Best of three (The Platinum Collection: Greatest Hits I, II & III - Queen)

Member Name: jimoth

Product:	The Platinum Collection: Greatest Hits I, II & III - Queen
Date:	19/06/08 (481 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So many favourites pack into one collection, value for money

Disadvantages: Choosing a favourite can be tricky

One of my all time favourite rock bands simply has to be Queen. It will come as no surprise then that I have Queen's Platinum Collection sitting proudly in my CD collection. Queen probably hold the standard to that of which the rest of my CD collection ranks against as Queen possibly were one of the first bands I ever listened too when I was younger.

Platinum Collection brings together the three Greatest Hits albums that Queen released over the years all bundled in to one double CD set. I originally paid around £17.00 for this collection in HMV in 2002. You can now pick this up for £11.99 at hmv.com and play.com for £9.99.

This set comprises an amazing 51 songs. In a change to my album reviews I will not talk about all 51 tracks, as this is a collection more than a single album this would an incredibly long and tedious review. So the tracks on each album are as follows:

Greatest Hits 1, pre 1981 (original release 1981)

Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites The Dust, Killer Queen, Fat Bottomed Girls, Bicycle Race, You're My Best Friend, Don't Stop Me Now, Save Me, Crazy Little, Thing Called Love, Somebody Too Love, Now I'm Here, Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, Play The Game, Flash, Seven Seas Of Rhye, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions

Greatest Hits 2, 1981-1991 (original release 1991)

A Kind Of Magic, Under Pressure, Radio Ga Ga, I Want It All, I Want To Break Free, Innuendo, It's A Hard Life, Breakthru, Who Wants To Live Forever, Headlong, The Miracle, I'm Going Slightly Mad, The Invisible Man, Hammer To Fall, Friends Will Be Friends, The Show Must Go On, One Vision

Greatest Hits 3, 1991-1999 (original release 1999)

The Show Must Go On (Queen and Elton John), Under Pressure (Queen and David Bowie), Barcelona (Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe), Too Much Love Will Kill You, Somebody To Love (George Michael and Queen), You Don't Fool Me, Heaven For Everyone, Las Palabras De Amor, Driven By You (Brian May), Living On My Own (Freddie Mercury), Let Me Live, The Great Pretender (Freddie Mercury), Princess Of The Universe, Another One Bites The Dust (Queen and Wyclef Jean), No-One But You, These Are The Days Of Our Lives, Thank God It's Christmas

~ The bit where I talk about the tracks ~

There are a lot of songs here, so giving you a single favourite is simply not possible, especially as I am always changing my mind. So I will instead tell you about the ones that really stand out in this collection. Many of you will have heard of the classics such as We Will Rock You (on this album it is the short version), We Are The Champions and the rest but for the people less interested in Queen there are some classics you might not have known Queen made, especially (like me) you are not of that era.

The one thing Queen will me remembered for most will be Freddie mercury's amazing singing, Brian May's Amazing Guitar style and the amazing brave way Queen generally just went for it. Therefore a lot of there music is quite unique in my view. Radio Ga Ga was one of the fun tunes they released along with I'm Going Slightly Mad (in fact this song sums me up beautifully). In fact most of the funny sounding tunes (including back chat in the songs from band members) is on the Greatest Hits 2 album. The Show Must Go On is another classic I like even with the airplay it still gets these days (along with a lot of the other classics).

All three albums tell a different mini era for Queen. This is undoubtedly clear if you compare the albums. Possibly my favourite track right now from Greatest Hits 1 has to be Fat Bottomed Girls. If there was ever a song made to shift a few extra singles it is little number. I never fully understood how they got away with the video for this album, nude girls on bikes, not really leaving much to the imagination. I Want To Break Free is currently top as my favourite song on Greatest Hits 2. Some great little odd beats interspersed with some great lyrics well sung by Freddie. The later album (Greatest Hits 3) includes some superb collaboration of earlier classics and live songs (in my view Queen sound best on tracks recorded live) along with newer solo material. I think of all three albums this one is my favourite as it provides a range of different talents so the sound changes without loosing much of that Queen vibe. The version of Under Pressure with David Bowie is not to be missed, it sounds so great and so funny at the same time, all in all this is a good laugh. Also from this album Another One Bites The Dust with Wyclef Jean is great, possibly better than the original but I am sure some people might disagree with me. However my favourite track is These Are The Days Of Our Lives, excellent piece of music and sublime lyrics.

I am sure Queen will be enjoyed for generations of music fans to come. In fact of my 18 years on this planet I only remember Barcelona from the selection of songs actually being in the charts. This was due to the fact that I heard it constantly throughout a 1992 holiday to Florida, I was only a mere eight at the time couples with the fact it was the official song for the 1992 Olympics. This song a real uplifting piece and is already an all time classic. So I guess I would be classed the next generation after Queens's era of music.

~ Useful information ~

Queen are Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. Managed by Jim Beach. Published on EMI Records Ltd and sound is owned by Queen Publications Ltd.

The Queen website is: www.queenonline.com and the Queen International Fan Club can be found by writing too: The Old Bakehouse, 16a Barnes High Street, London SW13 9LW

The Queen musical We Will Rock You is currently playing in London's West End, I recommend you go and see this, I have and it is great fun, an excuse to play some of Queens best known tunes. Visit: http://wewillrockyou.queenonline.com/ for more information.

~ Finally ~

I have enjoyed listening to all three albums time and time again and I may try for the back catalogue one of these days. With around three and a half hours of music there is plenty of value for money. If there was one album I would take on a desert island with me it would be this, well technically this is three albums but who is counting.

This review may also be found on my account on Ciao under username eljimbob.

© James Robert Ellerby 2008

Summary: 51 tracks, three greatest hits albums, no weak links