Classic Queen - Another Greatest Hits Package
Written: Apr 26 '06 (Updated Feb 11 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Collection of Songs
Cons: A Kind of Magic
The Bottom Line: This is a real good Queen Compilation, once you get past It's a Kind of Magic
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| scapp70's Full Review: Classic Queen by Queen |
Riding high on their newfound success in 1992 thanks to the movie Wayne's World reintroduction of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, the brand new record company, Hollywood Records decided to release a couple of greatest hits CDs. It was a great move too, Classic Queen rose to #4 in the US Albums charts, and sold over three million copies. The record company made a move to acquire Queen as new clients in early 1991, and for the first time, their back catalog of music that would be released in the US. Starting with the death of Freddie in November 1991, and the movie Wayne's World, the record company made a wise business choice and have been reaping the benefits year after year since.
About six months earlier, in October of 1991, EMI released Queen's Greatest Hits II in the UK, since it was about ten years after the first 'Greatest' release. When Hollywood Records released Classic Queen in March of 1992, it used the UK album cover idea and lots of the songs that were used, which accounts for the large amount of newer songs that the CD contains.
The CD kicks off with me pressing the skip button. Drummer Roger Taylor's sappy, crappy mess, A Kind of Magic begins where their song One Vision left off lyric-wise, which kinds of takes over where John Lennon's Imagine left off fourteen years earlier. The ideals of one universal belief and like-mindedness the world should have, and then the quality of life will be a kind of magic. The lyrical content is not what irks me about the song, it's the repulsive bouncy chipper music of John Deacon's bass, the snapping of the fingers and the constant and relentless backing vocal of ?it's a kind of magic?.
Once I ship Magic, the rest of the CD is great. Like I said earlier, this is basically the same track listing as the UK's Greatest Hits II, except here, Hollywood Records threw in four classic songs from the 70s heyday of success, and three alternate songs from the 80s/90s era. The first of the 70s heyday featured is Bohemian Rhapsody from 1975. The main reason for the release of Classic Queen was to capitalize on Bohemian Rhapsody's success that came about from the Wayne's World movie. Instead of everybody buying the Wayne's World soundtrack for the song, now they have a different and purer choice.
The song, Under Pressure features David Bowie, in case you didn't know. The song was originally released on Queen's first US Greatest Hits album as a bonus track in 1981. It also wound up on the band's next studio release, Hot Space. The song makes for a great collaboration, one of the very best I have ever heard. The five artists truly sound like one band, just with two lead singers. The song is a staple in classic rock radio formats, and why not since it joins two rock music giants. It has a sterile swing to the beat a la bassist John Deacon, and to me the lyrics sound like drummer Roger Taylor had a big say in how they turned out.
I like what the new Queen band (Brian, Roger and Paul Rodgers) had done with this song on the tour. They reworked the song so that it would segue smoothly from Brian's small acoustic guitar solo set. Instead of starting right away with a bang and the big distorted guitar sound like it does here, Brian would sing it alone, with a clean guitar sound. It gave me new appreciation for the song, and for Freddie's soaring vocals.
Heavy Metal band, Metallica had just recently covered a Queen song called Stone Cold Crazy back then for Elektra's 20th Anniversary, it was a multi CD release as I remember. It was pretty popular in 1991 as both Metallica and Queen were huge that year. The song is from Queen's third release, Sheer Heart Attack, and is one of Queen's few heavy metal songs in its own right.
Maybe the band had some sort of input for the song list, because bassist John Deacon's song One Year of Love seems an odd choice. Not that it's a bad song, it's a really good and moving ballad from their 1986 A Kind of Magic album. It just seems that it was a song from an album that was ignored in the states, and the song was very underappreciated. Maybe John Deacon decided to include this song so that it would find some sort of new appreciation that was missed the first time around.
Radio Ga Ga is originally from the 1984 album, The Works and it was written by drummer Roger Taylor. It is very 80s pop, yet it has that hard Queen edge that separates it from the rest. It has an addictive electronic drumbeat, and wonderful melodies from Freddie's throat that few can attempt to duplicate. I'm Going Slightly Mad almost sounds like a normal song, but then Queen's usual weirdness quickly comes to the fore. The song is from 1991's Innuendo, and is one of my favorites maybe because it comes so close to mainstream music. This pop song with its synthesized vocal background and odd lyrics, makes for a song that sounds much different than all other Queens songs.
