Tracklist:1. The Show Must Go On (live)
2. Under Pressure (Rah mix)
3. Barcelona
4. Too Much Love Will Kill You
5. Somebody to Love (live)
6. You Don't Fool Me
7. Heaven for Everyone
8. Las Palabras de Amor
9. Driven by You
10. Living on my Own (remix)
11. Let Me Live
12. The Great Pretender
13. Princess of the Universe
14. Another One Bites the Dust (mix)
15. No One But You (Only the Good Die Young)
16. These Are the Days of Our Lives
17. Thank God It's Christmas
The Third Chapter... and still not the final – 6,5/10
And then Queen decide to release another greatest hits album with a few more singles released after Greatest Hits II. This album is said to be Queen+, with the plus standing for material from solo careers and guest singers, probably from the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. This does take away the reputation of a title called “Greatest Hits”, but it’s of course another nice compilation, hereby concluding the Greatest Hits series, even though there’s still life to Queen in the future, if only without Freddie and John.
How do you compile a greatest hits album if you don’t want to publish stuff from earlier hit compilations and you have only one new album with not nearly enough hits? Quite simple that is! We’re in the techno age, mind! You make a remix of one of Queen’s bigger hits: “Under Pressure”, but now it’s the “Rah mix”. Mostly the same as the normal song, but with a beat underneath and a firm remastering. And there are some lines twisted and the intro is different. Apart from that I guess it’s nice to hear once, but I prefer the old version. And of course “Another One Bites the Dust” has been given a new face of disgrace with a rapper added... Unlistenable... The original version was pretty boring, but now it’s just repulsive. Alright that’s two songs, but it doesn’t make a compilation album... Take four relatively successful tracks from Made in Heaven, “Let Me Live”, “Too Much Love Will Kill You”, “You Don’t Fool Me” and “Heaven for Everyone”. Let’s see... we forgot some tracks on the previous Greatest Hits release, “Princes of the Universe”, “Las Palabras de Amor”, “These are the Days of our Lives” and the holiday favorite “Thank God It’s Christmas”. That makes ten songs... how do we fill the other half of the album?
Did we release any non-album singles between 1991 and 1999? Yes we did! Remember that live recording from the Freddie Tribute concert? And so “Somebody to Love” with George Michael was added. I guess this version is kind of good. George Michael adds a whole different atmosphere to the song, but that’s good, as he’s being himself. Talking about live, wasn’t there something with Elton John in 1997? Now you mention it, let’s include it too. “The Show Must Go On” with decent but not great vocals was added. Brian, Roger and John were sitting around the table with six empty cups of coffee for hours and hours on and on. Were they ever going to fill this compilation album? Then Brian said:
“What if I...”
“No, Brian!” said Roger.
“But how else...?”
“We’ll find a way...”
They are already a bit moody as we fall in this conversation. Suddenly John spoke:
“Why not? If we’re still finding a way after six hours of coffee then I’m eating my hat I just bought.”
“Yeah,” adds Brian. “I mean, we won’t add a lot of them...”
What are they talking about, you think? They added material from their solo careers... Hits from Freddie Mercury such as “Barcelona” with Montserrat Caballé, Freddie's solo cover "The Great Pretender" and a special remix of “Living on my Own”, and a hit from Brian May known as “Driven by You”. I think this addition is very odd. Wasn’t this a Queen album? Of course, they’re just promoting this stuff, but why isn’t stuff from Roger’s solo career added as well? My humble opinion likes that a lot more than “Driven by You”.
Glad they dealt with this they stared at the current tracklist.
“Something’s missing...” said Brian thoughtfully.
“Yeah, something from my solo albums...” suggested Roger.
“No, I mean something that should be on here... I mean, would you buy this?”
“Not even if it was free. But hey, that’s the record company’s problem. It was their idea after all...”
“What if,” John tried, “we write a new song? I’m sure those silly fans are dying for unreleased Queen material!”
“Yeah,” said Roger. “Probably so... but writing together without Freddie just seems so unreal...”
“Then let’s make a song about Freddie and dedicate it to him! The last Queen song ever as a homage to our friend!”
“Good idea!” said Brian enthusiastically. “I’m starting right away!”
And so “No One But You (Only The Good Die Young)” was born. And boy that song is so beautiful, almost makes me cry. It features a rare sharing of Roger and Brian on vocals with so much emotion put in the creation and just is one of the most beautiful and sensitive Queen songs ever.
All in all, this is a bit of an odd compilation, worth buying only for “No One But You”, since it features only on other out of print compilations. But of course, there are a lot of alternatives to get the song... iTunes, buy the physical single or be very nice to your friend. If not, then this is for collector’s only.
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