Mr. Bad Guy
| Mr. Bad Guy | ||||
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| Studio album by Freddie Mercury | ||||
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Publication |
April 29, 1985 |
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| Label (s) | Columbia Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
40:41 |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Musicland Studios , Munich (Germany) |
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Mr. Bad Guy (English for. "Mr. bad guy" ) is the first solo album of Freddie Mercury , the lead singer of the British rock group Queen . It dates from 1985. The production of a solo album was also possible because Queen was not working on a new album during this time. The album consists of a total of eleven songs that Mercury wrote himself.
The album
Mr. Bad Guy could not build on the popularity of the Queen albums, but made it to number six on the British album charts. Freddie Mercury originally wanted the album to be named after the album's second song: Made in Heaven . A few weeks before the pressing, however, he decided on Mr. Bad Guy .
Freddie Mercury dedicated the album as follows: "... to my cat Jerry - so Tom, Oscar and Tiffany and all the cat lovers across the universe - screw everybody else!" ("... for my cat Jerry - also Tom, Oscar and Tiffany and all cat lovers in the whole universe - forget everyone else! ")
The original version of Man Made Paradise was created by Queen in 1983 as part of the recording for her album The Works . Of There Must Be More to Life Than This is both a Queen version available as well as a joint demo of Mercury at the piano with Michael Jackson as a singer. These three demo recordings were made before Mercury's album versions and have not yet been officially released.
The box set Freddie Mercury - The Solo Collection , released in 2000, offers a comprehensive insight into the genesis of Mr. Bad Guy . The ten CDs and two DVDs include instrumental versions, all “12 ″ / Extended Versions ” and, in particular, more than 20 previously unreleased demos from the recording sessions for the album.
The songs Made in Heaven and I Was Born to Love You can also be found in a posthumously revised version on the 1995 Queen album Made in Heaven . The Queen version of I Was Born to Love You topped the Japanese charts.
The CD editions of Mr. Bad Guy from 1985 are very sought after today and are accordingly valuable. The album has been out of print since around the end of the 1980s and has not been reissued as a single album since. It has been available as part of the The Solo Collection and Solo box sets since 2000 .
Track list
- Let's Turn It On - 3:39
- Made in Heaven - 4:02
- I Was Born to Love You - 3:36
- Foolin 'Around - 3:26
- Your Kind of Lover - 3:31
- Mr. Bad Guy - 4:10
- Man Made Paradise - 4:07
- There Must Be More to Life Than This - 2:56
- Living on My Own - 3:21
- My Love Is Dangerous - 3:38
- Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow - 3:44
The British, French and Japanese CD editions contain the three " Extended Versions " of Let's Turn It On , I Was Born to Love You and Living on My Own as bonus tracks .
The songs Stop All the Fighting and She Blows Hot and Cold appeared as the B-side of the singles I Was Born to Love You and Made in Heaven, respectively . Freddie Mercury wrote all of the songs.
Single releases
- I Was Born to Love You (April 9, 1985); B-side: Stop All the Fighting
- Made in Heaven (July 1, 1985); B-side: She Blows Hot and Cold
- Living on My Own (September 2, 1985). The video for the single was shot on Mercury's 39th birthday in the Munich club Old Mrs. Henderson .
- Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow (Nov. 18, 1985; UK only)
- In 1993 the song Living on My Own , of which there is also an early version with slightly different lyrics ("Always on My Own"), was released as a remix (by the "No More Brothers") and was the only one of his solo singles to achieve two Top of the UK charts years after Mercury's death.
Other contributors
Occupation:
- Mack and Stephan Wissnet - Fairlight CMI , "drum programs"
- Mack, assisted by Stephan Wissnet - sound engineers
Cover design:
- The Artful Dodger - design
- A. Sawa - photographs
Reviews in the media
Record Mirror (Great Britain), 1985: "Freddie has produced a diverse album filled with dextrous tunes that are infinitely more pleasurable than the last 17 Queen albums."
Sounds (Great Britain), 1985: "This album is nothing more than a wimpy work-out of soft rock and dated disco."
All Music Guide (USA), by Ed Rivadavia: “[…] however, the frontman still does a commendable job of stretching into uncharted territory. The synthesizers of 'Let's Turn It On' announce that Queen's typical guitar heaviness will be conspicuously absent throughout the album, while extravagance will be at an all-time high. 'I Was Born to Love You,' the album's leadoff single, elevates '70s disco and' 80s dance influences to a level of blatant pop silliness that Queen would never dare approach. Mercury also combines his acoustic piano playing with synthesizer-driven backing tracks for the beautifully dramatic 'Made in Heaven' [...]. The singer's talent for complex and original arrangements also yields multifaceted pieces like 'Man Made Paradise,' […] make this an outstanding record from start to finish. "
Chart placements
| GB | AT | CH | DE | JP | NL | SE | US | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| album | |||||||||
| 1985 | Mr. Bad Guy | 6 (23 W) |
23 (4 W) |
14 (6 W) |
11 | 20 (21 W) |
20 (11 W) |
20 (3 W) |
- |
| Singles | |||||||||
| 1985 | I Was Born to Love You | 11 | 20th | 24 | 17th | 55 | 34 | - | - |
| 1985 | Made in Heaven | 57 | - | - | 60 | - | - | - | nv |
| 1985 | Living on My Own | 50 | - | - | - | nv | - | - | 85 |
| 1985 | Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow | 76 | nv | nv | nv | nv | nv | nv | nv |
| posthumous single | |||||||||
| 1993 | Living on My Own ('No More Brothers' Remix) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | nv | 2 | 1 | - |
Overview of individual song versions
The following overview includes all officially published song versions from the recording sessions for Mr. Bad Guy , created in 1984 and 1985. Posthumous remixes are not included.
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Apart from two exceptions (the single version by Made in Heaven and the “Bad Circulation Version” by Mr. Bad Guy ), the box set 'The Solo Collection' , released in 2000, contains all of the above tracks. The versions marked with * were published therein for the first time. The "Bad Circulation Version" by Mr. Bad Guy is included on the second CD of the 2006 compilation 'Lover of Life, Singer of Songs - The Very Best of Freddie Mercury Solo' .
See also
Web links
- Mr. Bad Guy (album) - Queenpedia.com - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, Discography, Bibliography, Charts. Images of the album and single covers. In: queenpedia.com. (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Booklet from "Freddie Mercury - The Solo Collection", EMI Records, 2000.
- ↑ The star and the scene: Freddie Mercury in Munich. In: br.de. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b quotation after Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, p. 187. ISBN 0-283-06052-2
- ↑ Mr. Bad Guy - Freddie Mercury. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d Queen International Album Chart Positions. In: pcpki.com. Retrieved October 18, 2019 . Queen International Singles Chart Positions. In: pcpki.com. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Freddie Mercury - Mr. Bad Guy - austriancharts.at. In: austriancharts.at. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Freddie Mercury - Mr. Bad Guy - hitparade.ch. In: hitparade.ch. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Charts-Surfer: Song Search. In: charts-surfer.de. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
- ↑ swedishcharts.com - Freddie Mercury - Mr. Bad Guy. In: swedishcharts.com. Retrieved October 18, 2019 .