# We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions - same song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763 "2004-07-12T20:11:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/1 "2004-07-12T20:11:53Z")
Over the last couple of years, I have noticed that whenever Queen’s We Will Rock You came on the air on a radio station, it would ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS segue straight into Queen’s We Are the Champions. The latest Thinking Ape Blues comic talks about this matter, but I still don’t have an answer to this. Does the album or promotional copy of whatever album We Will Rock You is on have Champions on right after it, and are the DJ’s falling asleep at the console every single time, or do they think that it’s incredibly clever to play those two songs back to back EVERY SINGLE TIME they play it? Or was my subject head correct and they’re actually just one song? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/2 "2004-07-12T20:34:00Z")
They are separate songs with separate catalog numbers and different composers (Brian May and Freddie Mercury, respectively). They were released as a ‘double A side’ single and placed on some special 45 pressings on one side for ease-of-play. Toss in the fact that there’s little pause on the album between songs and the similarity of the subject matter AND the fact that both songs are rather short (totally less than 6 minutes combined) and you’ve got a marketing stroke of genius for the college boys from London. Woohoo! All kidding aside, it was intentional. The band always meant for them to be played together if possible. Queen duplicated this concept on the ‘Jazz’ album with ‘Fat Bottomed Girls/Bicycle Race’. - Jonathan Chance - Member of the International Queen Fan Club for more than 2 decades. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/3 "2004-07-12T20:48:29Z")
There are _many_ other song pairs like this. On the radio, you hardly ever hear any of the following songs just by themselves: **The Beatles** –_Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends_ **ZZ Top** –_Waitin’ for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago_ **Pink Floyd** –_Brain Damage/Eclipse_ I’m sure there are more, but that’s all I can come up with at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/4 "2004-07-12T20:54:48Z")
> [@Cabbage](#): > > There are _many_ other song pairs like this. On the radio, you hardly ever hear any of the following songs just by themselves: > > **The Beatles** –_Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends_ > > **ZZ Top** –_Waitin’ for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago_ > > **Pink Floyd** –_Brain Damage/Eclipse_ > > I’m sure there are more, but that’s all I can come up with at the moment. **Squeeze** Another Nail for My Heart and Pulling Mussels from the Shell. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/5 "2004-07-12T22:34:03Z")
There was a whole thread recently about other songs like this. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/6 "2004-07-12T22:34:35Z")
**Elton John** ’s “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/7 "2004-07-12T23:48:43Z")
Don’t forget **Led Zeppelin** ’s “Heartbreaker”/“Living Loving Maid” and **INXS** ’s “Need You Tonight”/“Mediate”. My old vinyl copy of _Queen’s Greatest Hits_ had a four-second gap between “WWRY” and “WATC”. Annoyed the piss out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/8 "2004-07-13T00:10:20Z")
You should have picked up the European verision of the original GH LP. The one with ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ and ‘Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy’. That was by FAR the best of the Greatest Hits packages. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/9 "2004-07-13T00:53:23Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > [There was a whole thread recently about other songs like this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=263058) Linked. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/10 "2004-07-13T03:56:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Over the last couple of years, I have noticed that whenever Queen’s We Will Rock You came on the air on a radio station, it would ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS segue straight into Queen’s We Are the Champions This isn’t recent. I’m old enough to remember when these came out and I have never, EVER, not even once, heard a radio station play them separately. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/11 "2004-07-13T07:33:42Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > You should have picked up the European verision of the original GH LP. The one with ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ and ‘Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy’. That was by FAR the best of the Greatest Hits packages. Yeah, I replaced my old vinyl with the UK CD a few years later. Still got it, too. It was also the first time I heard the songs “Don’t Stop Me Now” and “GOFLB” which weren’t on the U.S. release because of their homoerotic overtones (I guess) so that was the first time I wondered, “Hmm, maybe the band’s name _does_ contain a hidden meaning…” ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/12 "2004-07-13T08:28:19Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > **Elton John** ’s “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”. On the CD they’re the same track. I never had the record though, were they the same track on the record? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/13 "2004-07-13T11:13:24Z")
I have another one. Off of **Savatage** ’s _Streets - A Rock Opera_ classic, the last two songs (_Somewhere in Time_ and _Believe_) are actually one track. Mind you, they don’t even blend into each other - for all intents and purposes, they’re two different songs altogether. And it’s actually kind of annoying, since _Believe_ is by far the better song, and can only be reached by listening or FFD-ing through _Somewhere in Time_ (which is not bad at all, just not nearly as good as _Believe_). ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-will-rock-you-we-are-the-champions-same-song/254763/14 "2004-07-13T11:41:55Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Yeah, I replaced my old vinyl with the UK CD a few years later. Still got it, too. It was also the first time I heard the songs “Don’t Stop Me Now” and “GOFLB” which weren’t on the U.S. release because of their homoerotic overtones (I guess) so that was the first time I wondered, “Hmm, maybe the band’s name _does_ contain a hidden meaning…” No, they were left off the US release because they were European singles and not released (fully) in the US. The original GH collections were strickly singles collections.