In a move that has confused classic rock fans around the world, the classic 1978 Queen song “Fat Bottomed Girls” has been dropped from the latest version of the band’s greatest hits album. The iconic ballad celebrating full-figured women was quietly removed from the album released on kid-friendly audio platform Yoto, leading to a mixed response from fans.
Yoto—which specializes in screen-free audio devices meant to provide music, audiobooks, and podcasts to children under nine—announced earlier this month that it was partnering with Universal Music Group to bring its library to the next generation. To kick off the partnership, Yoto released Queen’s “Greatest Hits” (one of the best-selling albums of all time) to bring the band’s legendary songs to young rock fans.
The album, listed by Yoto as “Greatest Hits Volume 1,” features 16 iconic tracks, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” and “Another One Bites the Dust.” The platform describes the collection as “the ideal introduction to the music of Queen for young music lovers and the perfect soundtrack to kitchen dance parties, road trip singalongs, bedtime air guitar sessions….and much, much more.”
Check out the keynote speakers and details for The Vault 2023 and secure your tickets!
However, longtime fans of the British rock band were quick to point out that the original Greatest Hits album features 17 tracks, meaning that guitarist Brian May’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” had been omitted.
“It is the talk of the music industry, nobody can work out why such a good-natured, fun song can’t be acceptable in today’s society,” a music industry insider told the UK Daily Mail. “It is woke gone mad. Why not appreciate people of all shapes and sizes like society is saying we should, rather than get rid of it?”
Considered one of the racier Queen tunes, “Fat Bottomed Girls” features lyrics like:
Left alone with big fat Fanny
She was such a naughty nanny
Hey big woman, you made a bad boy out of me
And:
Oh, won’t you take me home tonight
Oh, down beside your red firelight
Oh, and you give it all you got
Fat-bottomed girls, you make the rocking world go round!
The original cover art for the single, which featured a mostly-naked woman riding a bicycle, also caused controversy in stores at the time of its release in the late 70s. In a statement to the UK publication Express, Yoto explained that “the average age of our listeners is five years old, and after consultation, we felt [the song] wasn’t appropriate for our young audience.”
Yoto also included a disclaimer that “the lyrics in some of these songs contain adult themes, including occasional references to violence and drugs,” advising “parental discretion when playing this content to or around younger children.”
In light of the disclaimer, many were asking why “Fat Bottomed Girls” was deemed unacceptable when other objectionable Queen content was allowed to remain. For example, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the band’s biggest hit, includes the line “Mama, just killed a man / Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he’s dead.” The song “Don’t Stop Me Now” contains the line “I am a sex machine ready to reload / like an atom bomb about to oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, explode!”
Despite the controversy, Yoto said that the release of Queen’s Greatest Hits is its biggest, fastest-selling music launch to date. At the same time, a kind of boomerang effect has been observed surrounding “Fat Bottomed Girls,” with the song receiving increased traffic across various listening platforms.
Add comment