On Oct. 4, 1980, a song built around a bass line that sounded more like a dance club than an arena rock show reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed there for three weeks.<\/p>\n
The band hadn\u2019t planned on it being a single. The push came from an unexpected fan: Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n
The song was Queen\u2019s \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust,\u201d and it became the band\u2019s second and final No. 1 hit in the United States. Decades later, fans still put its bass line above every other.<\/p>\n
An Album Track Nobody Expected<\/p>\n
The song appeared on The Game, Queen\u2019s eighth studio album, which came out June 30, 1980. The band recorded it at Musicland Studios in Munich with producer Reinhold Mack, and it became Queen\u2019s only album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200.<\/p>\n
Bassist John Deacon wrote \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust,\u201d and his bass line carries it from the first second to the last. The groove owes a debt to Chic\u2019s \u201cGood Times.\u201d Chic\u2019s Bernard Edwards later said the connection came about because Queen\u2019s bass player had spent time hanging out with Chic at their studio.<\/p>\n
The Backstage Tip<\/p>\n
After seeing Queen play in Los Angeles, Jackson told Freddie Mercury backstage that the band should put the song out as a single. Queen took the advice. The single was released in the U.S. on Aug. 22, 1980, and about six weeks later it was No. 1.<\/p>\n
It was Queen\u2019s second U.S. chart-topper that year, after \u201cCrazy Little Thing Called Love,\u201d and it turned out to be their last.<\/p>\n
A Rock Hit That Crossed Over<\/p>\n
Few rock records of the era traveled as far. Besides topping the Hot 100, \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust\u201d reached No. 2 on Billboard\u2019s soul singles chart and No. 2 on its disco chart.<\/p>\n
It became Queen\u2019s best-selling single, with more than 7 million copies sold, and the RIAA has certified it 9x Platinum. It also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, but lost to Bob Seger\u2019s \u201cAgainst the Wind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still No. 1 With Fans<\/p>\n
The bass line has only grown in stature. In a Sky Arts poll of 2,000 music fans published in November 2025, \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust\u201d was voted the greatest bass line of all time. Second place went to Michael Jackson\u2019s \u201cBillie Jean.\u201d Deacon was also voted the greatest bass player of all time.<\/p>\n
Queen has long been one of my favorite bands, and this is the song that proves bass players can steal the show.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published by Men’s Journal<\/a> on Oct 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Oct. 4, 1980, a song built around a bass line that sounded more like a dance club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-364208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}