"BICYCLE RACE" QUEEN (1978)

This month on Twitter, @sotachetan hosts #BrandedInSongs – which is a head-on collision of my personal world of music and my professional world of branding and advertising. The challenge is to simply pick a song with a brand name in its lyrics or title. I added one more criteria to my picks, which is this: the songs themselves must be as iconic as the brands they mention. No filler here.

Some of the most impressive songs I know are ones characterized by dimension. These songs are like pieces of clay, stretched in different directions, taking on various tempos, chord progressions, instrumentation and genres. They give our ears a lot to listen to and plenty to think about. There are few bands that do this as well as Queen. Many of their more well known songs are epic pieces consisting of varying movements. One of the best examples of this appears on the first side of Jazz: the sing-songy “Bicycle Race”.

“I want to ride my bicycle”. Sounds simple, but then Freddie Mercury gets to the call-and-response verses and the song becomes a social commentary of the times. Like “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and “We Didn’t Start The Fire” did for the 80’s, “Bicycle Race” made certain we never forgot about the 70’s long after they passed us by. But unlike the R.E.M. and Billy Joel songs, it employed more musical dimension in the process. You might love “Bicycle Race” or you may hate it. But one thing we can all agree on about the song is this: It’s never ever boring.

“You say Rolls, I say Royce. You say God give me a choice."

"BICYCLE RACE" QUEEN (1978)

The decade in which I was born has given me a strange perspective on its music. I discovered pretty much all of the 70’s sounds – from prog rock to punk to disco – well after they came into the world. It wasn’t until the late 80’s that I discovered what I was missing. I would characterize the decade as one where budding genres leaped off their inspiration pads and came to fruition. For the month of February, Mental Jukebox will feature some of these gems with a different 70’s song each day. #28DaysOf70sSongs

Some of the most impressive songs I know are ones characterized by dimension. These songs are like pieces of clay, stretched in different directions, taking on various tempos, chord progressions, instrumentation and genres. They give our ears a lot to listen to and plenty to think about. There are few bands that do this as well as Queen. Many of their more well known songs are epic pieces consisting of varying movements. One of the best examples of this appears on the first side of Jazz: the sing-songy “Bicycle Race”.

“I want to ride my bicycle”. Sounds simple, but then Freddie Mercury gets to the call-and-response verses and the song becomes a social commentary of the times. Like “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and “We Didn’t Start The Fire” did for the 80’s, “Bicycle Race” made certain we never forgot about the 70’s long after they passed us by. But unlike the R.E.M. and Billy Joel songs, it employed more musical dimension in the process. You might love “Bicycle Race” or you may hate it. But one thing we can all agree on about the song is this: It’s never ever boring.

“You say "coke", I say "caine". You say "John", I say "Wayne". "Hot dog", I say, "Cool it, man". I don't wanna be the President of America.”

"I WANT TO BREAK FREE" QUEEN (1984)

For the month of October, I’m selecting a song each day from the decade that has the most meaning to me: the 80s. It was the decade that I grew up in. The period of time where I discovered my love for music — and explored many different genres. For the next 31 days, I’ll highlight a handful of songs that I truly loved and that were representative of the decade. #31DaysOf80sSongs

I’m not sure how this song was off my radar growing up. As many music fans know, Queen was the king of the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium. Now, they didn’t play “I Want to Break Free”. “Radio Ga Ga” and “Hammer to Fall” got the new song honors at that show. And “I Want to Break Free” also didn’t chart exceptionally high. But the song just flat out kicks ass. It’s truly one of my favorites from the band.

“I Want to Break Free” is a song that seems to have endured well over the years. And it has made a comeback in all kinds of places — from bars to tv commercials. I remember some friends of mine who studied abroad in Barcelona in the late 90s were raving about this “new” Queen track that they played incessantly at the bars. The song was actually “I Want to Break Free”, which seemed to have a resurgence that allowed many of us naive rockers to finally get introduced to the song more than a decade after its release. The instrumentation hasn’t aged exceptionally well, but the melody has. I think, at the end of the day, upbeat, hopeful songs will always have a place in people’s hearts. It’s what music was designed to do.

“God knows I've fallen in love.”

"BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" QUEEN (1975)

Exceptional soundtracks can make good movies great. They can also take on a life of their own, becoming a greater highlight than their respective films. In this series, I’m selecting some of my favorite soundtrack songs. While quite a few are well-known recordings, I’m also including a few that have flown under the radar over the years.

There are two general types of movie soundtrack songs — one type falls into the background and plays a supporting role to the film, the other type pushes its way to the foreground and plays a central role. The latter are few and far between, and in the case of Wayne’s World, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. We all have the car scene as an indelible movie memory — for better or worse. The acting and singing accentuate what is so unusual about this Queen anthem.

Like many an opera, “Bohemian Rhapsody” runs the gamut of human emotion — as demonstrated by Freddie Mercury’s monumental vocal delivery and the band’s accompanying harmonies and instrumentation. Anger. Sadness. Fear. Gaiety. The list goes on. The trick’s on us. It’s not a song about bohemians after all. It’s a song about humanity. That’s why I love it.

“Mama, life had just begun. But now I've gone and thrown it all away.”

"I WANT TO BREAK FREE" QUEEN (1984)

From a band that has taken me decades to finally appreciate comes a song that I didn’t discover until nearly a decade after it was released. A couple of high school friends of mine were studying abroad in Barcelona for a semester when they came across the song. For some reason, Queen’s “I Want to Break Free” was experiencing a resurgence in Spain among college students at that time. My friends brought this optimistic, inspirational song back to New York, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

“I want to break free. I want to break free from your lies. You're so self satisfied, I don't need you. I've got to break free.”

"UNDER PRESSURE" QUEEN WITH DAVID BOWIE (1982)

Once in a while, a song of epic proportions comes along. And when we hear it, we know we won’t come across anything else this good again for quite a while. “Under Pressure” is one of those songs. In most collaborations, inevitably one artist’s form or style will dominate the other. What makes “Under Pressure” a rarity is that it’s 100% Queen and 100% Bowie at the same time. It’s two divergent classic rock powerhouses going back and forth, without stepping on each other’s toes. Flawlessly composed, performed and produced.

“Because love’s such an old-fashioned word. And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night. And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves. This is our last dance. This is ourselves under pressure.”