scapp70's Full Review: The Crown Jewels: A 25th Anniversary Celebration [...
Well, we Queen Fans are waiting, sometimes impatiently, for the real Queen box set that has been promised for a couple of years now. Now the rumor is that the upcoming 'real' box set will be released in two installments, one chronicling the first ten years, and one for the last ten. I'm excited for it, as are a few other million around the globe.
In the meantime, EMI and Hollywood Records are rehashing 34 well-known Queen songs over and over in Greatest Hits and similar anthology releases.
So far, since 1992, we've had Greatest Hits, Classic Queen, Rocks, Queen+ Greatest Hits III, A Night At The Opera MFSL Gold, A Night At The Opera DCC Gold, Platinum Collection...etc.
In just a couple of weeks, on August 17th, 2004, we have a new release coming out called Queen's Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You Edition.
Sometimes the Queen fans, like me, must purchase these items in order to sleep at night. So far, I have staved off The Platinum Collection which is a three CD set which includes Queen's Greatest Hits I, II, & III in a nice silver package. I tell myself that I'll purchase it eventually so that I am able to sleep at night.
This box set was released on November 24th, 1998 on the seventh anniversary of lead singer Freddie Mercury's death.
It contains the first eight studio album releases in Queen back catalog.
All of the CDs come in a mini-album sleeve replica and are stored vertically in slots in a nice royal blue velvet case. When the box set was first released, it was going for roughly $110, now you can find it easy for $70 or even less. I see on Ebay that they sell it for under $40 plus shipping almost everyday.
The albums included are:
Queen «4½ stars»
This is the debut album, originally released the summer of 1973. The album had very little success here in the States. They weren't touring here for this release, and the album produced no hits. This album was recorded in studio downtime over a couple of months, and is the most unpolished Queen release to date. Although there were no hits, the album grew to have many favorites among fans like Keep Yourself Alive, Doin' Alright and Liar. Eventually, (20 years later) US radio picked up on the greatness of their debut, and you can hear Keep Yourself Alive quite a bit, and once in a while maybe even Liar.
Queen II «5 stars»
In the spring of 1974, Queen released Queen II. This album is Queen's most uncommercial release ever. They released the single for The Seven Seas Of Rhye, and it made no impact in the States, although in the UK, they had a top ten hit. Queen toured the States very briefly, as the tour was cut short due to guitarist Brian May's battle with hepatitis. So again, Queen had no promotional chances in the States to promote their album, and Elektra wasn't helping much either. Although Queen have grown into legend now, US classic rock radio has yet to pick up on this record as they play no material at all from this disc. When released on vinyl, this disc was split up to Side White and Side Black instead of Side One and Two. Freddie Mercury penned all of the songs on Side Black, and this has become many Queen Fans favorite Queen music of all.
Sheer Heart Attack «5 stars»
Released in the winter of 1974, Queen did score a hit single in the US with Killer Queen. The single surprisingly climbed to #12 in the US charts and the album itself reached #4 in the US album charts and earned Platinum status. Queen returned to the States and finished the tour they started in the beginning of the year with the same bill, opening for Mott the Hoople. Queen had totally made a 180, and changed their sound to a more radio-friendly commercial collection of songs. On the original Hollywood Records release, fans were outraged when they heard one of the songs, In the Lap of the Gods with an edited omitted two seconds from the introduction of the song. On this release, Hollywood Records corrects the error. Some more favorites from this release: Now I'm Here, Stone Cold Crazy, Flick of The Wrist, Brighton Rock and Bring Back That Leroy Brown.
A Night At The Opera «5 stars»
Taking more than a couple months to record, Queen released their fourth album in December of 1975. The album had great success, reaching #4 in the US charts and achieving 4Xplatinum awards in sales. Their first single from this album was released in October of 1975, Bohemian Rhapsody. The single stayed at the top of the charts in the UK for nine weeks, and reaching the top 5 in the US. Queen had success again in the US with this single in 1991 when the movie Wayne's World used it to great effect in the film. It went all the way to #2 in its second release, which is a feat in itself. This LP is often referred to as Queen's "Sgt Pepper". A favorite to most Queen Fans, especially because of the amazing The Prophet's Song, '39, Love of My Life, Death On Two Legs and You're My Best Friend, which was Queen's second single off the album.
