Greatest Hits (Remastered) Queen

• 1Bohemian Rhapsody (Remastered 2011)05:58
• 2Another One Bites The Dust (Remastered 2011)03:37
• 3Killer Queen (Remastered 2011)03:02
• 4Fat Bottomed Girls (Remastered 2011)04:15
• 5Bicycle Race (Remastered 2011)03:04
• 6You're My Best Friend (Remastered 2011)02:57
• 7Don't Stop Me Now (Remastered 2011)03:32
• 8Save Me (Remastered 2011)03:49
• 9Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Remastered 2011)02:44
• 10Somebody To Love (Remastered 2011)04:58
• 11Now I'm Here (Remastered 2011)04:15
• 12Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (Remastered 2011)02:56
• 13Play The Game (Remastered 2011)03:33
• 14Flash (Remastered 2011)02:48
• 15Seven Seas Of Rhye (Remastered 2011)02:50
• 16We Will Rock You (Remastered 2011)02:03
• 17We Are The Champions (Remastered 2011)03:01
• 18Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)05:05
• Total Runtime01:04:27

Info for Greatest Hits (Remastered)

The UK’s biggest selling album of all time: "Greatest Hits" is a compilation album by the British rock band Queen, first released in the UK on 26 October 1981. The album consisted of Queen's best-selling singles since their first chart appearance in 1974 with "Seven Seas of Rhye," up to their 1980 hit "Flash."

Queen's 'Greatest Hits' was an instant success, peaking at number one on the UK Album Chart for four weeks. It has spent over 700 weeks in the UK Charts, and is the best-selling album of all time in the UK, selling over 6 million copies there. It is certified 8x Platinum in the United States, and is Queen's most commercially successful album worldwide with over 25 million copies sold, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.

To mark the band’s first decade, Queen's Greatest Hits was released -packed with 17 of their biggest hits to date. Today it is still the ultimate playlist, and the biggest selling UK album, ever.

“I have to pinch myself...it’s the ultimate compliment to be sewn into people’s lives to that extent.”Brian May.

This year marks some significant milestones for Queen. Not only is it 50 years since the band’s final line-up was completed with John Deacon joining Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor, but it’s also been 40 years since Queen’s Greatest Hits album was released.

Perhaps the most indelible marker of the band’s sustained popularity, in this its Ruby year, the Greatest Hits collection incredibly returned to the top of the UK charts and hit the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 for the first time since its release in 1981. The career-spanning collection also hit No.1 on Billboard's Vinyl Albums chart with the second-largest sales week of 2020 for any vinyl release.

This weeks’ Queen The Greatest, which weekly celebratesQueen’s most outstanding songs, performances and achievements since the band formed in 1971, looks but at what must surely be considered one of Queen’s most historic achievements-continuing to carry the honour of having the UK’s biggest selling album of all time with Queen’s Greatest Hits.

SpanningQueen's triumphant first act, and released in 1981-with the now-iconic cover photo taken by Lord Snowden -to mark the band’s first decade, Greatest Hits contained no less than 17 hit singles. Launched with a very modern-for-its -time TV campaign promising “probably the most exciting album you’ve ever heard”, Queen’s Greatest Hits landed at the peak No 1 position of the UK album chart and has resided on the chart for over 956weeks since.

“EMI present Queen’s Greatest Hits. 17 of their very best tracks on one album. Tracks like Bohemian Rhapsody and Killer Queen.”

“Flash, Somebody To Love, and We Will Rock You. Plus Don’t Stop Me Now, Save Me, and many, many more. Probably the most exciting album you’ve ever heard. Queen’s Greatest Hits.”

When it came to choosing the tracks, the album was constructed with the same meticulous care Queen had become famous for on their previous albums.

Brian May: “Every album we ever made, including the Hits albums, we thought ‘yeah, people are going to be putting this on their turntables’, as it was at the time, ‘and they will be listening to it in sequence’. And we want to give them a journey, the tracks have to work in sequence.”

Brian May: “It’s amazing that we accrued that kind of catalogue of bona fide hits, most people’s Greatest Hits are like ‘yeah, we’ve got a couple but we’re going to throw a few things in which are kind of, could’ve been hits.’ But this is all gold-plated, chart material. So it’s easy, you just put the biggest ones in and that was it.”

Brian May: “And then we went on and we did Greatest Hits 2, and Greatest Hits 3, all of which have done great. And we have the Platinum Collection, which is all three of them together, so it’s done amazingly well. But the Greatest Hits 1 is something very special, and every track you listen to you think ‘ooh, yeah.”As the UK’s biggest selling album of all time, Greatest Hits is widely believed to hold a place in one in three UK homes.

Brian May: “It’s amazing, I have to pinch myself. I have to say ‘yes, it is THE biggest album of all time in this country, and I never realised it would get to this kind of height. I mean, it’s the ultimate compliment for an artist really to be sewn into people’s lives to that extent.”Brian May: “So it feels great. And we all feel the same. We had that privilege of actually being triggers in people’s lives which will always be the case as long as this generation, all these generations, are around, that will be the case. So, I feel very proud.”

In testament to their versatility and universal appeal, alternative track listings were created for different territories, reflecting the international popularity of Queen’s varied hits. And incredibly, this has resulted in a total of 25 million sales worldwide. Queen’s Greatest Hits is one of the greatest hits in music history, the perfect summary of the band’s first ten years, and probably the greatest playlist of all time.

