"Another One Bites the Dust" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by bassist John Deacon, the song was featured on the group's eighth studio album The Game (1980). It was a worldwide hit, charting at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, from 4 October to 18 October (being their second and final number-one single in the country). The song spent 15 weeks in the Billboard top 10 (the longest running top ten song of 1980), including 13 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.^[5][6] The song is credited as Queen's best-selling single, with sales of over 7 million copies.^[7] This version was ranked at number 34 on Billboard's All-Time Top Songs.^[8]

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.^[9][10][11] "Another One Bites the Dust" has been covered, remixed and sampled by many artists since its release, and has also appeared in TV shows, commercials, films and other media.^[12][13][14] The song has also featured at sports events.^[12][15]

It is purported that John Deacon's bass line was inspired by "Good Times" by the disco group Chic.^[16][17] 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."^[18]

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. 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.^[19]

At the 1981 American Music Awards on 30 January, "Another One Bites the Dust" won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single.^[10][20] The song also garnered Queen a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.^[11] It lost to Bob Seger's Against the Wind.^[11] The music video for "Another One Bites the Dust" was filmed at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas on 9 August 1980.^[21] The song also appears in Queen's Greatest Hits album in 1981.^[22]

To "bite the dust" means to die or to lose in a contest or game. The beginning lyrics set up a scene similar to a mobster movie, with "machine guns ready to go". Later lyrics refer to a failed relationship as "another one bites the dust". The singer is not going to let it get him down, "standing on my own two feet". 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."^[23][20]

Billboard called it a "snarling track" with a "spare, lean sound."^[24] Record World said that "a brutal bass conspires with the sing-along hook on this thoroughly contagious [song]."^[25] Classic Rock History critic Millie Zeiler rated it John Deacon's 2nd best Queen song.^[20]

"Another One Bites the Dust" (section)

The claimed backmasked section of "Another One Bites the Dust".

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"Another One Bites the Dust" (section) (reversed)

The same section, reversed.

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In the early 1980s, "Another One Bites the Dust" was one of many popular rock songs that some 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",^[26] "It's fun to smoke marijuana",^[27] or "Start to smoke marijuana".^[28] A spokeswoman for Hollywood Records (Queen's current US label) has denied that the song contains such a message.^[29] The song does, however, contain a backmasked piano, which can be heard clearly when it is played backward.^[30]

This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. (April 2024)

I listened to a lot of soul music when I was in school, 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. 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^[31]

A fantastic bit of work from Freddie really. I mean, I remember Deacy having this idea, but Deacy 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 by it and took it to a new height, I think. —Brian May^[32]

John Deacon, being totally in his own world, came up with this thing, which was nothing like what we were doing. We were going for the big drum sound: you know, quite pompous in our usual way. And Deakey says, "No, I want this to be totally different: it's going to be a very tight drum sound." It was originally done to a drum loop - this was before the days of drum machines. Roger did a loop, kind of under protest, because he didn't like the sound of the drums recorded that way. And then Deakey put this groove down. Immediately Freddie became violently enthusiastic and said, "This is big! This is important! I'm going to spend a lot of time on this." It was the beginning of something quite big for us, because it was the first time that one of our records crossed over to the black community. We had no control over that; it just happened. Suddenly we were forced to put out this single because so many stations in New York were playing it. It changed that album from being a million-seller to being a three-million seller in a matter of three weeks or so. —Brian May^[33]

[Freddie] would certainly fight for things he believed in. Like 'Another One Bites the Dust' which was a bit of a departure for Queen. Roger, at the time, certainly felt that it wasn't rock and roll and was quite angry at the way it was going. And Freddie said, "Darling, leave it to me. I believe in this." John had written the song. But it took Freddie's support to make it happen. —Brian May^[34]

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^[32]

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^[32]

"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.^[35] The bassline has close to 110 beats per minute, and 100–120 chest compressions per minute are recommended by the British Heart Foundation,^[36] and endorsed by the Resuscitation Council (UK).^[37]

• Freddie Mercury – lead and backing vocals
• Brian May – electric guitar
• Roger Taylor – drums
• John Deacon – bass guitar, electric guitar, piano, percussion

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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 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.

In 1998, Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean covered and remixed the song alongside Queen for the film Small Soldiers (1998). His version also features rap verses from Pras Michel and Free. The track also appears on Queen's compilation Greatest Hits III, released in 1999,^[84] and on Pras' debut album, Ghetto Supastar, released in 1998.

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.^[104] The lead remix was by Cedric Gervais & Second Sun for which a new video was filmed.

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. 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.

In 1980, "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody of "Another One Bites the Dust" entitled "Another One Rides the Bus"; the narrator laments about a crowded public city bus.^[124] "Another One Rides the Bus" was performed by Yankovic on his first television appearance on The Tomorrow Show (21 April 1981) with Tom Snyder.^[125]

• List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1980
• List of Cash Box Top 100 number-one singles of 1980
• List of number-one singles of 1980 (Canada)
• List of number-one singles of 1981 (Spain)