Made in Heaven
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is about the Queen album. Made in Heaven is also the name of a documentary about the recording of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis's album Kind of Blue and the name of the 1987 film Made in Heaven starring Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis.
| Made in Heaven | ||
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| Studio album by Queen | ||
| Released | 6 November 1995 | |
| Recorded | 1980 – 1995 | |
| Genre | Rock,Pop rock | |
| Length | 70:21 (CD) | |
| Label | Parlophone, Hollywood Records (US) | |
| Producer(s) | Queen | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Queen chronology | ||
| Live At Wembley '86 (1992) |
Made in Heaven (1995) |
Queen Rocks (1997) |
Made in Heaven is Queen's final studio album, released in November 1995. After Freddie Mercury's death in 1991, the remaining band members John Deacon, Roger Taylor and Brian May worked with Mercury's pre-recorded vocals to create the last Queen album with all four members having contributed. The album debuted at #1 in the United Kingdom, and would go four times platinum there, making it Queen's best selling studio album ever in the UK. The album peaked at #58 in the US, going gold.
Contents |
[edit] History
The album was recorded in a way very different from Queen's other original studio albums. In 1991, months before his death, Freddie Mercury recorded as many vocals as he could, with the instruction to the rest of the band to complete the songs later. By all accounts, he recorded until he was physically unable to do so. Put to tape during this time was primarily "A Winter's Tale", "Mother Love" and what would become "You Don't Fool Me".
After his death, the band returned to the studio in 1993 to begin work finishing the tracks. Brian May has described in interviews that Taylor and Deacon had begun some work in 1992, while May was on tour promoting his Back to the Light album. Upon his return in 1993, May felt they were not on the right path with the music and that they more or less started from scratch with the three of them working together with producer David Richards.
On the Made In Heaven video documentary, May described these sessions with Mercury as so:
| “ | By the time we were recording these other tracks after Innuendo, we had had the discussions and we knew that we were totally on borrowed time because Freddie had been told that he wouldn't make it to that point. So our plan was to just make use of him as much as possible, we basically lived in the studio for a while and when he would call and say 'I can come in for a few hours,' our plan was to just make as much use of him as we could, you know he told us 'Get me to sing anything, write me anything and I will sing it and I will leave you as much material as I possibly can. | ” |
With less than an album's worth to work with, the band decided to revisit previously recorded material. Whether Mercury had any input before his death as to which songs might be considered for this purpose has not been discussed by the band as of yet. The idea was to take existing songs on which Mercury sang and rework them as Queen songs. Song by song, the process and origin is described below in the "Song's story" section.
[edit] Track listing
- "It's a Beautiful Day" (Mercury) - 2:32
- "Made in Heaven" (Mercury) - 5:25
- "Let Me Live" (Mercury/Taylor) - 4:45
- "Mother Love" (May, Mercury) - 4:49
- "My Life Has Been Saved" (Deacon) - 3:15
- "I Was Born to Love You" (Mercury) - 4:49
- "Heaven for Everyone" (Taylor) - 5:36
- "Too Much Love Will Kill You" (May/Musker/Lamers) - 4:20
- "You Don't Fool Me" (Mercury/Taylor) - 5:24
- "A Winter's Tale" (Mercury) - 3:49
- "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)" (Mercury) - 3:01
- "Yeah" (Queen) - 0:04
- "Untitled" (Queen) - 22:32
On the album "It's A Beautiful Day", "My Life Has Been Saved", "You Don't Fool Me" and "A Winter's Tale" are credited to "Queen".
[edit] It's a Beautiful Day
"It's a Beautiful Day" was a previously unreleased song written and recorded by Freddie Mercury at Musicland Studios in Munich, 1980 (Brian May details this fact, and that the song was originally simply titled "Beautiful Day", on his website). May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon kept Mercury's piano and voice and added guitars, drums, bass and programmed synths. The oboe part was Deacon's idea.
[edit] Made in Heaven
"Made in Heaven" was a track from Mercury's solo career, appearing on his album Mr. Bad Guy in 1985. Taylor, May and Deacon reworked it (over Mercury's piano and vocals) to make it a Queen track.
[edit] Let Me Live
"Let Me Live", according to some sources, was started off by Rod Stewart in 1976. According to others, it was begun in 1983 as part of a jam he'd got with the band. It is true that Queen jammed with Jeff Beck and Stewart that year (there are photos proving it as well as an interview with Roger Taylor in 1984), but it hasn't been confirmed if Let Me Live actually started off then. Once finished in 1995 for Made In Heaven, Queen made one 11th hour change to the song to avoid legal action. Part of the backing vocals featured a lyric too closely resembling Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart". It is not known if Queen took it upon themselves to make the change pre-emptively or if their record company told them to do so. Ultimately, the potentially problematic bit was mixed out and the track was released. Promo cassettes from the USA feature the unaltered backing track. Early Mexican and Dutch CD pressings are reported to have this alternate version as well.
