Queen Innuendo

Unbeknownst to the public, Freddie Mercury had been diagnosed with the AIDS virus in the late '80s. Although his health weakened by the '90s, Mercury insisted that the band work on music until the very end; their final album turned out to be 1991's Innuendo…

Innuendo is the fourteenth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 5 February 1991 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and it is the band's first studio album to be released by Hollywood Records in the United States. Produced by David Richards and the band, it was the band's last album to be released in lead singer Freddie Mercury’s lifetime, and their most recent one to be composed of entirely new material. It reached the No. 1 spot on the UK album charts and stayed at that position for two weeks, and also peaked at No. 1 in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, staying at No. 1 for three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, and eight weeks, respectively. It was the first Queen album to go Gold in the US upon its release since The Works in 1984.

Sourced from the Original Master Tapes, Mastered By Bob Ludwig, Cut at Half-Speed at Abbey Road Studios, and Pressed at Optimal in Germany. Cut at Full Length as a Double LP for the First Time!
Queen's fourteenth studio album, and their first of the '90s, would prove to be the last album Freddie Mercury worked on, and yet also, despite his hugely deteriorating health, a work containing some of his most powerful and emotive vocal performances.

Innuendo is the fourteenth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 5 February 1991 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and it is the band's first studio album to be released by Hollywood Records in the United States. Produced by David Richards and the band, it was the band's last album to be released in lead singer Freddie Mercury’s lifetime, and their most recent one to be composed of entirely new material. It reached the No. 1 spot on the UK album charts and stayed at that position for two weeks, and also peaked at No. 1 in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, staying at No. 1 for three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, and eight weeks, respectively. It was the first Queen album to go Gold in the US upon its release since The Works in 1984.

Essentially, this 17-track album is a second-volume Queen's Greatest Hits, picking up the story from that album's 1981 release and taking it to the end of Queen's career. But the album also contains a few tracks - "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Keep Yourself Alive," and "Under Pressure" - that appeared on that first set, as well as a couple - "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Tie Your Mother Down" - from the same era. The remaining 12 tracks, culled from The Works, A Kind of Magic, The Miracle, and Innuendo, represent songs that were not big hits in the U.S. Nevertheless, with a resurgence of interest in Queen and the second coming of "Bohemian Rhapsody," courtesy of Wayne's World, this album returned Queen to platinum status and the U.S. Top Five for the first time since the early '80s.

With Queen officially enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Hollywood Records reintroduces the band yet again with the release of Platinum Collection, Vols. 1-3. While Vols. I & II are full of Queen classics you already know by heart, the third cobbles together odds and sods from the far corners of Queen's canon along with solo cuts from Freddie Mercury and Brian May…

Jewels has some great material on it. Not all Queen collections include tracks from Innuendo and Made in Heaven, as well as Night at the Opera. It's also nice to see "Radio Ga Ga" on the roster, a song that despite its wince-inducing title is actually one of the most beautiful odes to the medium ever written. The inclusion of so many newer tracks pushes a pretty big chunk of classics out of the job like "Fat Bottomed Girls," "Tie Your Mother Down," and "The Game," but it's a noble attempt. This EMI-licensed Japanese import does a decent job at trying to reign in the many phases of Queen.