Made in Heaven

Occupation

Freddie Mercury: Vocals, Piano, Keyboards.
John Deacon: bass guitar, keyboards.
Roger Taylor: drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals.
Brian May: guitars, keyboards, vocals.

Made in Heaven is the 1995 published, fifteenth and last published under the sole name of " Queen" studio album by British rock band Queen.

The album

Even before the album Innuendo was published in February 1991, Queen began again in her studio in Montreux to record new songs; during the year was followed by further recording sessions. Freddie Mercury, whose health was already seriously affected at this time by his AIDS illness, worked in small steps until shortly before his death on November 24, 1991 to the new songs.

In April of the following year organized by the remaining members of Queen Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held. The last recording together with Mercury, however, remained untouched for more than two years before Roger Taylor and John Deacon started to continue the work on the Queen album, while Brian May was busy with solo projects and later participated in the recordings.

The album Made in Heaven was released on 6 November 1995 and shall include Freddie Mercury's last sung pieces. You Do not Fool Me is a disco - influenced pop song, A Winter 's Tale describes a winter idyll and Mother Love explicitly takes like no other tracks on the album reference to Freddie Mercury -being in the face of near- farewell: " I'm a man of the world and they say that I'm strong / But my heart is heavy and my hope is gone. " " I long for peace before I the. " Since Mercury Mother Love could not finish, Brian May sang the last verse.

The other, older pieces were mostly re-recorded posthumously by the three remaining Queen members; Mercury's vocal recordings are from the eighties. For one, there were until then unreleased Queen recordings ( such as Too Much Love Will Kill You ) - My Life Has Been Saved only had already appeared in a slightly more economical form arranged on a Queen single. There were also some pieces that Freddie Mercury had sung for solo projects: the title song, I Was Born to Love You, and the first single Heaven for Everyone. More than other Queen albums dominate Made in Heaven quiet, slow tracks. The end of the album is a 22 minute long, instrumental - untypical for Queen - Ambient piece that is not listed in the booklet. As usual, since the album The Miracle, the indication of the author is at the first time published pieces each, Queen ', only with Mother Love are indicated with Brian May and co- Mercury individual band members. Not included on the album is sung by May Items Lost Opportunity, which was taken as the three pieces above in 1991 according to the official Queen fan club and was already a few weeks later included on the single I'm Going Slightly Mad.

It is named after the eponymous Made in Heaven, re-recorded piece of Freddie Mercury in 1985 erschienenem first solo album Mr. Bad Guy, which originally this item would also have to bear. The three remaining Queen musician dedicated the album to her late singer: Dedicated to the immortal spirit of Freddie Mercury.

The album cover shows a aufgenommes on a winter after sunset picture in which the views of Montreux is directed to Lake Geneva and the partially snow-covered mountains behind it. In the foreground is a sculpture created by Irena Sedlecka showing Freddie Mercury in a typical, now frequently copied pose during a live performance and the larger version is in Montreux on the shores of the lake since 1996. A photographed during sunrise version of the image is printed on the CD label, as well as on the cover of the LP edition. The concept for the cover design is by Queen and Richard Gray, who is also responsible for the graphical implementation and photography.

Made in Heaven is one of the most commercially successful studio albums by Queen. In the first place the respective charts, the album came alongside Great Britain and Others in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Spain. Apart from these countries, the album peaked yet in many other countries at least simple platinum status, as in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea and the Czech Republic. In the U.S., the relative sales figures, as in all published in the previous decade, the band's albums, comparatively small, but sufficient to attain the Gold award.

In the visual realization of their pieces queen new ground. In collaboration with the British Film Institute ( BFI) they made it young directors to create short films with pieces from Made in Heaven. These were first published in VHS (1996) and later in DVD format (2003) under the title Made in Heaven - The Films. Additional, conventional video clips submitted by Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher for Singles A Winter's Tale and Too Much Love Will Kill You by David Mallet and for the first single Heaven for Everyone. Mallets video contains excerpts from three films of Georges Méliès: L' eclipse du soleil en pleine lune (1907 ), Le voyage à travers l'impossible (1904) and Le voyage dans la lune (1902 ). The Mark Szaszy turned for the BFI project short film was the official video clip for the single You Do not Fool Me

Title list

The so-called " Yeah" is de facto a cappella conclusion of It's a Beautiful Day ( Reprise) forms on CD but its own title. Also commonly referred to as "Track 13" designated last instrumental piece that ties musically to the previous title, is not mentioned in the booklet of the album. On LP and cassette is " Track 13 " not included.

