What we know about Made In Heaven

For some this might be a re-hash, but I've been trying to do a bit of research into the making of the Made In Heaven album. Based on interviews I've read and heard, comments made by the band and others involved in Queen Productions, plus taking into account Brian and Roger touring in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995, this is what I've come up with:

In 1993, Roger and John started tinkering with the post-Innuendo tracks, but didn't get very far until Brian joined them in early 1994, after finishing the Back To The Light Tour. Roger was finishing his Happiness? album at this point too, so he either worked on both at the same time or there was a window after finishing H? and starting MIH in earnest with BM and JD. A 1998 Times interview says Brian spent 18 months working on MIH, which fits the timeline (Jan. 1994 to June 1995, approx.) It wasn't just a matter recording new backing tracks, but editing Freddie's vocals. It's also extremely unlikely that the three of them were together in the studio the entire time working. The latter 3rd of 1994 (till the end of Jan. 1995) had Roger on tour for Happiness?. 

It's A Beautiful Day
Freddie's Vocal & Piano recorded either 1979 or 1980 during The Game sessions.

Made In Heaven
Freddie's Vocal recorded the summer of 1984

Let Me Live
Freddie's Vocal recorded post-Innuendo 1991 (?)
Remixed in the fall of 1995, after the promo release of the album, to remove part of the chorus vocal (possibly because of it's similarity to the cover version of "Piece Of My Heart" by Big Brother And The Holding Company, but not having heard the original version, or knowing if the writers Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns would have any issue with a similarity in a line given how many similar lines appear in songs).

Mother Love
Freddie's Vocal recorded post-Innuendo 1991 (possibly the last FM vocal recorded)

My Life Has Been Saved
Freddie's Vocal recorded 1988 during The Miracle sessions

I Was Born To Love You
Freddie's Vocal recorded May 25th, 1984 for the Mr. Bad Guy sessions
"...It's magic!" line recorded in early 1986 for "A Kind Of Magic"
"I get so lonely..." line recorded the summer of 1985 for "Living On My Own"

Heaven For Everyone
Freddie's Vocal recorded between June and September 1987

Too Much Love Will Kill You
Recorded entirely in 1988 during The Miracle sessions (according to David Richards)

You Don't Fool Me
Freddie's Vocal "snippets" recorded post-Innuendo 1991
Assembled spring or summer of 1995 by David Richards before being completed by BM, RT and JD. Notably features some of choral vocals from "A Winter's Tale".

A Winter's Tale
Freddie's Vocal recorded post-Innuendo 1991 (one of the last songs he recorded; last song he wrote)

It's A Beautiful Day (Reprise)
"Yeah" recorded 1981 or 1982 for "Action This Day"
Ambient section mixed by David Richards, spring or summer of 1995, seemingly the last part of MIH recorded for the album

In one interview, David Richards says they recorded 4 tracks after Innuendo. He then corrects himself and says it was 5. It appears his original recollection was more accurate, unless I'm missing something (and I probably am, somewhere).

Thoughts...?

I heard, Let Me Live was recorded around 1983 (Freddie's voice told that too) and it was a duett with Rod Stewart during a fun-session between them.

I heard, Let Me Live was recorded around 1983 (Freddie's voice told
that too) and it was a duett with Rod Stewart during a fun-session
between them.

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Then worked on again in 1985 for the works, I think "another little piece of my heart" is on the handwritten track listing. could be another song though.

rhyeking wrote:

Let Me Live
Freddie's Vocal recorded post-Innuendo 1991 (?)

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Have my doubts on that, as never read anywhere Freddie´s vocals where recorded post-Innuendo.

In fact, have just checked Sebastian´s site and it goes like this:

http://sebastian.queenconcerts.com/f-lmlive.htm

"... Let Me Live was originally called Take Another Little Piece of My Heart, written for The Works album
(in fact, it was supposed to be the sixth track, sandwiched between Man on Fire and It's a Hard Life) and
demo'd with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck in Los Angeles.
Unofficially, it's been reported that all that was recorded then was a minute-and-a-half demo, which
contained Freddie's verse and chorus. For the 1995 version, the remaining band members rescued it and
turned it into a full-length song by adding two more verses (sung by Roger and Brian), a middle-eight and
a break."

I wasn't certain whether the vocal take used was from The Works era. It seems to be the case, given the conclusion drawn on the BD site. I always wasn't certain if it was a post-Innuendo recording, hence the "?" next to it. 

Thanks.

It's A Beautiful Day: AFAIK, it was part of the 1980 sessions (the ones that spawned Play the Game and others) not the 1979 ones (Crazy Little Thing, Save Me, Sail Away Sweet Sister and Coming Soon).

Made In Heaven: Freddie's vocal and piano recorded in May 1984.

Let Me Live: 2nd September 1983 (IIRC).

Mother Love: May to October 1991.

My Life Has Been Saved: 1988 indeed.

I Was Born To Love You: Fred not only recorded vocals, but also piano.

"...It's magic!" line recorded in early 1986 for "A Kind Of Magic": Most likely, it was recorded in late 1985 (as they were working for 'Highlander' at The Townhouse and it was mostly finished by the end of the year).