[edit] Mother Love
"Mother Love" was the last song Freddie Mercury recorded and co-wrote with Brian May, who on his website discussed the writing process he and Mercury had (writing both separately and together, and conscious of the nature of the song and the lyrics). May sang the last verse since Mercury wasn't able to do it. May plays a Parker Fly guitar throughout the entire song.[citation needed] May's usual suspect, his Red Special guitar makes its only appearance at the 1:26 mark of the song in which a power chord and short melody swim underneath the verse. The song features a sample from a live sing along session recorded at Queen's famous 1986 concert at Wembley Stadium and a sample from "One Vision", assumedly recorded at the same concert. It also features a sample from a cover of "Goin' Back", a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, which Mercury had provided lead vocals for in 1972. The cover was released as a B-Side to "I Can Hear Music", a Beach Boys cover, by Larry Lurex (a pseudonym for Freddie Mercury), not long before the release of Queen's debut album. There is also a sample from the introduction of "One Vision," from the 1986 album, "A Kind of Magic" and a sample of an unknown Queen track being 'jogged' in reverse (probably Bohemian Rhapsody), in which can be heard Mercury's vocals and May's guitar.
[edit] My Life Has Been Saved
"My Life Has Been Saved" was composed by John Deacon in 1987-1988. Producer David Richards helped him out doing the demo and the keyboards, then Mercury sang on it, and later on the entire band recorded it. The Made In Heaven version is different to the 1989 one (which originally featured as the B-side to the single Scandal), although it used the same vocals from Mercury.
[edit] I Was Born to Love You
"I Was Born to Love You" was originally recorded (piano, vocals, synths) by Mercury on 25th May 1984, for his Mr. Bad Guy album, as a late addition (when told by the record company that the album needed "a single"). May, Taylor and Deacon reworked it and added their instruments. That track became popular in Japan during 2004 when it was used for the theme song of a television drama named Pride (プライド). This version also contains samples of Mercury's ad-lib vocals from "A Kind of Magic", from the 1986 album of the same name.
[edit] Heaven for Everyone
"Heaven for Everyone" was a track Roger Taylor wrote and tried out with Queen in 1986, although according to some sources it was written with Joan Armatrading in mind to sing it. Whether or not she turned it down or Taylor withdrew his song is unclear but it was recorded for The Cross (his other band, where he was lead singer and rhythm guitarist instead of drummer). One night Mercury came to visit The Cross at the studio and after some drinks he gave them ideas of how to sing the song and ended up recording the lead vocals for it. Mercury appeared on the UK version of their album 'Shove it' as guest lead vocalist on the song, with Taylor doing backing vocals. The roles were reversed on the single and the American 'Shove It' version. Mercury's vocals were then used for the Made In Heaven release, with a couple of different lines and May singing backing vocals instead of Taylor, with producer David Richards adding several arrangement ideas.
[edit] Too Much Love Will Kill You
"Too Much Love Will Kill You" was composed by Brian May, Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers sometime between the Magic and Miracle sessions. They wrote it in the US and Freddie Mercury sang on it. However, there were some problems with the companies representing publishing rights for Musker and Lamers so they couldn't release the song properly in The Miracle. At the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert May played the song on piano and sang it for the first time in public, and then released it as part of his solo album Back to the Light. The Queen version is a new arrangement. The guitar solo used differs from the one on May's album, however May played the Made In Heaven solo in live renditions as early as 1992.
[edit] You Don't Fool Me
"You Don't Fool Me" was one of the last tracks recorded for Made In Heaven and came about in a most unusual way. May has explained (again, on his website) that producer for the band, David Richards, more or less created the framework of the song singlehandedly, building from bits of lyrics recorded just before Mercury's death. May has said that before Richards' work, there was no song to speak of. However, after Richards edited and mixed the song (including a bit of harmonies recorded for "A Winter's Tale") he presented it to the band. May, Taylor and Deacon then added their instruments and backing vocals and were surprised to end up with a finished song that had begun as nothing. The style of the song harks back to(that is to say, is reminiscent of) their 1982 album Hot Space, and a comment over that featured on their Greatest Hits III album led many fans (especially the ones not fluent in English) to believe it came from those sessions.
[edit] A Winter's Tale
"A Winter's Tale" is the last song Mercury composed entirely ("Mother Love"'s music is by Brian May). He did the vocals and keyboards for it and completed the last verse around two weeks before he died.
[edit] It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)
A more rocking version of It's A Beautiful Day, that is the same in the beginning but later turns into rock. It contains samples from "Seven Seas of Rhye".
