Another One Bites the Dust



"Another One Bites the Dust" is a 1980 song by British rock band Queen. Written by bass guitarist John Deacon, the song featured on the group's eighth studio album The Game (1980). The song was a worldwide hit, charting number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, from 4 October to 18 October (their second number-one single in the country). The song spent fifteen weeks in the Billboard top ten (the longest running top ten song of 1980), including thirteen weeks in the top five, and 31 weeks total on the chart (more than any other song in 1980). It reached number two on the Hot Soul Singles chart and the Disco Top 100 chart, and number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The song is credited as Queen's best-selling single, with sales of over 7 million copies. This version was ranked at number 34 on Billboard's All-Time Top Songs.

The song won an American Music Award for Favorite Rock Single and also garnered a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

History
John Deacon's bass line was inspired by "Good Times" by the disco group Chic. In an interview with NME, Chic co-founder Bernard Edwards stated, "That Queen record came about because that Queen bass player... spent some time hanging out with us at our studio."

Recording sessions – produced by Reinhold Mack at Musicland Studios in Munich (West Germany) – consisted of Deacon playing almost all instruments: bass guitar, piano, electric guitar, and handclaps. Roger Taylor added a drum loop and Brian May contributed noises with his guitar and an Eventide Harmonizer. The song was a close collaboration between Deacon and Mercury, Peter Hince reflecting that Mercury aided the non-singing bassist by working on the vocal parts. There are no synthesisers in the song: all effects are created by piano, electric guitars and drums, with subsequent tape playback performed in reverse at various speeds. Finally, sound effects were run through the harmonizer for further processing. The effect of the harmonizer can be heard clearly in the "swirling" nature of the sound immediately before the first lyric. In early live performances, Taylor sang lead on the chorus, as opposed to the studio version sung entirely by Mercury. As the song became more well-known, the band could rely on audiences to sing the chorus by themselves.

After attending a Queen concert in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson suggested to Freddie Mercury backstage that "Another One Bites the Dust" be released as a single.

At the 1981 American Music Awards on 30 January, "Another One Bites the Dust" won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single. The song also garnered Queen a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. It lost to Bob Seger's Against the Wind. The music video for "Another One Bites the Dust" was filmed at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. The song also appears in Queen's  Greatest Hits album in 1981.

The song was used in a preliminary cut of Rocky III, before being replaced by Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger". "When one of my idols, Brian May, attended one of our shows in Los Angeles in 1984, he brought up that subject," recalled Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan, to whom Sylvester Stallone had supplied a copy of the movie. "I offered to send him a copy of the tape, which I still own."

Alleged backward masking
In the early 1980s, "Another One Bites the Dust" was one of many popular rock songs that Christian evangelists alleged contained subliminal messages through a technique called backmasking. It was claimed that the chorus, when played in reverse, can be heard as "Decide to smoke marijuana", "It's fun to smoke marijuana", or "Start to smoke marijuana". A spokeswoman for Hollywood Records (Queen's current US label) has denied that the song contains such a message.

Queen comments on the record
I'd been wanting to do a track like 'Another One Bites The Dust' for a while, but originally all I had was the line and the bass riff. Gradually, I filled it in and the band added ideas. I could hear it as a song for dancing but had no idea it would become as big as it did. The song got picked up off our album and some of the black radio stations in the US started playing it, which we've never had before. Michael Jackson actually suggested we release it as a single. He was a fan of ours and used to come to our shows. —John Deacon

A fantastic bit of work from Freddie really. I mean, I remember Deacie having this idea, but Deacie doesn’t sing of course, so he was trying to suggest to Freddie how it should be and Fred just went in there and hammered and hammered until his throat bled, making... you know, he really was inspired bit and took it to a new height, I think. —Brian May

I remember laying down the backing track with him and... he really wanted the drums as dry as they could possibly be, so I just stuffed it all with blankets and made it as dead as I possibly could and very low tuned. —Roger Taylor

Credit for the song should go to Michael Jackson in many ways. He was a fan and friend of ours and kept telling me, "Freddie, you need a song the cats can dance to." John introduced this riff to us during rehearsal that we all immediately thought of disco, which was very popular at the time. We worked it out and once it was ready, played it for Michael. I knew we had a hit as he bobbed his head up and down. "That's it, that's the gravy. Release it and it will top the charts," he said. So we did and it did. —Freddie Mercury

Use in medical training
"Another One Bites the Dust" was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR. The bassline has close to 110 beats per minute, and 100–120 chest compressions per minute are recommended by the British Heart Foundation, and endorsed by the Resuscitation Council (UK).

Music video
The music video for this song was directed by Daniella Green in 1980.

Certifications
!scope="row"|United States (RIAA) (physical) !scope="row"|United States (RIAA) (digital)
 * Platinum
 * 3,000,000
 * Gold
 * 1,156,000

Hollywood Records remixes
The first official remix of "Another One Bites The Dust" was Phase 5's Long Dusted B-Boy Version, which was released on the Hollywood BASIC compilation BASIC Beats Sampler in early 1992. The remix featured a new rap verse by Money-B of Raw Fusion and contained many samples from other records including, but not limited to, "Flash" by Queen themselves, "The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow, "I Know You Got Soul" by Eric B. & Rakim, "Good Times" by Chic, "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" by Isaac Hayes and "It's Too Funky in Here" by James Brown. Dave Ogilvie edited the Phase 5 remix for inclusion on the April 1992 compilation BASIC Queen Bootlegs removing profanity from the rap verse and problematic samples due to copyright clearance. A separate remix by Onyx producer ChySkillz was due to appear featuring rap verses by Ice Cube, Hi-C and Manson. Ogilvie also recorded his own remix in sessions for the album, but did this not feature on the final track listing. All four versions have since leaked.