Living on My Own was recorded between April and May 1984, so it was technically spring.

Heaven For Everyone: AFAIK, Shove It sessions were from August to December 1987.

Too Much Love Will Kill You:  Have you got the exact quote of what David said?

A Winter's Tale: May to October 1991.

Re: Too Much Love Will Kill You

From Rolling Stone (Germany), Dec. 1995 issue, interview with David Richards (thanks to Queen Archives.com)
***
Q: Was modern technology elementary to finish the album? or would it have been possible to complete the album also 10 years ago?

DR: Absolutely! Technology offers us the possibility to arrange songs new, but in this case we didn't arrange the songs new, so the recordings could have been done just as well ten years back with an analog recording machine. In fact "Too Much Love" was recorded on an analog recording machine. Brian wrote the song at a time when we were still using those machines, Freddie recorded it, cause he liked the song very much, but the track was never used, so " Too Much Love.." ended up on Brian's solo album. It's interesting to compare that one analog song to all the other digital MIH songs. The clearness in the analog recording is remarkable. It always takes us some time till we see where new technology takes us. We follow every technological revolution without knowing where it's heading.

Q. What does the band think about analog/digital recording?

DR: Roger called me yesterday, because I did an edit of "Too Much Love..." for a release in the USA. He asked: "what did
you do with that remix? it sounds AMAZING!" I told him it was maybe because it was an analog recorded song that gave that amazing impression.  
***

He notes several times that TMLWKY was an analogue recording, speaking about the entire track. I took this to mean it was basically Queen's original 1988 Miracle sessions recording, with little else added to it. To my ear (though I'm not a musician or a music expert, though I have experience and training in audio production) this is supported by the short Queen demo version leaked a while back and the Bell Boy Tape recordings, all of which use a similar arrangement for the backing track, notably the piano sound.

On a side note, as I said I've been reading a lot of these interviews and articles lately and it's amazingly frustrating how close the interviewees get to revealing what is for me the truly useful information, then go off on a different direction or dumb-down the response for the general public. If only DR above had gone a step further and said exactly when TMLWKY was recorded and whether all of it was used.

What  I wouldn't give for the opportunity to just sit down with BM, RT, JD and DR and just get all the details I'd love to know! I feel like an archaeologist, digging through scraps of information.

Sure, but the quote in question does NOT mention the year 1988 or 'The Miracle' sessions per se. It could've been done in a post-Magic pre-Miracle era, for instance.

AFAIK, Brian and co wrote the song in late 1986, which suggests at least some keyboards could come from that era. If he recorded MIDI's, then he probably just changed some stuff here and there but the original take(s) of the digital piano (that remain in the 1995 version) would come from '86, not '88.

As for Freddie's voice, there's a mystery... apparently, 'The Miracle' sessions went from January 1988 to January 1989, but who's to say they didn't try the song before or after that? Moreover, liner notes are often incomplete or incorrect (check 'Flash Gordon', for instance, or even 'A Kind of Magic').

I'm not saying it was not in 1988, I'm just entertaining the idea that it may have come previously. We'll probably never know.

Of course, and I agree, there is a lot of room for possibilities. My best guess is still just a guess, though I try to make it the best educated guess I can. And I post my "conclusions" here with the intention of opening exactly this kind of dialogue.

Thanks, too, for narrowing the details of the other songs.

It's been said (or implied?) that Brian was unhappy with the progress that they'd made without him, and basically they started it from scratch?

I heard and read a few similar things, Z, which I account for in noting that RT and JD started, but no real progress happened until BM finished the BTTL tour.

(Sorry for all the acronyms).

Also, I'm combing my notes trying to find where I got the June to Sept dates for the recording of Shove It. I want to say I got it from a long, detailed article about the formation and recording by The Cross (I did read such an article, no doubt there), but I can't find the article online now.

What's curious, if the August to Dec. dates are accurate, is that the band were releasing songs ("Cowboys And Indians" and "Love Lies Bleeding" Sept. 9th 1987) and doing TV appearances ( Meltdown TV show, Nov. 6th 1987, where they play 5 songs from the Shove It album) all while still recording the actual album, which is fairly uncommon (though Queen sort of did the same thing while recording The Game, so there's that...)

I have a magazine article somewhere which interviews Brian regarding the Made in Heaven recording sessions. He was far from happy at what Roger and John had started and basically they started again in a new direction.

I will try to find out the article if interested??

Sure, if you can find it, i'd love to read it. I know I've read similar statements few different times.

Was Freddie recording with The Cross, HFE?,

For me shove it vocals cames from A Kind Of Magic sessions, Roger and friends then recorded their instruments

Roger's comments for AG:

I was making a solo album, I think it was actually an album with  my band The Cross. And Freddie came down to visit in the studio  and he loved the song and he said, 'oh God, you’ve got  to let me sing that.' So he sang it and we got through a bottle of vodka, I think. And then eventually I think we, Brian and  I, we replaced a lot of it and we rerecorded it so it had rather  a long birth – a long and difficult birth. Freddie does  an amazing job on the vocal, I think. Originally, I had sung  this and when you then get Freddie Mercury to sing something  you’ve sung you just realise your limits and how much  further he could take something vocally.