I'm not sure in how far this is going to be of any interest, but I suppose there are many "trainspotter"-people like me out there who are into collecting song versions and who are even interested in minimal variations. Now there's one genuine variant song version I haven't seen noticed on the relevant sites so far. I'm talking about the version of "Happiness" Roger once performed at the Italian "Maurizio Constanzo Show" (January 1995, can anybody fill in the correct date, please?). It's a semi-live performance with Roger singing (quite beautifully) over a backing-track. Now the interesting thing is the backing-track itself, since it's not only an instrumental mix, but also a stand-version of the track that has never surfaced anywhere else to my knowledge. On the album of the same name the song segues right into "Revelations" and the single didn't offer a stand-alone version (as was the case with some Queen singles), but simply fades out at the end. The "Maurizio Constanzo"-version, however, has a "full" ending with Jason's final slide guitar-line culminating in some sort of looped noise effect. I think a video of this is available on the net.
Gerbert wrote: the single didn't offer a stand-alone version (as was the case with some Queen singles), but simply fades out at the end.
Wrong. Single version doesn't fade out, it finishes with the guitar sounds and it makes single version as stand-alone version. While version from Happiness EPK otherwise have extended 'fade out'.
Answering your question: show was on January 23rd and Jason was on the stage together with Roger, so... Though I ain't sure if he really played that.
Pim, Serry, you're right, the promo video has the same stand alone-version as performed on the Maurizio Constanzo Show (only difference being that the latter is an instrumental version). I overlooked that. Thanks.
However (in reply to Serry), I'm positive that the Happiness-single does NOT have a stand alone-version. When I say stand alone-version, I mean a version that is REALLY disentangled from the song it segues into (or segues from) on the album. Such a version must be specially prepared.
Now the version of Happiness that appeared on the single is identical to the album cut, except that it fades out very abruptly (but if you don't want to use the term "fade out" in this context you can just as well say "ends) before "Revelations" starts. But if you listen closely enough, you can even hear the first noises of the segue into "Revelations". They obviously didn't prepare a special stand alone-version for this one and it doesn't differ from the album cut in substance. The promo video version, however, DOES differ substantially, as the outro is, as you said yourself, notably extended.
However, I should probably pinpoint that I used the UK CD Single as reference and therefore can't rule out the possibility that other formats of the single have different versions (though I think that's highly unlikely). I used to have the coloured 7' but sold it a while ago (which I've come to regret, it being a really nice item), so I can't check. I never managed to get hold of the 12' pic disc, which seems to be quite scarce these days (presumably because it belongs to the group of collectables owners very rarely sell and even tend to keep when they dissolve most of their collection...no wonder, it's all a collector could desire. Beautiful Picture Disc and a bunch of great bonus tracks that can't be found on any other record).
PS: I know that Jason was on stage that day and no, he didn't play live.
"I mean a version that is REALLY disentangled from the song it segues into (or segues from) on the album. Such a version must be specially prepared."
Then yes, it's not stand-alone version. It's all depends on different standards of what is "different version" I guess (for instance: some people says that FBG from QR can be count as different version because of that famous error, others says it can't...).