A Day At The Races «3 stars»
Queen's fifth album released one year after A Night At The Opera and again like A Night At The Opera, Queen decide on a Marx Brothers film title, as a title for their album. What's next, Duck Soup? The album cover design is almost identical, yet totally opposite at the same time. Queen's first outing without producer Roy Thomas Baker, and the results are, well, meh. Sure there are some great songs here, but mostly mediocre and disposable. The album did reach #5 on the pop album charts here in the States, and the singles:
The gospel, Aretha Franklin inspired Somebody To Love reached a high of #13 despite the length of five minutes. Meanwhile the better song, Tie Your Mother Down tried to but could not break the top 40. Some other highlights on this album are the songs:
The Millionaire Waltz, Drowse and Teo Torriate.
News Of The World «5 stars»
Their sixth album, released 11 months after the last, and Queen have changed their sound again and achieved a higher plane of success as well. The album climbed to #3 in the US albums charts, and stayed on the charts for 37 weeks, it also went 4xplatinum. Queen has stripped down their grand over-the-top polished sound to produce more of a raw rock and roll album. News is probably their heaviest album since 1974's Queen II. Queen had a big hit with the double A sided single of We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions. The single reached a high of #4, and it remained on the US Charts for 27 weeks. These songs have only gained popularity since their initial release due largely to the fact that they are played at most sporting event throughout the States, just about every day of the year. Drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon have both contributed two compositions each instead of the normal one per album. This made the album much more of a band effort, where the band divided up the 11 songs almost equally. Brian is found here writing the majority of the songs for the first time on a Queen album, which may indeed be a factor in the heavier sound. On the first Hollywood Records release, a couple of seconds were omitted from the introduction of It's Late; this has been corrected on this release. More favorites from this five star album;
It's Late, Spread Your Wings, All Dead, All Dead & Who Needs You.
JAZZ «4½ stars»
Queen's next album, released in the fall of 1978 climbed to a high of #6 in the US and achieved Platinum status. Queen trying to recapture the previous album's single success, released another double-A sided single with Freddie's Bicycle Race and Brian's Fat Bottomed Girls. Queen once again teamed with friend and producer Roy Thomas Baker, maybe because of the fact he has had much success with rock groups like The Cars. Queen changed their sound once again, incorporating some Arabic overtones with Freddie's Mustapha, some sitar for the first time on a Queen record in the song Jealousy, but mostly hard and heavy rock music in songs like Let Me Entertain You, Dead On Time, If You Can't Beat Them and More Of That Jazz.
The Game «4 stars»
This is undoubtedly Queen's greatest album success in the US. This was released in the summer of 1980 two full years after their last studio release. In the interim, Queen released the double live masterpiece called Queen Live Killers. The Game went to #1 and stayed on the charts for almost one year. Queen released four singles off this album. The first single was released way back in 1979 before there was even an album called The Game called Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Queen's first attempt at rockabilly and it pays off big. The single went to #1 and stayed on the charts for 22 weeks. Freddie almost disguises his voice into an Elvis Presley impersonation, and with the stripped down raw sound, Queen prove successful. Most of the album followed the raw approach as the first single, yet when the album came out, Queen changes direction yet again. Their second single was the huge hit Another One Bites The Dust. A blatant rip-off of the band Chic's song Good Times and the Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight, bassist John Deacon makes no apologies for the similarities. I guess he doesn't need to, since his single climbed higher than both other bands singles. Another One Bites The Dust is the song where Queen began their short disco career. The single went number one, and stayed there for quite some time. It finally fell off the charts two thirds of a year later. Queen also released Need Your Loving Tonight; another song penned by Deacon, and it only reaches 44 on the singles charts. Freddie's Play The Game single faired only slightly better reaching a high of 42. Other favorites here are:
Dragon Attack, Sail Away Sweet Sister and Rock It (Prime Jive) .
Also included is a mini-album CD sized book. It has 88 pages and mostly filled with the lyrics from these eight albums. It has a brief history of the band by Matt Pinfield (the bald guy from MTV/VH1 who is seen in many Hard Rock rocumentaries), with a small paragraph on each album that came out almost as good as the one I provided here. Also included in this booklet we have most of the album art that was included in the original packaging except for the two omissions from the albums News of the World and Sheer Heart Attack. Other than these slight oversights, it's actually a nice accompaniment to the CDs.
Well that box set was Queen's first eight studio releases, and the remainder may see its way into a second box set somewhere down the line I suppose. Queen have only seven more studio albums in their catalog if you include Made In Heaven, and I suppose it would be nice to see such nice packaging on these CDs, and get an upgrade in production like we did with this one.
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