The lead vocals in Let Me Live share Mercury, May and Taylor; additional backing vocals come from Rebecca Leigh- White, Gary Martin, Catherine Porter and Miriam Stockley. The main song in Mother Love comes from Mercury and May

Arranged and produced were all pieces of Queen; co-produced and recorded the album was led by David Richards, Justin Shirley -Smith and Joshua J. Macrae. Responsible for the mix was David Richards. Additional material (especially Mercury's vocals) had been partially absorbed by Mack in the eighties.

Recording times of the lead vocal

Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Brian May set of circa 1993 to 1995, resulting in the final months before Freddie Mercury's death finished pieces. Above all, they took the other, partly already published in other versions of pieces scratch. Freddie Mercury's lead vocals come from the following years:

Details of individual pieces

Made in Heaven

Made in Heaven was originally recorded for Mr. Bad Guy Freddie Mercury's solo album. After his death, the band recorded the song on new and sat Mercury's original vocals on the Newly admitted music.

It's a Beautiful Day / Reprise

The supposedly last track of the album, It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise), contains, inter alia, samples from Seven Seas of Rhye, the final song of the second, published in 1974 Queen album. A third version of It's a Beautiful Day was only released on some editions of the single Heaven for Everyone: you essentially combines the elements of both album versions, but is in some details bold new accents; also absent in this hybrid version of the mentioned samples. The original version of this song was recorded in 1980 as part of the recordings for the album The Game.

In 2005 published Ross Robertson and DJ Koma an unofficial remix of It's a Beautiful Day on the Internet, the band discovered for himself and used in the same year as an intro at their concerts of the "Queen Paul Rodgers " tour.

Let Me Live

This is the only Queen song, in which all three singer of the band - Mercury, Taylor and May - share the lead vocals.

Another Piece of My Heart, the demo version of this piece comes from the Mercury used on the album singing, had been recorded in 1983 in Los Angeles from Queen in collaboration with Rod Stewart.

Heaven for Everyone

Circa 1986 Queen had recorded a demo of Heaven for Everyone for the Highlander soundtrack (or A Kind of Magic ). A year later, Freddie Mercury sang the title for the first album of Roger Taylor's band The Cross a ( Shove It, 1988); on the then single release comes the lead vocals on the other hand by Roger Taylor. Live interpretations of this song there were only of The Cross. In 1988 on Virgin Rec a 12- inch single by The Cross with both the vocal version of Freddie Mercury and the Roger Taylor.

Too Much Love Will Kill You

A first version of this piece Queen ( with the Made to be heard in Heaven song by Freddie Mercury ) was 1988/89 arose in the context of the recording sessions for the album The Miracle; the title was back then but not completed or published. When Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert 1992 ( also released on VHS and DVD) Too Much Love Will Kill You was first - sung by Brian May - listed. In May the same year brought its own version of the play as a pre - out single release from his album Back to the Light. It was 5th place in the UK and # 1 in the Netherlands, his most successful solo single.

The contained on Made in Heaven, by the remaining band members re-recorded version of Queen won the 1997 British Ivor Novello Award in the category " Best Song Musically and Lyrically ".

Too Much Love Will Kill You was played live by Queen ( May / Taylor) two more times: in 2003 in Modena, together with Luciano Pavarotti and 2005 along with Katie Melua at Nelson Mandela's 46664 AIDS benefit concert in Fancourt, South Africa ( also in the same year appeared on Melua's double - DVD on the Road Again ).

Single releases

Heaven for Everyone ( 1995 single version ) - Charts: UK # 2, # 3 Netherlands, Austria # 4, # 5 Finland, Switzerland # 9, Australia # 15, Germany # 15
A Winter's Tale ( 1995) - Charts: UK # 6, # 23 Austria, # 25 Netherlands, Switzerland # 28, Germany # 62
Let Me Live (1996 ) - Charts: UK # 9, # 36 Netherlands, Germany # 67
I Was Born to Love You (1996, published only in Japan ) - Charts: Japan # 45
Too Much Love Will Kill You (1996 ) - Charts: UK # 15
You Do not Fool Me (1996, various single- Edits ) - Charts: UK # 17, # 21 Netherlands, # 23 Austria, Germany # 26, Switzerland # 27

