"The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by the Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single in November 1955.

[2] Buck Ram, the manager of the Platters, said that he wrote the song in about 20 minutes in the washroom of the Flamingo Hotel in order to have a follow-up to the success of "Only You (And You Alone)".

In 2002, "The Great Pretender" by the Platters on Mercury Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which lists the date as 1956.

[16] Mercury's original music video for the song featured him parodying himself in many of his Queen guises through video medium over the years, including visual re-takes of "Radio Ga Ga", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "It's a Hard Life", "I Want to Break Free", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "I Was Born to Love You", and "Made in Heaven".

It was directed by David Mallet in February 1987, and also featured fellow Queen member Roger Taylor and actor Peter Straker in drag.

Wit Studio's original anime television series Great Pretender uses this version as its ending theme.