[edit] Yeah
"Yeah" is the ending of "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)". It is possibly sampled from the track "Action This Day" from the band's 1982 album Hot Space or from "Don't Try Suicide" (The Game).
[edit] Untitled
"Untitled Hidden Track" (Track 13) was an experiment by producer David Richards with an Ensoniq ASR13 sampler. He took the opening chords of 'It's A Beautiful Day' and made them loop, and then added Mercury's voice through strange echoes. May and Taylor also added some ideas to the song. This track is only available on the CD edition of the album and the aforementioned promo cassettes. The LP (vinyl) and standard cassettes of the album end with the shortened "It's A Beautiful Day (Reprise)", fading out after the second "Yeah" (Track 12 on the CD), where this Untitled track would continue on. In addition, the Untitled track is not available for separate purchase at any online music store.
Track 13 created a good deal of surprise and confusion among fans, given its ambient musical nature and its sheer length, neither of which have much precendent in Queen's catalogue. The album's last listed track (all formats) is track 11: "It's A Beautiful Day (Reprise)". After the crescendo at the end of this track, Freddie Mercury is heard loudly saying "Yeah!", which at four seconds long comprises the entire Track 12. Fans took to calling this track by that very monosyllabic name. The ambient music underneath this track continues into the mysterious "Untitled" Track 13, which ebbs and flows for another twenty-two-plus minutes. Two schools of thought emerged amongst fans. One was that these were to be considered not only separate tracks, but separate "songs". The second was that tracks 11, 12 and 13 were all one song ("It's A Beautiful Day [Reprise]") and that the splitting of it was a deliberate tongue-in-cheek gesture by the band. Initially, the band were content to maintain the air of mystery around Track 13. Over time, May has discussed it and shed a bit more light on it, such as the aforementioned creation by David Richards and the subsequent involvement by himself and Taylor. Musically, the three tracks (11, 12 and 13) can be played without interruption as a single twenty-five minute piece (and the listener wouldn't notice the track changes twice in four seconds unless they were watching the counter display).
[edit] Miscellaneous
In the video game, Resident Evil, the design on the back of Chris's alternate costume is a reference to the album. Other references to the album appear in Resident Evil 2, Code Veronica and Resident Evil 0. In Resident Evil 2, the 'Made in Heaven' design is also seen on the back of Claire's vest. In Resident Evil: Code Veronica, the back of Claire's jacket reads "Let Me Live", the third track off 'Made in Heaven'. In Resident Evil 0, Billy's tattoo reads "Mother Love", the fourth track off 'Made in Heaven'. Fans of the series use these occurrences to justify the theory that there must be a hidden group of Queen fans working for Capcom. "Made in Heaven" is also considered by some to be a reference to the fact that the album was released after the death of Freddie Mercury.
[edit] Personnel
- Freddie Mercury – vocals, piano, keyboards
- John Deacon – bass guitar, keyboards
- Roger Taylor – drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals
- Brian May – guitars, keyboards, vocals
- Extra vocals in Let Me Live: Rebecca Leigh-White, Gary Martin, Catherine Porter, Miriam Stockley
- David Richards – co-production, engineering and mixing supervision
- Justin Shirley-Smith - co-production and engineering
- Joshua J. Macrae - co-production and engineering
- Mack - recording of additional material in the 80s
- Kevin Metcalfe – mastering
- Richard Gray – artwork, cover photograph of Irena Sedleckas Mercury sculpture in Montreaux
[edit] Charts
| Country | Charts | Sales | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak position | Weeks | Certification | ||
| United Kingdom | 1 | 25 | Platinum (x4) | 1.500.000 |
| Germany | 1 | Platinum (x3) | 1.500.000 | |
| Italy | 1 | Platinum (x6) | 1.000.000 | |
| France | 2 | Platinum (x2) | 690.000 | |
| United States | 58 | Gold | 500.000 | |
| Japan | 10 | Platinum | 330.000 | |
| Spain | 1 | Platinum (x2) | 290.000 | |
| Holland | 1 | Platinum (x2) | 250.000 | |
| Switzerland | 1 | Platinum (x3) | 150.000 | |
| Portugal | 1 | Platinum (x3) | 120.000 | |
| Austria | 1 | Platinum (x2) | 100.000 | |
| Denmark | Platinum (x2) | 100.000 | ||
| Canada | Platinum | 100.000 | ||
| Australia | Platinum | 70.000 | ||
| Poland | Platinum | 70.000 | ||
| New Zealand | Platinum (x3) | 55.000 | ||
| Finland | 1 | Platinum | 50.000 | |
| Argentina | Platinum | 40.000 | ||
| Hong Kong | Platinum | 40.000 | ||
