4 October 1980, John Deacon’s solid gold, colossal hit ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ reached #1 in the USA, it remained at the top for an incredible 3 weeks, becoming Queen’s best-selling single of all time!
It reached number two on the Hot Soul Singles chart and the Disco Top 100 chart.
This fan favorite spent 15 weeks in the Billboard top 10 (the longest running top ten song of 1980), including 13 weeks in the top five, and 31 weeks total on the chart (more than any other song in 1980).
‘Another One Bites The Dust’ is credited as Queen’s best-selling single, with sales of over 7 million copies and ranked at number 34 on Billboard’s All-Time Top Songs.
It won an American Music Award for Favorite Rock Single and it was nominated for a Grammy for the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
It also Went 4X Platinum in the US
“I listened to a lot of soul music when I was in school, and I’ve always been interested in that sort of music. I’d been wanting to do a track like ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ for a while, but originally all I had was the line and the bass riff. Gradually, I filled it in and the band added ideas. I could hear it as a song for dancing but had no idea it would become as big as it did.”
John Deacon
“Freddie would certainly fight for things he believed in. Like ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ which was a bit of a departure for Queen. Roger, at the time, certainly felt that it wasn’t rock and roll and was quite angry at the way it was going. Immediately Freddie became violently enthusiastic and said, “Darling, leave it to me. I believe in this. This is big! This is important! I’m going to spend a lot of time on this.” John had written the song. But it took Freddie’s support to make it happen.”
“Deacy doesn’t sing of course, so he was trying to suggest to Freddie how it should be and Fred just went in there and hammered and hammered until his throat bled, making… you know, he really was inspired by it and took it to a new height, I think. Fantastic bit of work by Freddie, definitely!”
Brian May
👉 https://youtu.be/rY0WxgSXdEE
