Top 20 Classic Queen Tracks

By Wayne Madden /

12. These Are the Days of Our Lives

Released as a single in November 1991, the video for this song served as a final "farewell" opportunity for Mercury to address his fans. Extremely ill and having lost an incredible amount of weight in his final months, Mercury recorded the video with heavy light effects, several layers of make-up and in black and white. Taking heavy medication and in pain throughout, the video was recorded privately as both Brian May and Roger Taylor were in the US on a promotional tour to support the 'Innuendo' album release in the United States and the bands signing of a new deal with Hollywood Records. Rumours circulated after Mercury's death about the possibilities of Hollywood Records being legitimately entitled to sue Queen on breach of contract €“ especially for not disclosing Mercury's prior health concerns €“ before taking a massive advance. As it happens, Hollywood Records did not take legal action, being entitled to release the entire Queen back-catalog in America (the first major re-release of some of those albums in almost two decades), and subsequently a deal in Europe, plus a merger of Hollywood with Universal/Disney meant that those original Hollywood Records pressings are now something of a collector's item. For example in 1992 the album 'Classic Queen' was released with an almost-identical cover to 'Greatest Hits 2'. The album features a number of bonus tracks and omits some of Queen's hits from that period; most notably 'I Want To Break Free' because of the fury the track's video caused on MTV television.