Queen - Greatest Hits and Classic Queen

A couple of months ago, I made the decision to start going back through my collection of music that I have accumulated over the years and actually begin listening to it.  I know that it is a novel concept but with the pathetic state of FM Radio these days and realizing that there is only so much of "Mike and Mike in the Morning" that you can listen to on the iPhone, I opened up the proverbial vault and begun digging in.  I choose to begin with Queen due my kids wanting to hear the "mama mia; mama mia" song and thankful they were not talking about ABBA.  In the 1990's when artists were converting their catalogs onto CD, Queen's catalog and especially their Greatest Hits were noticeable absent due to the fact that they had no US label to release any albums.  Queens' Greatest Hits which originally came out on record and cassette in 1981 was one of the top selling Greatest Hits albums but was only available as a pricey import  from the UK.  In 1991, they signed with up Disney's Hollywood Records and now had distribution in the US.  The two albums were released after Freddie Mercury's death and Hollywood Records split off Bohemian Rhapsody from the UK version of Greatest Hits and released "Classic Queen" first.  Besides Bohemian Rhapsody, Classic Queen concentrated primarily upon the songs that were released in the 1980's through 1991 and mixed in a few older songs "Stone Cold Crazy", "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Tie Your Mother Down" for good measure.  If Classic Queen showed anything it was that Queen has the ability to write and construct great songs which should have received airplay in the US.  In the early 80's, Queen achieved unparalleled success with "Another One Bites the Dust" by crossing over to R&B stations.  Whether it was this crossover or Queen's abandonment of rock oriented music (see Flash Gordon soundtrack and Hot Space) that led to Queen's decline in the US, songs like "Hammer to Fall" from The Works,  "A Kind of Magic", "One Vision" from the Iron Eagle soundtrack, "I Want it All" from The Miracle or  "Headlong" from Innuendo should have mustered greater airplay than they did.  Innuendo was released by Hollywood Records and Queen did see the beginnings of a resurgence in the US thanks to a outstanding album and for being prominently included in the "Wayne's World" movie and soundtrack.  Unfortunately, Freddie Mercury's death in November 1991 ended any comeback that Queen was mounting.  The Greatest Hits album was released second and contained the remaining songs from the UK Greatest Hits and added newer songs "Body Language", "Don't Stop Me Now, and "I Want to Break Free".  Between the two compilations the only song that should not be included is "Body Language".  "Body Language" is not only a bad song but the only without any discernible guitar, acoustic drums or bass, it does not qualify as a Queen song.  Otherwise, the album is flawless showing off Queen's hit making ability without "selling out" their sound.  Both disks are a good appetizer to Queen's full menu and should be an introduction to some of their best albums; Night at the Opera, Day at the Races, News of the World and The Game, just to name a few.  Since Freddie's passing, the Queen catalog has been remastered and suffered through the release of multitude of greatest hits compilations.  Queen - Classic Queen is out of print and has been reconfigured into "Greatest Hits II".  If you are searching for an introduction to one of the innovative bands in recent history, I would strongly recommend these two albums, Queen - Greatest Hits and Queen - Greatest Hits II as a beginning point into an outstanding catalog of music.