"Thank God It's Christmas" is a Christmas single by the British rock band

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

. It was written by lead guitarist

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

and drummer Roger Taylor. Released on 26 November 1984, the single spent six weeks in the UK charts over Christmas 1984 and new year of 1985, and peaked at number 21. The song was not originally released on any Queen studio album, appearing only on Queen's '' Greatest Hits III'', released in 1999, and as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of the single " A Winter's Tale" from the 1995 album ''

Made in Heaven ''Made In Heaven'' is the fifteenth and final studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 6 November 1995 by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by Hollywood Records in the United States. It is the final studio album to ...

''. However, the track was finally included on the bonus EP packaged with the deluxe edition of their album '' The Works'', remastered and re-released in 2011. It appears on the Christmas compilation LP '' The Edge of Christmas'' in its full 12" version with the drum intro. It also appears on the US-only compilation boxed-set ''The Queen Collection'', which consisted of a re-release of the LPs ''Classic Queen'' and ''Queen's Greatest Hits'' along with a bonus CD called ''Queen Talks'' that included this song, along with a 1989 interview with the band.

Music video

Upon its original release, no promotional video was filmed for the track, with shows often using footage of live performances in lieu of an official promotional

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

. In a 2018 interview with ''

Ultimate Classic Rock Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

'', Brian May attributed the single's underwhelming chart performance to the lack of a music video. In 2019, an animated music video was produced. The animation, directed by Justin Moon and Drew Gleason, depicted a wintery evening scene, with people enjoying each other's company during the Christmas season. The video was released in December 2019 on the Queen Official

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channel.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Howard Johnson of ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

'' remarked that "even Freddie's excellent vox can't disguise that this is blandola naffola" and added, "The boys should quite honestly have employed themselves doing something a little more useful, like buying

Fisher-Price Fisher-Price, Inc. is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. It was founded in 1930 during the Great Depression ...

toys for the kiddies."

Track listings

7" single

12" single

Personnel

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter who achieved global fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. Regarded as one of the gre ...

– lead and backing vocals *

– electric guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals * Roger Taylor – drums, drum machine, sleigh bells, synthesizer, backing vocals *

John Deacon John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English retired musician who was the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits " You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" a ...

– bass guitar

Chart performance

Certifications

References

External links

Lyrics at Queen official website
(from '' Greatest Hits III'') {{Authority control 1984 songs 1984 singles Queen (band) songs British Christmas songs Rock ballads Songs written by Roger Taylor (Queen drummer) Songs written by Brian May Hollywood Records singles EMI Records singles Capitol Records singles Song recordings produced by Reinhold Mack