Greatest Hits II (Queen album)

Greatest Hits II
Compilation album by Queen
Publication (s)	October 28, 1991
Label (s)	Parlophone / EMI (1991), Universal (2011)
Format (s)	CD , double LP , MC
Genre (s)	skirt
Title (number)	17th
running time	75:47 (CD)
occupation	Freddie Mercury - vocals , piano Brian May - guitars , vocals Roger Taylor - drums , percussion , vocals John Deacon - bass Guest musicians: Fred Mandel - synthesizer on Radio Ga Ga; I want to break free; Hammer to fall David Bowie - vocals on Under Pressure Steve Howe - (Innuendo) Michael Kamen - (Who Wants to Live Forever) National Philharmonic Orchestra - Orchestra on Who Wants to Live Forever
chronology Innuendo (1991) Greatest Hits II Live at Wembley '86 (1992)

Greatest Hits II is the third compilation album by the British rock group Queen and was released in October 1991.

The album

A sequel to Greatest Hits , Greatest Hits II features Queen singles released between 1981 and 1991. Of the 17 pieces in total, as in the first compilation, four songs each come from the albums The Works (1984), A Kind of Magic (1986), The Miracle (1989) and Innuendo (1991). The album Hot Space (1982) is only represented with a single release, since Body Language and Las Palabras de Amor were not taken into account. At the same time as Greatest Hits II was released, The Show Must Go On, also included on this compilation, was released as a single.

Greatest Hits II is one of Queen's best-selling albums worldwide, along with Greatest Hits and Made in Heaven . It took first place in the charts and a. in Argentina , Brazil , France , Great Britain , Italy , New Zealand , the Netherlands , Austria , Switzerland and Spain . Greatest Hits II ranks seventh on the list of best-selling albums in the UK ; The album achieved eight platinum status for over 3,600,000 copies sold . First place on this British list goes to Queen's First Greatest Hits Edition.

Less than four weeks after the album was released, Queen singer Freddie Mercury died of complications from his AIDS illness.

Greatest Hits II was later released as box sets together with Queen's other two hits compilations : Greatest Hits I & II was released in 1994, The Platinum Collection in 2000. In 2011 the box set and the three individual albums from it were digitally remastered released.

The USA occupies a special position. Hollywood Records had reissued the entire Queen catalog on CD in 1991; Greatest Hits II was not released. Instead, a compilation called Classic Queen was released in 1992 as an equivalent , which is based on Greatest Hits II in terms of design and song composition , but also contains some older pieces from the 1970s.

Richard Gray was responsible for the cover design of both albums. Jim Jenkins wrote the accompanying text in the booklet for the individual pieces; Jacky Gunn also wrote some lyrics for the CD Classic Queen .

Track list

1. A Kind of Magic (Taylor) - 4:22 → album A Kind of Magic , 1986
2. Under Pressure (Queen / Bowie ) - 3:56, single, 1981 → album Hot Space , 1982
3. Radio Ga Ga (Taylor) - 5:43 → album The Works , 1984
4. I Want It All (Queen) - 4:01, single version → album The Miracle , 1989
5. I Want to Break Free (Deacon) - 4:18, single version → album The Works , 1984
6. Innuendo (Queen) - 6:27 → album Innuendo , 1991
7. It's a Hard Life (Mercury) - 4:09 → album The Works , 1984
8. Breakthru (Queen) - 4:09 → album The Miracle , 1989
9. Who Wants to Live Forever - (May) 4:57 → Album A Kind of Magic , 1986
10. Headlong (Queen) - 4:33 → album Innuendo , 1991
11. The Miracle (Queen) - 4:54 → Album The Miracle , 1989
12. I'm Going Slightly Mad (Queen) - 4:07 → album Innuendo , 1991
13. The Invisible Man - (Queen) 3:58 → album The Miracle , 1989
14. Hammer to Fall (May) - 3:40, single version → album The Works , 1984
15. Friends Will Be Friends (Mercury / Deacon) - 4:08 → Album A Kind of Magic , 1986
16. The Show Must Go On (Queen) - 4:23 → album Innuendo , 1991
17. One Vision (Queen) - 4:02, single version, 1985 → album A Kind of Magic , 1986

Numerous titles have been shortened on the CD edition. ("Tracks edited by David Richards for CD.") In addition to a few cuts of a few seconds, complete passages were removed from the titles I Want It All , Who Wants To Live Forever , Hammer To Fall and One Vision , and single versions were sometimes used. The strongest cut was made at One Vision , where a total of 1:09 minutes were removed in the intro and outro compared to the studio version.

Chart placements

In the Charts reached Greatest Hits II the following placements:

• # 1 - Argentina (diamond) / Brazil (2 × platinum ) / Denmark / Finland (5 × platinum) / France (diamond) / Great Britain (8 × platinum) / Italy (5 × platinum) / New Zealand / Netherlands (5 × platinum ) / Austria (4 × platinum) / Portugal / Switzerland (5 × platinum) / Spain (5 × platinum) / Hungary
• # 2 - Germany (4 × platinum) / Sweden
• # 4 - Norway

CD "Classic Queen" (USA)

Queens US label Hollywood Records released a similar compilation instead of Greatest Hits II a few months later under the title Classic Queen . This CD (with a running time of 74:11 minutes) was released in March 1992 and contains the following titles:

1. A Kind of Magic (Taylor) - 4:25
2. Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury, 1975) - 5:55
3. Under Pressure (Queen / Bowie) - 4:03, remix
4. Hammer to Fall (May) - 3:40, single version
5. Stone Cold Crazy (Queen, 1974) - 2:15
6. One Year of Love (Deacon, 1986) - 4:28
7. Radio Ga Ga (Taylor) - 5:48
8. I'm Going Slightly Mad (Queen) - 4:23
9. I Want It All (Queen) - 4:01, single version
10. Tie Your Mother Down (May, 1976) - 3:45, single version
11. The Miracle (Queen) - 4:24, Edit
12. These Are the Days of Our Lives (Queen, 1991) - 4:14
13. One Vision (Queen) - 04:38, Edit
14. Keep Yourself Alive (May, 1973) - 3:45
15. Headlong (Queen) - 4:39
16. Who Wants to Live Forever (May) - 5:15
17. The Show Must Go On (Queen) - 4:33

The version of Under Pressure not marked as a remix in the booklet and the abridged versions of The Miracle and One Vision were only released on this album.

Classic Queen was by far the most commercially successful Queen album in the USA since the first Greatest Hits compilation was released in 1981. It reached number 1 in the Canadian charts (5 × platinum) and number 4 in the US charts ( 3 × platinum).

Sales figures and awards

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Argentina (CAPIF)	diamond	500,000
Australia (ARIA)	8 × platinum	560,000
Brazil (PMB)	2 × platinum	500,000
Germany (BVMI)	9 × gold	2,250,000
Finland (IFPI)	2 × platinum	149,622
France (SNEP)	Diamond + gold (re-issue)	1,100,000
Italy (FIMI)	platinum	100,000
Canada (MC)	5 × platinum	500,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	10 × platinum	150,000
Netherlands (NVPI)	5 × platinum	500,000
Austria (IFPI)	4 × platinum	200,000
Poland (ZPAV)	gold	10,000
Sweden (IFPI)	platinum	100,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	5 × platinum	250,000
Spain (Promusicae)	5 × platinum	500,000
United States (RIAA)	3 × platinum	3,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	13 × platinum	3,900,000
All in all	3 × gold 68 × platinum 2 × diamond	14,269,622

Main article: Queen (band) / Music Sales Awards

See also

• List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gold & Platinum - Searchable Database. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)