock You’ came about because Brian May wanted to create a song that the audience could participate in. He remembered a concert where Queen (see also best songs 918-615-208-47 and 3) had just come off the stage and the crowd were singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ (see also best songs 60) Brian May has said,’I went to bed thinking, what could you ask them to do, they can clap their hands, they can stamp their feet, and they can sing. In the morning I woke up and had the idea in my head for ‘We Will Rock You.’

Along with ‘We are the Champions’ the song has been adopted by sporting events for celebratory moments all around the world, but the songs meaning has nothing to do with sport or success. In fact the songs meaning is not a happy one at all. It is about three stages of a mans life, the first verse tells of a young boy dreaming of being a big man one day, in the second verse he is a young man taking on the world, ’waving his banner,’ and finally in verse three he is an old man realising he has failed to change things for the better. The ‘We’ in we will rock you represents society, you may have your dreams, but ‘We’ will rock you.

Queen have also performed an alternative version of ‘We Will Rock You,’ which is known as the ‘fast version.’ This version was frequently used to open the bands live shows, and can be heard on their 1979 Album ‘Live Killers.’ In 2000 the British boy band ‘Five’ released a cover of ‘We Will Rock You’ which featured Brian May on guitar, and Roger Taylor on drums, the track was issued as ‘Five + Queen,’ and reached the Number 1 spot in the UK, giving Queen a fifth UK Number 1 chart topper.

‘Buddy, you’re an old man, poor man, pleading with your eyes, gonna make you some peace someday. You got mud on your face, big disgrace, somebody better put you back into your place.’