Queen

Digitally remastered

Queen
Queen formed in 1971 and in 1973 signed their first recording contract for EMI. That year they released their first album, QUEEN. The same year saw their first major UK tour, and in 1974 they released QUEEN II as well as making their first UK headlining tour. They made their first US tour, and in November released SHEER HEART ATTACK which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

1975 saw their new release, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, and – significantly – the single Bohemian Rhapsody. At 5’ 55” it should have been too long for successful radio play but it became one of the greatest singles of all time, staying at No. 1 in the UK chart for nine weeks. The video, directed by Bruce Gowers, is credited with being the first genuine promotional video. The song has regularly featured in all major pop polls and was recently named again as the best single of all time. The success of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA was equally stunning, giving the band their first platinum album.

In 1976 they toured the US and Japan and by spring all four albums resided in the UK Top Twenty. Later that year they released A DAY AT THE RACES, and gave a free concert in Hyde Park to an estimated crowd of 200,000 fans. The album was a huge success, advance orders alone amounting to over 500,000. The following year saw two major US tours, the band’s sixth album, NEWS OF THE WORLD and the legendary double A side single, WE WILL ROCK YOU and WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.

1978’s JAZZ, included another huge hit single in Bicycle Race and Queen toured the US and Canada. They spent much of 1979 touring in Europe and Japan, as well as releasing their first live album, LIVE KILLERS. They were also approached to write the score for a forthcoming feature film, FLASH GORDON. Before that they released THE GAME in 1980 which went five times platinum in Canada alone! Another One Bites The Dust became the band’s biggest selling American single. Later that year the soundtrack for FLASH GORDON was released and by the end of the year Queen had sold over 45,000,000 albums worldwide.

In 1981 they toured the Far East and were the first band to make a stadium tour of South America. They played to 131,000 people in Sao Paolo, the largest paying audience for any band anywhere in the world. GREATEST HITS, GREATEST FLIX and GREATEST PIX were released simultaneously later in the year and Greatest Hits has rarely been out of the UK album charts since. Greatest Flix was the first collection of promo-videos released commercially by any band. Next year saw the release of the band’s twelfth album, HOT SPACE whilst they were in the middle of a European tour.

1984 saw THE WORKS and the single Radio Ga Ga became a worldwide hit, reaching No. 1 in 19 countries. Another huge hit was I Want To Break Free, featuring one of their most famous videos, all dressed in drag. In 1985 they were the headlining act at Rock in Rio, the biggest festival to be held anywhere in the world. They again made history that year with the show-stealing performance at Live Aid from Wembley Stadium, which proved to be a turning point for the band, One Vision being the first post Live Aid release.

1986 saw their 14th album, A KIND OF MAGIC, which was the soundtrack to the Russel Mulcahy film, Highlander. The title track became another worldwide smash and the album entered the UK charts at No. 1; later in the year the 2nd live album, LIVE MAGIC, went into the charts at No. 3. Between 1988 and 1991 Queen released three more albums, THE MIRACLE in 1989 and in 1991 INNUENDO and GREATEST HITS TWO. All three entered the UK charts at No. 1, as did the single Innuendo.

On 23rd November 1991 Freddie Mercury announced to the world that he had AIDS and the next day he died peacefully at his home, surrounded by family and friends. He remains the most high profile loss from the disease in the entertainment world and the news shocked fans throughout the world. As a tribute Bohemian Rhapsody /These Are The Days Of Our Lives was released as a double A-sided single to raise funds for the Terence Higgins Trust. It entered the UK chart at No. 1, where it stayed for five weeks, raising over £1,000,000 for the charity and Queen became the first band to have the same single top the uK charts twice. In December of that year Queen had 10 albums in the UK Top 100. In 1992 Freddie was awarded posthumously the BRIT’s “Outstanding Contribution to British Music” and Days Of Our Lives won Best Single. On 20th April many of the world’s top stars joined Brian, Roger and John on stage at Wembley for an emotional tribute to Freddie.

In 1995 the tracks that Queen had begun in 1991 were completed by Brian, Roger and John and the long-awaited MADE IN HEAVEN was released worldwide. It was the end of an era. Since then the phenomenon of Queen has remained, however, with continuing sales for their recorded output on CD and video. A ballet of their music by famous French choreographer Maurice Bejart was premiered at the National Theatre in Paris in 1997 and in May 2002 the hit musical We Will Rock You opened to sell-out audiences in London’s West End and continues to play to packed houses and standing ovations every night. Queen’s first DVD Greatest Video Hits Vol.1 was released at the end of October 2002, and yet another piece of Queen product entered the UK charts at number 1. October 2002 also saw Queen receive their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles, joining The Beatles as only one of a handful of non-US bands to receive the much coveted honour. Last year, 2004 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Walk of Fame, and in the UK were voted by the public into the first UK Music Hall of Fame.

Queen’s musical has since opened in Australia, Spain, Las Vegas,USA, Russia, Germany and is scheduled to open in Japan this May.

Brian and Roger continue to be ambassadors for Nelson Mandela’s 46664 HIV/AIDS awareness campaign and this month, March, played a second benefit concert for 46664 in Fancourt, South Africa.

Brian and Roger took Queen back onto the touring circuit for the first time since 1986 in 2005 and 2008, joined by former Free/Bad Company singer, songwriter and musicial Paul Rodgers playing concerts across the UK and throughout Europe. (Source: www.queenonline.com)

Booklet for Greatest Hits (Remastered)