WCSX Classic Cuts : Another One Bites the Dust
WCSX Classic Cuts
Queen: “Another One Bites the Dust”
The Hook: Michael Jackson told them it was a hit. Drummer Roger Taylor didn’t believe him. Taylor was wrong.
Album: The Game
Year: 1980
Writer: John Deacon
Stats: The band’s second U.S. number-one, it’s their biggest-selling single at more than seven million copies.
Background: Queen bassist John Deacon wrote “Another One Bites the Dust,” which ended up as the best-selling single of their career. Drummer Roger Taylor says he never thought it had hit potential, even after someone who knew plenty about hit records suggested that it did.
Queen drummer Roger Taylor on bassist John Deacon’s “Another One Bites the Dust.” OC:…was wrong. :28
“It was John’s song and backwards piano, but it was basically a disco-funk riff. And I never dreamed it would catch on like it did, ‘cause it was not what we were known for at all – but it certainly did catch on. The first that actually said, ‘You guys should release that’ was Michael Jackson. He came to one of our shows and the album had just come out and we’d had a couple of hits off the album already, but he said, ‘You guys should release, y’know…’ And I thought, ‘Christ, this guy’s nuts. That would never be a hit.’ Anyway, he was right and I was wrong.”