I Want It All was Queen's 1989 claim that they have indeed returned to the hard rock genre. This was the first single in the US off their The Miracle album. Also from this album, they have included the title track The Miracle. This song also has some rocking moments, but ultimately falls closer in the Coca-Cola commercial genre, a la I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing.
Tie Your Mother Down was the opening song for the 1976 release A Day At The Races. It's a stripped down raw rocker which was very un-Queen like back then, Brian's guitar solo is partly performed with a slide, and to my vast-Queen knowledge it may have been the only attempt at a slide-guitar from Brian. These Are the Days of Our Lives is also from the Innuendo album. This song should have been a huge hit for Queen on both sides of the Atlantic, but the US had no chance as it wasn't pushed as a single here. The song is very adult contemporary, the lyrics are great and it's very catchy.
The last dip into the Queen past reaches all the way back to the beginning. Keep Yourself Alive was a hard rock single from their debut album Queen. The single had no success on either side of the Atlantic, but allows the listener to hearken back to the very early days of the band, and shows that Queen's future musical direction may be filled with layered guitars and overlapping lead vocals. Who Wants To Live Forever is a song that I have regularly disregarded as disorganized mush in the past. Recently, while watching the show American Idol, one of the contestants performed the song and it gave me a new appreciation for the song. The song is a very moving ballad, and it contains an amazing vocal from Freddie. It's funny that a TV show that cut the song from over five minutes to under two minutes, the vocalist couldn't reach the notes Freddie reached, and the band wasn't as good as Queen, and this is what made me finally love this song. This is one of the few instances where Queen would go outside their own musical performances and utilize a lush orchestra to provide backing for a song.
The Show Must Go On is an apt closer on this CD as it was on 1991's Innuendo album, which was the last released before Freddie passed. The song was a single and also had a video made, but it is not so well known, although it has climbed to Queen Classic status among Queen Fans. The song is a big epic-like rocker that closed out their last album with Freddie, and it serves more as an epitaph more than anything. Queen fans will usually think of Freddie memories upon hearing.
For Queen, I don't recommend one of their "greatest hits" albums for a starting point in the journey of listening to Queen, but if you must and insist, then this greatest hits compilation isn't such a bad place to start. You get mostly songs recorded in the last stage of Queen's career with Freddie on vocals, and some classic high points of their amazing first half of their career.
Songs
1. A Kind Of Magic
2. Bohemian Rhapsody
3. Under Pressure
4. Hammer To Fall
5. Stone Cold Crazy
6. One Year Of Love
7. Radio Ga Ga
8. I'm Going Slightly Mad
9. I Want It All
10. Tie Your Mother Down
11. The Miracle
12. These Are The Days Of Our Lives
13. One Vision
14. Keep Yourself Alive
15. Headlong
16. Who Wants To Live Forever
17. The Show Must Go On
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~For more Queen CD Epinions from Scapp70~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Queen
Queen II
Sheer Heart Attack
A Night At The Opera
A Night At The Opera - DVD Audio
A Day At The Races
News of the World
Jazz
Live Killers
The Game – DVD-Audio
Flash Gordon Soundtrack
Hot Space
The Works
A Kind Of Magic
At The BBC
Innuendo
Headlong (CD Single)
Too Much Love Will Kill You (CD Single)
Heaven For Everyone (CD Single)
The Queen Symphony
Greatest Hits III
Crown Jewels
Stone Cold Queen – A Tribute
Greatest Hits
Queen On Fire At The Bowl
Killer Queen – A Tribute To Queen
A Night At The Opera – CD & DVD (30th Anniversary)
Stone Cold Classics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Queen DVDs~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Queen - Greatest Video Hits 1
Queen - Greatest Video Hits 2
Queen + Paul Rodgers - Return Of The Champions
Queen - Magic Moments: Unauthorized
Queen: A Night At The Opera - DVD Audio
Queen: The Game - DVD Audio
Queen: A Night At The Opera - 30th Anniversary CD & DVD
Queen: We Will Rock You - DTS
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
scapp70
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Member: Michael Scapp
Location: NYC
Reviews written: 464
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STOP Obama on 'NET NEUTRALITY'! Too much power = corruption!
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