Classic Queen (1992)
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
It's very very easy for a fan to get
hopelessly lost when artists release, and re-release many different
versions of their "greatest hits" under various names and formats. For
the most part, I can stay a bit ahead of the game, but in the case of
Queen, I must admit I'm completely lost. Not surprisingly, there were a
lot of "best of" packages that would only get released on one or the
other sides of the Atlantic. This probably had something to do with the
fact that, for some strange reason, Queen ceased being that popular in
the U.S.A. around 1982. There was a Greatest Hits album by Queen
released around that year, and it was a great compilation. For whatever
reason, that album went out of print several years later, and I still
don't know the story behind it. Probably something about changing record
companies or something. Well, then, to make things more
complicated a "volume 2" was released shortly after Freddie Mercury's
death, and that one never saw release in the states either (at least not
for many, may years). So if you were a Queen fan, but not a collector,
these albums were hard to come by.
Fortunately around 1992, this did get resolved, although people were
still confused. First came this release with the moniker "Classic".
For whatever reason, most of what is here is post 1982. Not really a
bad thing, but it makes you wonder why they couldn't just replicate
another volume 1 and volume 2. Of the 17 songs here, only 5 are pre
1982, and 3 of those 5 were on that original Greatest Hits album that I
referred to earlier. So, without making that much of a big deal, this
in many ways represents the best "volume 2" that's out there. Tracks
from their last 4 studio albums are predominately featured, and they
definitely are the best of the best that Queen had to offer during this time.
Since most fans in the states may not be familiar with most of what is
here, this makes an excellent addition to the catalog if you stopped
listening to them, as many did, around 1980. A weird one, but it works.
It helped when a new Greatest Hits
album was released only a few months later with most of what was on that
original album anyway. It's your best bet if you just stay with these
two packages if you only want the best.
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