Reception in the media

Entertainment Weekly (USA), November 10, 1995 by Jim Farber: "This load- track, a 22 - minute wash of celestial ahhs and twinkle, presents What Could be rock 's first -ever depiction of the afterlife, with heaven presented as some flouncy Hollywood epic. It's the perfect theatrical epitaph for a life dedicated to gorgeous artifice. "

New Musical Express ( UK ), November 18, 1995 by Stuart Bailie: " Made In Heaven 'is vulgar, creepy, sickly and in dubious taste. Freddie would have loved it. "

Die Welt ( Germany ), November 18, 1995 by Andreas Odenwald: " [ ... ] is rather uncomfortable when [ ... ] will always demands the knowledge of the erstwhile real tragedy in massive cadenzas and melancholic verses. [ ... ] If need be sung about dying - please only by the one who does not have his own death before his eyes. "

Q ( UK), December 1995 by David Sinclair: " [ ... ] Made In Heaven is probably a better album than Innuendo and a fitting swan song by one of the most incandescent groups in rock. Made In Heaven is thus the load- musical will and testament of a star who what never going to be turned into a saint, but Whose grandstanding performances were, right to the very end, always marked by reckless enthusiasm and a rare generosity of spirit. "

Rolling Stone (USA), 28 December 1995: "The heavy elegy in the air there is suffocating, making much of this posthumous project [ ... ] a strange, discomfiting Often listening experience. Made in Heaven is composed of ballads and mid-tempo almost Entirely melodrama loaded with double meanings [ ... ] and implicit drama. [ ... ] But as a memorial to the breadth and bang of what Mercury really delivered in his prime [ ... ] Made in Heaven falls short, too fraught with its own poignancy. "

Rock Hard ( Germany ), January 1996, by Frank Trojan: "Queen at their best [ ... ]. 'Made In Heaven ' is undoubtedly one of the absolute highlights of the band's career, as this album represents the diverse strengths of Queen. [ ... ] Made In Heaven ' ticks all the timeless pop music. "

Vox ( UK), January 1996, by Ian Fortnam: "This, without doubt, is Queen At Their very best. [ ... ] Queen have surpassed all expectations with 'Made In Heaven '. This album will break your heart, shake your soul and, at the right volume, undermine the foundations of your house. "

Alternative song versions

Original version:

My Life Has Been Saved (1989, Single B-side of Scandal )

Single versions:

Heaven for Everyone ( 1995, included on the 1999 album Greatest Hits III)
It's a Beautiful Day - A kind of hybrid version of the album versions was included in 1995 on some editions of the single Heaven for Everyone.
Too Much Love Will Kill You ( 1996 Promo Mix)
You Do not Fool Me (1996, different edits )

Remixes:

You Do not Fool Me - In 1996, more than a dozen official remixes, including David Richards, the co-producers of the album appeared, and Jam & Spoon.
It's a Beautiful Day - An unofficial remix originally by Ross Robertson and DJ Koma (2005 ) was used in the "Queen Paul Rodgers " concerts along with Eminem's song Lose Yourself as an intro.

, Queen' live interpretations there are of Too Much Love Will Kill You ( see above) and I Was Born to Love You ( Japan concerts of "Queen Paul Rodgers ", 2005).

Numerous solo versions exist of Made in Heaven, I Was Born to Love You ( Freddie Mercury ), Heaven for Everyone ( The Cross ) and Too Much Love Will Kill You ( Brian May ).

Chart positions

In the charts, the album Made in Heaven reached the following placements:

# 1 - Denmark ( 2 × platinum), Germany (2 × platinum ), Finland (platinum ), United Kingdom ( 4 × platinum ), Italy ( 6 × platinum), The Netherlands ( 2 × platinum ), Poland ( gold ), Portugal ( 3 × platinum), Austria (2 × platinum ), Sweden, Switzerland (3 × platinum ), Spain ( 2 × platinum).
# 2 - France (2 × platinum ), Norway ( Gold).
# 10 - Japan ( platinum).
# 58 - U.S. ( gold).
#? - Argentina ( Platinum ), Australia (platinum ), Belgium ( platinum), Hong Kong (platinum ), Canada ( platinum), New Zealand (3 × platinum ), Singapore ( gold ), South Africa (platinum ), South Korea (platinum ), Czech Republic ( 2 × platinum).

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