I Want It All (4:02)

“I Want It All” is a song on the album The Miracle and was written by guitarist Brian May (who briefly takes over lead vocals), but credited to all four members of the band. It is one of the band’s most well-known and popular songs. The song itself is a hard rock anthem, and lyrically features themes relating to rebellion and social upheaval, although May claims that it is about having ambitions and fighting for one’s own goals.

On the Greatest Hits II DVD, Brian May commented that the song was inspired by his 2nd wife, Anita Dobson’s favourite motto, “I Want it All, and I Want It Now!” The idea of having intro, verses, choruses and solos over the same chord progression was reused on their next album with another May song, “The Show Must Go On”, which was made in 1990. Mercury and May share the lead vocals. Mercury played keyboards, May played acoustic and electric guitars and Taylor used double-kick bass drum for the first time.

In reviewing The Miracle for Allmusic, Greg Prato suggested that the song, like title track “The Miracle”, “reflect(s) on […] the state of the world in the late ’80s,” summarising the song stylistically as “heavy rock.” Melville-based newspaper Newsday mentioned “I Want It All” as one of “The best” of the album, describing it as “colored by May’s rocking guitar rolls and Mercury’s rough-boys vocals.