First of all, let’s get some things straight. I love Queen (who doesn’t?) I like Five (a fun boyband who tended to avoid ballads). I – and I hope my posts on the previous eight hundred and sixty-six number ones have proven this – am no purist. So why does this collaboration annoy me so…?
We Will Rock You, by Five (their 2nd of three #1s) & Queen (their 6th and final #1)
1 week, from 23rd – 30th July 2000
I don’t think it annoys me musically, as it is big, and beefy, and features a nice crunchy guitar solo. Plus, it begins and ends with a massive thunderclap, and has piped in crowd noise. It is not a song which holds back, or is interested in subtlety, and I appreciate that. I think it keeps the energy of the original, but updates it for the early noughties. As Abs so succinctly puts it in his rap: Five bring the funk, Queen bring the rock…
What annoys me is the fact that both acts had far better songs than this which failed to make number one. Five released a great run of hip-pop hits in the late nineties that fell short. Queen have a multitude of huge, household classics that never made #1. It feels that this record made it on novelty value, rather than merit (and it wouldn’t have made number one at all had Ronan Keating not released his dodgy enhanced CDs).
What also annoys me is the fact that Queen are featured and credited. If this was a sample – as Five did very well when using ‘I Love Rock n Roll’ on ‘Everybody Get Up’ – I might view it more favourably. But Brian May and Roger Taylor play their guitar and their drums, scoring Queen a number one to rank alongside ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘Under Pressure’, and it just feels a little cheap, a little tawdry. This is how one of Britain’s most legendary rock acts end their chart-topping career: whoring themselves out as a backing band. It may be wishful thinking, but I wonder if Freddie Mercury would have allowed this, had he been around? And given John Deacon’s retirement from the band, and his subsequent comments on their later work, we can assume he wasn’t overly impressed either.
But what annoys me more than anything, really, is the fact that I can’t now listen to the original ‘We Will Rock You’ without wanting to add the moronically catchy We’re gonna rock ya baby! line to the chorus…
Anyway, whatever my objections, this did make number one. The two groups had performed the track together a few months earlier at the Brit Awards, too. Amazingly, Queen now have as many chart-toppers without Freddie as they managed with him. Plus, since we were keeping track of Kylie’s three chart-topping decades, we should mention that this record’s success meant that Queen joined Cliff Richard in having made top spot in four different decades.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I really dig the original “We Will Rock You,” especially when combined with “We Are the Champions.” I never quite warmed to hip hop. Both things combined make this version a tough proposition!
I have no problem with hip-hop, and I love Queen… But this leaves me cold.
And I thought Queen teaming up with Adam Lambert was bad enough. Crikey, have they no shame?
Loved Queen from the moment I saw them do Seven Seas Of Rhye on Top Of The Pops, that was an “oh wow” moment and they managed to rise above the slag-off Rock and New Wave trendy musos who as usual were wrong about Queen, Abba and many others. Much as I rated We Are The Champions, it was the outrageously ignored B side We Will Rock You that was the big draw of the single for me. Proper anthem. Totally robbed of being a double A side number 2 in the UK, so I see this as justice being served even if it’s a tacky cover. Let’s just pretend it’s the original version! Five I also liked, and sometimes loved, but this isn’t one I would choose to play. Ronan’s record label misdemeanours therefore stop it peaking at 2, which would have just rubbed it in again! Queen, as a recording act, died with Freddie for me, but I do appreciate the generational promo that Brian & Roger have kept going in much the same way as the ex-Beatles and Abba rework classic back catalogues while dropping new material once or twice in 40 years. As you will be commenting on down the line for the Fabs, it gives new generations who weren’t born feeling like they have experienced part of the legend even if they aren’t keen on it! Me, I’m off to Abba Voyage for the 3rd time in June! That’s how I would like to experience a Queen concert, Queenotars! Maybe Five could be the warm up act 🙂
I think you’re being a bit kind towards Brian May and Roger Taylor. The ABBA and Beatles comebacks were huge: new music for the first time in decades. This was only seven years after Queen’s last #1, and less than a decade after Freddie’s death. It just feels more like them milking the cash cow than keeping the flame alive for the younger generations. As for the touring avatars – great if the performers are still alive, like ABBA – a bit dubious if they’re dead, a la Elvis and Whitney.
One other thing – if the original We Will Rock You had been an official double-A, then it would have meant that this record added to the remarkable run of classic #2s making #1 in inferior covers: A Little Bit More, I Have a Dream, American Pie… and there are a few more to come during the rest of 2000/2001
Oh I’m not defending this record, or the post-Freddie records, but I am thinking more of the big concert events and international appearances like the top of the Palace, and working the back catalogue through films and the like. I’m not sure anyone would necessarily single out anything on record any of them have done since as being of a similar quality.
Re dead performers I’m more relaxed about the morality of AI (and I’m not generally comfortable with copyright infringement) – Freddie had no say about the movie anymore than any dead person covered in fiction or print has a say over content and accuracy over the way they are portrayed. That comes with being famous, and in some cases, not-famous. Re-vamping a live concert experience is at least true to the artist and the person, and is in the spirit of the many good tribute acts I’ve seen – they do it out of love with a by-product of making a living out of it.
I don’t know… When a famous person is portrayed on film by someone (for good or bad) there’s an artistic intention there, and everyone knows it’s not the real person. Although some people do worryingly take fiction as gospel, but that’s another story… Whereas a hologram of a dead person feels to me like you’ve dug the corpse up and are using it as a puppet. I get the same feeling when a dead actor is CGI-ed into a film. I’m probably in the minority, but there’s something that doesn’t sit right with me. Unless of course the deceased gave permission for this to happen – say ABBA were happy for the ‘tour’ to continue after their deaths – then have at it!
Those stupid microphone things bear out the badness. Richie looks like he is thinking “oh oh” after an ‘innocent’ fart.
I love those mics. I think mic technology must have advanced, because pop stars don’t wear them much anymore. Which is a shame.
It took the grit and nastiness out of the song…it’s like they polished the soul out of it. Not Queen’s best song but I like it…like it is.