Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” was not intended to be released as a single.

Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” was not intended to be released as a single. They were later convinced to do so by Michael Jackson who had attended a Queen concert in Los Angeles and suggested it to Freddie Mercury backstage.

“I listened to a lot of soul music when I was in school,” John recalls, “and I’ve always been interested in that sort of music. 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.

In the end it was a famous fan who swayed the vote: “Michael Jackson actually suggested we release it as a single. He was a fan of ours and used to come to our shows.”

04-XX-1996 – Bassist & Bass Techniques

Ever hear of backmasking? Some extra trivial knowledge here.

In the early 80s, “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.