Top 20 Classic Queen Tracks

By Wayne Madden /

5. Stone Cold Crazy

Perhaps an interesting choice to feature on this list, and in doing so even as highly as it does, but 'Stone Cold Crazy' is somewhat of a forgotten gem in the Queen catalog. The song is taken from 1975's 'Sheer Heart Attack' and features a style of music which could easily be described as the band experimenting with heavy metal. Certainly this fast paced musical style was still in its infancy at the time, but the influences were certainly felt, as Metallica re-recorded their own version of the song in 1991. The Metallica version is extremely faithful to the original, only retaining Metallica's signature sound, with the same tempo and vocalisation apparent. A reader's letter to Kerrang at the time (which actually won letter of the week) infamously suggested if Freddie Mercury ever heard Metallica's version of the song €“ it was unclear as to whether he ever did or not €“ although he would almost certainly vomit with disgust!The song was allegedly written and performed by Mercury in his pre-Queen band Wreckage, and whether this is true or not, it was certainly the first song played live by the band at their debut concert in 1970. The version performed by Queen was heavily altered from his previous band and featured a number of lyrical and musical changes, thus the need for all members of Queen to share a writing credit on the studio released version of the song. Like with another track on this list, the song has also been remixed by Trent Reznor and features a more industrial-led sound with snippets of Queen sound bites from studio recording.