Omitting B-Sides and recycled material used in 'Made in Heaven', Queen released 162 songs, off which 39.81% were Freddie's, 31.68% were Brian's, 15.84% were Roger's and 10.44% were John's. Not counting uncredited ghost contributors (such as Peter Straker), Queen only released two covers in their albums (Wedding March and God Save the Queen), as well as two tracks co-written by people outside the band (Doin' All Right and All Gods People).
|
CREATIVE MINDS
Omitting B-Sides and recycled material used in 'Made in Heaven', the running time of Queen's catalogue is 9 hours, 50 minutes and 44 seconds, off which 3 hours, 50 minutes and 26 seconds (39%) were written by Freddie, 3 hours 21 minutes and 48 seconds (34.16%) by Brian, 1 hour 34 minutes and 55 seconds (16.06%) by Roger and 54 minutes and 40 seconds by John. Let's check some more stats:
Relying on running times, Freddie was the chief songwriter in 60% of the band's career (9 albums out of 15), while Brian was in the remaining 40%. Mercury's dominance covered the 1970-1974 and 1987-1991 periods as well as 'Jazz' and two albums in early 80's. May's dominance covered 'Opera' (because of Prophet's Song), 'Races' (because of the overture and finale), 'News of the World' (because of It's Late), 'The Game' (his songs were longer than Freddie's in that album) and the soundtracks. On 'News', the least-contributing songwriter was Roger, on 'Magic' it was Freddie, and for all the rest it was John, although that could probably change if we omitted the album medley found in More of that Jazz, which obviously includes songs not written by Taylor.
- Freddie wrote over half of the material in three cases: the debut album, the 'post-Innuendo' sessions and 'The Miracle'. In only four albums, he wrote less than 1/3: 'News of the World', 'The Game' and the sound-tracks. - Brian always wrote more than 1/4 of the material (except for 'post-Innuendo' and 'Miracle') and always less than 1/2. - Roger only wrote over 1/4 of the material in one case: 'A Kind of Magic'. - On the first two albums and the post-Innuendo sessions, John only contributed as a performer (and perhaps co-arranger), not as a songwriter.
If we only consider how many songs each one contributed to the albums, Freddie was the dominant composer in ten albums and co-dominant in further two. Brian was the chief songwriter in 'News of the World' and 'Flash Gordon' (although most of his tracks are reprises of either Flash or The Hero) and co-dominant in three: 'Races', 'Game' and 'A Kind of Magic'. Note how they evolved in that matter:
|