Wyclef Jean remix
In 1998, American rapper Wyclef Jean covered and remixed the song for the film Small Soldiers. His version also features rap verses from Pras Michel and Free, and music by Queen. The track also appears on Queen's compilation Greatest Hits III, released in 1999, and on Pras' debut album, Ghetto Supastar, released in 1998.

Background
It enjoyed the most success in the United Kingdom, where it entered the chart at number 5, its highest chart position, going on to spend six weeks on the chart. It also reached the top 10 in Finland. It charted number 18, number 23, number 50 and number 62 in New Zealand, Austria, Sweden and France, respectively. The music video for this version was directed by Michel Gondry. The song became Pras' third United Kingdom Top 10 hit from his debut solo album Ghetto Supastar, following the title track and follow-up single Blue Angels. However, Pras was not available for the filming of the video, and rapper Canibus recorded a new verse to take his place. This version was used only for the promotional video.

Track listing

 * American CD single
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Radio Edit) – 4:00
 * 2) "Another One Bites the Dust" (LP Version) – 4:20
 * 3) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Instrumental) – 4:17
 * 4) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Acappella) – 4:45


 * UK CD single
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (New LP Version) – 4:20
 * 2) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Team 1 Black Rock Star Main Pass Mix) – 4:46
 * 3) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Team 1 Black Rock Star Radio Edit) – 4:17


 * German CD single
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Small Soldiers Remix) – 4:20
 * 2) "Rock and Roll (Part 2) (Dutch Remix)" (instrumental) (performed by Gary Glitter) – 3:51
 * 3) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Instrumental) – 4:17


 * German CD single
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Radio Edit) – 4:00
 * 2) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Instrumental) – 4:17

Queen vs. The Miami Project
The song was remixed again in 2006. The single reached the UK Top 40, peaking at number 31, credited to Queen vs The Miami Project. The lead remix was by Cedric Gervais & Second Sun for which a new video was filmed. Further remixes by Oliver Koletzki, A Skillz, Soul Avengerz and DJ Pedro & Olivier Berger were available on other formats.

Track listing

 * 7" picture disc vinyl
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Cedric Gervais & Second Sun Radio Edit)
 * 2) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Original Version)


 * CD single
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Cedric Gervais & Second Sun Radio Edit)
 * 2) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Cedric Gervais & Second Sun Vocal Mix)
 * 3) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Oliver Koletski Remix)
 * 4) "Another One Bites the Dust" (A Skillz Remix)
 * 5) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Soul Avengerz Remix)
 * 6) "Another One Bites the Dust" (DJ Pedro & Oliver Berger)
 * 7) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Cedric Gervais & Second Sun Radio Edit) (video)


 * Digital download EP
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Cedric Gervais & Second Sun Radio Edit)
 * 2) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Cedric Gervais & Second Sun Vocal Mix)
 * 3) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Oliver Koletski Remix)
 * 4) "Another One Bites the Dust" (A Skillz Remix)
 * 5) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Soul Avengerz Remix)
 * 6) "Another One Bites the Dust" (DJ Pedro & Oliver Berger)

Captain Jack version
In 1996, Queen Dance Traxx and German Eurodance group Captain Jack covered the song for the album Queen Dance Traxx 1 and released it as a single in October 1996. The song reached number 5 in Finland and peaked at number 12 in the Netherlands. It also reached number 33 in Austria, number 41 in Belgium and number 61 in Germany. The music video for this version was directed by Rudi Dolezal and was filmed in Berlin, Germany.

Track listing
Remixed by Hal & Dj Ufuk a.k.a. Helmut Apel & Ufuk Yildirim
 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Radio Mix) – 3:48
 * 2) "Another One Bites the Dust" (Club Mix) – 5:29


 * 1) "Another One Bites the Dust" (DJs Extended Mix) – 6:23

Other cover versions
Jimmy "Spiderman" Allen, David Hill and James Hunter recorded a cover after the Detroit Lions won its first four games of the 1980 season. The Lions lost seven of its last twelve contests and missed the postseason with a 9–7 record. Doug English commented in retrospect, "The time to dance and strut is after you win the Super Bowl. It was not a time to mock the opposition. That's the way to earn a target on your back, and we did in the end."

In 1981, parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic wrote a parody of the song, titled "Another One Rides the Bus". This version was recorded live on the Dr. Demento Show and was released on his debut album.

In 2004, Gwen Stefani sings the line "Another one bites the dust" on the Pharrell Williams-produced track "Hollaback Girl" from her album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. As she sings the line, the brass section briefly mimics John Deacon's familiar bassline. The track became a single the following year.

The Def Leppard song "Man Enough" from their 2015 self-titled album features a bass line similar to "Another One Bites the Dust," with guitarist Phil Collen explaining that people had told him about how their song reminded them of the Queen song.