Greatest Hits III

by

Queen

Edit

Even though all of us Queen fans would be more interested in having some new stuff from some Freddie's unreleased tunes, or new recordings from the other three guys, it's always great to have some Queen material on the charts again. GH3 presents a collection of Freddie's ecclectic singing style (The Great Pretender, Living On My Own, Barcelona and Princes of Universe) that is reasonable to include in this CD to introduce him to new fans. For the old fans like me, The Show Must Go On version with Elton is very poignant and strong. Under Pressure (Queen+Bowie) surely is much better than the original recording (thanks Brian and Roger), and I have to mention that Somebody To Love with George Michael sounds really great. This CD has also a handful of songs from "Made in Heaven", that I consider one of the best Queen's work.

Once again, Hollywood records demonstrates their GREAT common sense by releasing yet another Queen compilation that at first glance, appears to be totally unneccesary. First, this isn't even a 'hits' collection, the only true hit here is Queen+ George Michael's 'Somebody to Love', so the name 'Greatest Hits' is misleading, even with the 'Queen+' moniker tacked on.

However, this collection definitley grows on the Queen fan. It's an odds and ends collection of Queen with guests (Elton John with a great, and very recent performance of 'The Show Must Go On', and a rather unneccesary rap mix of Another One Bites the Dust), a remix here and there (the 'Rah Mix' of Under Pressure is simply outstanding, blows the original away), long-forgotten album track-treasures(Las Palabras del Amor, Princes of the Universe) and the best of the solo projects Freddie and Brian had done (but no Roger.. why?), a couple of the best cuts from Made in Heaven, plus the new song that was sorely misplaced on Queen Rocks(No one but You).

This collection is great for people who are interested in getting some of Queen's loose ends. Brian May's solo work was great at best but quite uneven, and Freddie's original (and excellent) Mr. Bad Guy LP is long gone, replaced by a bastardized 'the Great Pretender', thank you again, Hollywood Records. It's also worth picking up because 'Princes of the Universe' and 'Las Palabras del Amor' aren't available elsewhere save on the original albums (and save yourself the pain of buying Hot Space).

This collection will definitley grow on you, but it's definitley not 'Greatest Hits', so if you're expecting a continuation of the other compilations, you're going to be sorely disappointed.