Freddie Mercury’s favourite Queen songs

It’s difficult to fathom that Freddie Mercury, the magnetic frontman of Queen, passed away in 1991. His musicianship, songwriting and projection buoyed him to the full height of global fame as both a revered artist and pop star. With a versatile canon of immortal hits and a legacy as one of the greatest showmen of all time, Mercury’s presence remains just as potent 32 years after his death.

Frankly, a greatest hits album for Queen would never cut the mustard. The band had so many different chapters, littered with energetic hits and poignant ballads, that it’s difficult to file the oeuvre down to just a few tracks. Making that job a little easier, though, is a list of Mercury’s favourites as devised by his surviving bandmates, Brian May and Roger Taylor.

In 2022, Queen’s official Spotify profile created a playlist of Mercury’s favourite songs, including selections by Queen and from his solo career. The selections from the Queen and solo catalogues can be seen below.

Taken together, the selections offer a rare glimpse behind the curtain of Mercury’s own affections. Rather than simply reflecting commercial triumphs, they reveal the songs that resonated with him on a personal level, the pieces that perhaps captured something of his own artistic ambition. In that sense, the playlist feels less like a roll call of hits and more like a self-portrait in sound.

The playlist includes ‘Somebody to Love’, the lead single from Queen’s 1976 album A Day at the Races. The operatic hit was heavily influenced by the band’s concurrent infatuation with harmonising gospel vocals and is often compared to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the epic 1975 track some fans will be surprised to see wasn’t included in Mercury’s favourites.

“We had the same three people singing on the big choir sections, but I think it had a different kind of technical approach because there was this sort of Gospel way of singing, which I think was different to us,” Mercury once said of the song. “Sort of going to Aretha Franklin, sort of made them go a bit mad.”

“I just wanted to write something in that kind of thing,” he continued. “I was sort of incensed by the Gospel approach that she had on her albums, the earlier albums. Although it might sound the same kind of approach on the harmonies, it is very different in the studio because it’s like a different kind of… a different range.”

That hunger to stretch himself was a constant throughout his career. Mercury was rarely content to remain in one stylistic lane, always searching for a new register or theatrical flourish that could push Queen’s sound further. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that the songs he held close were those that balanced technical daring with emotional candour.

Elsewhere on the list is ‘It’s a Hard Life’, which arrived on the 1984 album The Works. The song is also one of May’s favourites. “To my mind, this is one of the most beautiful songs that Freddie ever wrote,” May opined in the notes for 2003’s Greatest Video Hits 2. “It’s straight from the heart, and he opened up during the creation of it. I sat with him for hours and hours and hours, just pouring out every word and trying to get the most out of it. It’s a very revealing thing about how relationships are, and he was talking about his relationship.”

“But there’s everybody’s relationship in there, whatever kind of relationship it is. To me, it’s one of his loveliest songs,” he added. “On the face of it, I think I was mortified that he wanted to make this kind of video because it’s totally distracting, obviously. But in Freddie’s mind, I’m not gonna say it’s a joke; it’s an ironical take.”

See the full list of Freddie Mercury’s favourites of his own songs below and follow the playlist if you like what you see.