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By the way, this week Queen's Greatest Hits climbed to it's highest 5th position in Billboard's POP Catalog chart during the whole 556 wks chartrun (before the musical the highest position was only 11! when it was opened - 6 and now 5). It seems musical brings Queen to US masses again:) link
That's cool. It should be noted that 'Greatest Hits' in the 'pop catalog' chart is the 1992 version. Still nice to see that something of Queen's is a top seller in the U.S.
The inclusion of 'I Want to Break Free', which really didn't belong on that disc to begin with (I'm responsible for that actually) may have helped sales in recent weeks thanks to the C2 commercial.
It's a long story but basically I had written to Hollywood in regards to different versions of 'Break Free'. Following my letter they obtained the single mix from Queen which they previously didn't know existed so in their reply letter they said they'd received it and would include it on the forthcoming Greatest Hits.
Therefore if I hadn't written, chances are slim to none that they'd consider the song for their little hit collections.
They were quite clueless about single versions, which is why 'One Vision' is a wacky Hollywood-made edit rather than the original version on 'Classic Queen', and why 'Flash' was excluded, and why they had to re-edit Fat Bottomed Girls when they redubbed the video. But it was Queen Productions' fault for not giving them all the necessary info about stuff.
deleted user 09.10.2004 11:40
I guess Queen should deserve the respect they deserve here in America. Even Freddie said that they love the American audience, they just don't know if the American audience loves them. Some of the kids here are slowly liking the music of Queen, but only the hard rocking ones. I just wonder what will happen if they heard Millionare's Waltz, or Good old Fashioned Lover Boy. They might deem the songs too fag. Oh well...
The 1992 Greatest Hits CD is a ripoff if you have the Gold or Platinum Collections. I have The Platinum Collection(all three UK Greatest Hits albums) and sounds WAY better than the US GH. The new issue of GH the We Will Rock You Edition is the 1981 UK GH collection.
Queen's album sales in the US:
Queen I: 500,000(went Gold in 1977)
Sheer Heart Attack: 500,000 copies(went Gold in 1975)
ANATO: 3,000,000(Gold in 1976, Triple Platinum in 2002)
ADATR: 1,000,000(Gold in 1976, Platinum in 2002)
NOTW: 4,000,000(Platinum in 1977, Quadruple Platinum in 2002)
Jazz: 1,000,000(Platinum in 1978)
Live Killers: 2,000,000(Gold in 1979, Double Platinum in 2002)
The Game: 4,000,000(Platinum in 1980, Quadruple Platinum in 2002)
Flash Gordon Sdtk: 500,000(Gold in 2002)
GH(Elektra issue): 1,000,000(Platinum in 1981)
Hot Space: 500,000(Gold in 1982)
The Works: 500,000(Gold in 1984)
AKoM: 500,000(Gold in 2002)
Innuendo: 500,000(Gold in 1991)
Classic Queen: 3,000,000(Platinum in 1992 and Triple Platinum in 2002)
Live at Wembley: 1,000,000(Platinum in 1999)
GH(Hollywood issue): 7,000,000(Platinum in 1992 and Septuple Platinum in 2002)
MIH: 500,000(Gold in 1996)
GH I and II: 1,000,000(Platinum in 2000)
Innuendo: 500,000(Gold)
Queen II BOMBED big time in the US and is the least selling of the Queen studio albums. Americans were too busy enjoying Terry Jacks and John Denver to buy Queen II. Queen II's sales didn't really jump up at all even after Opera sold huge!