Selections may at first seem odd (Why not go with the standard UK or US releases with well-known track listings?). Well, singles from AKOM, Innuendo, and MIH eras featured previously released hits (“Seven Seas Of Rhye,” “Killer Queen,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” etc.) in those territories. These suggested Discs are from original releases from other territories and selecting them means there are no doubles of songs. No one wants to drop $100 on a set where they already have three, four or five of the same songs already.
Here goes…
Singles Box 3 (Suggestions)
Disc 1
“It’s A Hard Life”
“Is This The World We Created…?”
Disc 2
“Hammer To Fall (Headbanger’s Mix Edit)”
“Tear It Up”
*Skipping “Thank God It’s Christmas” in order to free up tracks later. Besides, including it means issuing the entire Works album. Bear with me, it’ll make sense later.
Disc 3
“The Show Must Go On”
“Keep Yourself Alive” *
* I don’t how to get around including TSMGO and not ending up with at least one previously released track. Any ideas…? My other thoughts are: a) it skip TSMGO entirely, b) replace KYA with the “Queen Talks” track and note it’s the edited version of the 12QUEENSG19 UK 12” single, but that’s not in keeping with the “original singles” idea.
Disc 4
“Bohemian Rhapsody” *
“These Are The Days Of Our Lives”
*See what I mean by doubles? The US release of TATDOAL has “Bijou” as the b-side, so substituting that for “Rhapsody” doesn’t really solve anything. And I looked, every “Innuendo” single has “Bijou” too, so there are no subs for that, except the 1-track US Promo CD single.
Disc 5 (from the US-only cassette single)
“Somebody To Love (Queen And George Michael)”
“Love Of My Life (Live At Rock In Rio)”
Disc 6 (from the UK cassette single)
“Heaven For Everyone (Single Version)”
“It’s A Beautiful Day (Single Version)”
Disc 7
“A Winter’s Tale”
“Thank God It’s Christmas” *
*Here’s the payoff to not including the 1984 TGIC single. All other AWT singles have other ‘70s hits (and hence, doubles).
Disc 8 (from the US CD and cassette single) *
“Too Much Love Will Kill You”
“Rock In Rio Blues (US Single Version)”
*I guess this would constitute simply re-issuing the US CD single, but I see no other way around “News Of The World” era tracks on the UK releases.
Disc 9
“Let Me Live”
“Fat Bottomed Girls”*
* This is the album version, not the single version previously issued in Box 1. However, the alternative is not bad either: simply include the CDQUEEN24 single, which had the BBC tracks. I can live with either.
Disc 10 (from the UK cassette single)
“You Don’t Fool Me”
“You Don’t Fool Me (Dancing Divas Club Mix)” *
*There’s no way to avoid a YDFM remix (unless you simply had a 1 track single, which seems a little cheap to me), but at least there’s only one [and one of the better ones]).
Disc 11
“No One But You (Only The Good Die Young)”
“Gimme The Prize (Instrumental Remix for ‘The eYe’)”
Disc 12
“Under Pressure (with David Bowie) (Rah Mix Radio Edit)”
“Under Pressure (with David Bowie) (Mike Spencer Mix)”
“Under Pressure (Knebworth Mix)”
Disc 13 *
“C-lebrity”
“Fire And Water (Live In Japan)”
* Ideally, they could also include “The Show Must Go On (Live In Japan)” and thus recreate the iTunes Exclusive Bundle single, which never saw a physical release.
It's a nice idea, but this stuff seems lame to me.Those singles were released, re-released, sold, re-sold like a quadrillion times.You need to add a spark to it.There should definitely be some eye-catchers in the box, like new and "officially unreleased" mixes as bonuses.Maybe even some more or less complete demos in a better quality. I know it would cross a line between Single and a rarity a little bit, but would create more attraction, for sure.
These singles boxes are just ridiculous attempts to cash in on the die-hard fans who are crazy enough to buy everything Queen productions releases; there's no reason why any casual fan or even any big fan with a brain would buy these things. If you want to buy the same songs for the millionth time go right ahead, but I'm not going to waste my time and money.
rhyeking wrote:
“Suggested” Singles Box 3 & 4
Selections may at first seem odd (Why not go with the standard UK or US releases with well-known track listings?). Well, singles from AKOM, Innuendo, and MIH eras featured previously released hits (“Seven Seas Of Rhye,” “Killer Queen,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” etc.) in those territories. These suggested Discs are from original releases from other territories and selecting them means there are no doubles of songs. No one wants to drop $100 on a set where they already have three, four or five of the same songs already.
Here goes…
Not sure where you got that idea - it certainly runs contrary to QPL release policy.
Bear in mind that the reason you need to avoid doubles is because, with GH1 & AKOM riding high in the album charts, they stuck old singles on current singles.
It's been going on for over 20 years, so why you'd think they'd want to avoid it now is a bit of a mystery, frankly.
(and I don't expect them to end a set with the first single from an album - Innuendo will be the start of set 4)
I don't want to get into "Why" they're issuing the boxes. They are and we either buy them or we don't.
It's exactly because of the reasons you note that I hope they don't repeat and double up tracks. I did this as an exercise in "What would I do if I were in charge?" (Let's not turn this into a "If I were in charge I'd release [X] and not bother with these!" thread...it's all been said before.)
As for splitting up an album's singles over different boxes: I wasn;t really worried about that, I just want to get as many different songs in there as I could. They already cut The Works tracks between two boxes, so this isn't all that bizaare.
I think the issue of having repeat tracks cannot really be avoided. Some of the things you listed also will not happen. Ie. US Version of Princes. Mainly due to the fact it had no picture sleeve as far as I am aware. If this gets in I am pretty sure it will the the Australian version. I also think Thank God it's Christmas will get in. And assuming they don;t get too worried about box 3 containing too many magic singles then One Year of Love may make it in as well. Probbaly the French version.
USA Princes of the universe single did have a picture sleeve, it is quite similar to the european A kind of magic sleeve. Another reason why they won't use the USA version I think. Besides that, I hope they will use the Australian sleeve of POTU only because it is one of the most beautiful Queen singles sleeves released.