10 Perfect Rock Songs Wasted On Terrible Albums

Queen never really claimed to be snobs about any particular genre of music throughout their career. Freddie Mercury was always going to be a star no matter what kind of music he played, and his flamboyant personality is what drew him to the more theatrical styles of music, whether that be glam rock or heavy metal. The music world was a much different beast when MTV kicked into high gear, and for Hot Space, the band decided that their future was in the world of dance music.

Capitalizing off of the success they had on Another One Bites the Dust, most of this album features some of the most lackluster songs in the Queen canon, with songs like Back Chat and Body Language sounding like they should be one of the B-sides on a lesser Michael Jackson album than a Queen project. It seemed like the rest of the band knew that they might have a dud on their hands as well, including their now iconic hit Under Pressure as the last song on the track listing. Taken with the rest of the album, this one sticks out like a sore thumb in all the right ways, with David Bowie coming in to add a perfect balance to their more pop leaning side, along with a message about looking out for each other and making the world a better place.

Then again, there’s a good chance that one of the only reasons that this album sold was because of this one song, having the right amount of staying power than a song like…well, Staying Power. Most rockers tend to fall flat on their face whenever they try to go pop, but in terms of Queen crossing over into the mainstream, Under Pressure is about as perfect as you can get.