I must say I prefer the Queen versions than solo ones. The only song which I don't particularly like is IWBTLY, which suffers from overproduction in my opinion. Made in Heaven - good song, quite anthemic, but I don't think it would have been a big hit at all. I doubt it would crack the Top 10. I remember thinking it sounded a bit obsolete too, strange as it may seem.
A mate and I attended that launch party at Hammersmith Odeon and IWBTLY was the ONLY track that came across as though the band could have been in the room playing it - absolutely sensational with, again, beautifully recorded drums; the snare is a joy!
[QUOTE] [b]dudeofqueen wrote:[/b]
A mate and I attended that launch party at Hammersmith Odeon and IWBTLY was the ONLY track that came across as though the band could have been in the room playing it - absolutely sensational with, again, beautifully recorded drums; the snare is a joy![/QUOTE]
still got tshirt and bag, great day that was
It was here in Australia and did pretty well on the charts.
Michael is right it was meant to be the fifth single but they went with 'You Don't Fool Me' as it did pick up a lot of airplay.
It's a shame really as they did a really good job in turning an average Freddie song into a powerful Queen song. Not to mention that this song also had a rare promo video for it starring Freddie - it would have been perfect!
In the original video freddie is on stage singing the song in a theatre production - it would have been easy to add Brian, Roger and John by having them perform the song in the orchestra stalls and edit the footage together...oh well instead they went with those crappy BFI films...
>instead they went with those crappy BFI films...
I thought that was a nice idea actually - promoting the British film industry which needed all the help it could get at the time. I'd prefer that over a cobbled together DoRo shambles.
Except that they didn't make sense and weren't given any airplay by music TV. Apart from that, a major success!
dudeofqueen didn't say they were a major success, s/he just said s/he thought they were nice ideas.
I personally also like them, because it's different from watching the band performing the songs (yawn) or pretending to act (induce cringing).
I think having filmmakers interpret the songs is a nice idea but should never have taken the place of a normal promo video.
In that sense they failed and Let Me Live and You Don't Fool Me suffered because of it.
Chrisallstar, re:
>I think having filmmakers interpret the songs is a nice idea but should never have taken the place of a normal promo video.
Would you consider the promo for Innuendo to be a normal promo video? They were a success in giving film makers some exposure to a market that they previously might not have had access to. Maybe if they'd resurrected FM for the filming then we could have had your "normal promo video", but other than that we would have been given more DoRo chop and change montages as with The Show Must Go On and In My Defense - no thanks.
>In that sense they failed and Let Me Live and You Don't Fool Me suffered because of it.
Who / what failed? The films, Queen, the direrectors? Neither of the songs would have been a major chart hit (if that's what you're after) for the band as the market for their singles had dropped dramatically. The songs themselves (the actual product) failed as they didn't attract any 'buyers".
Innuendo video is totally different as it featured the band or images of the band and footage that somewhat went with the music. I've already suggested an interesting way that Bri, Rog and John could have edited themselves into the Made In Heaven Promo video that Freddie starred in.
Let Me Live could have been a performance video similar to NOBY as Brian and Roger both sing verses. Both of my suggestions would have resulted in increased airplay on music television.
Even now on Queen countdown programmes on Vh-1 or MTV 'Let Me Live' and 'You don't fool me' are never played and the reason is that that both have meaningless films attached to them. So in this regard they have failed to become proper promo videos as the songs are never "promoted" and that is down to the filmmaker and Queen.
Just because you may like art-house cinema doesn't mean that it's the right thing for a pop/rock promo video. A vide should successfully promote the single and the films created for these songs failed to do that.
i think that the five singles of MIH atre corrected chioces, but for me, not release vinyl singles for HFE and AWT was very strange
I think it's kinda interesting to consider song writer royalties. Both songs that Brian and Roger would have received solo writing credit (and therefore a bigger cheque) for if released as singles, both were. The two tracks the Freddie penned and therefore would have meant his estate got a bigger cheque as a result - weren't, aside from IWBTLY which was released only in Japan
Maybe this played an important role in deciding what was and wasn't going to be released. Not releasing what was the title track of the album, in any circumstance, would be an unexpected choice.
