An Album A Day #23: Queen's INNUENDO [1991]
HERC's first memory of Queen's music is the day HERC SR. bought the "Bohemian Rhapsody" single home in 1975. The label had a butterfly on it and the grooves contained the most intricate rock music and vocals HERC had ever heard.
Thus began a lifelong love affair with the music of Queen culminating in the band's 20th Anniversary in 1991. To celebrate, the band's new label in America (Hollywood Records) was digitally remastering all of their previous albums and including remixes as bonus tracks on the CDs and HERC bought every disc as they were released. Leading the charge was Queen's latest album, their 14th: Innuendo along with the initial US single, the cheeky and rocking "Headlong".
The band was in fine form twenty years into their career, still rocking on that single. Brian May and Roger Taylor did all the publicity for the album and announced that they would not be touring because Freddie Mercury didn't want to be an "aging rocker" onstage. The album's next single in the States was the epic title track, inspired by Led Zeppelin's mighty "Kashmir".
The album was an immediate chart-topper across Europe yet only managed to hit #30 on the Top 200 in the States. To appeal to US listeners, "I Can't Live With You" was remixed to give it a more "poppy" sound and although it did manage to chart on the Mainstream Rock chart, the song like all of Innuendo's singles failed to make the Hot 100.
A suitably bonkers video was filmed to accompany "I'm Going Slightly Mad." The song is also notable for a rare Brian May slide guitar solo. Freddie Mercury looks noticeably gaunt in the video, causing rumors to swirl about his health while his bandmates publicly said their singer was doing fine. Spoiler alert: Freddie wasn't doing fine.
The fifth and final single released from Innuendo was the album's closing track, a beautiful declaration of carrying on in the face of insurmountable odds fittingly titled "The Show Must Go On". The moving and ultimately inspiring song has been the closing track on every Queen mixtape HERC has made since 1991. (And there have been quite a few.) The video for the song was comprised of clips from previous Queen videos over the last decade and was used to promote their Greatest Hits II collection which was released in October 1991.
Greatest Hits II featured four singles from Innuendo - only "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" was omitted. Mercury's untimely passing a little over a month after its release only fueled the already strong worldwide sales of Queen's music, especially their two greatest hits collections. While their music can be overly dramatic at times, ultimately their music brings nothing but happiness to HERC's ears when he listens. Innuendo is a definite all-time favorite.
Listen to Innuendo
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