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The Crown Jewels | 
 enlarge | Artist: Queen
Label: Hollywood Records
Category: Music
List Price: $135.98
Buy New: $81.98
You Save: $54.00 (40%)
New (28) Used (18) from $55.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 56897
Format: Box Set, Limited Edition
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 8
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.8 x 5.8
MPN: 162200
UPC: 720616220028
EAN: 0720616220028
ASIN: B00000DMUL
Publication Date: 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: * Limited Edition Velvet Package* BOX SETS ARE COSTLY * THAT'S WHY WE PACK 'EM RIGHT/SHIP 'EM RIGHT & KEEP YOU INFORMED WITH TRACKING INFO * PLEASE READ OUR FEEDBACK!
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Keep Yourself Alive - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Doing All Right - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Great King - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | My Fairy King - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Liar - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | The Night Comes Down - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll - Queen, Taylor, Roger | | • | Son & Daughter - Queen, May, Brian | | • | Jesus - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen, Mercury, Freddie |
Disc 2
| • | Procession - Queen, | | • | Father to Son - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | White Queen (As It Began) - Queen, May, Brian | | • | Some Day One Day - Queen, May, Brian | | • | The Loser in the End - Queen, Taylor, Roger | | • | Ogre Battle - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Nevermore - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | The March of the Black Queen - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Funny How Love Is - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen, Mercury, Freddie |
Disc 3
| • | Brighton Rock - Queen, Queen | | • | Killer Queen - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Tenement Funster - Queen, Queen | | • | Flick of the Wrist - Queen, Queen | | • | Lily of the Valley - Queen, Queen | | • | Now I'm Here - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | In the Lap of the Gods - Queen, Queen | | • | Stone Cold Crazy - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Dear Friends - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Misfire - Queen, Queen | | • | Bring Back That Leroy Brown - Queen, Queen | | • | She Makes Me - Queen, Queen | | • | In the Lap of the Gods Revisited - Queen, Queen |
Disc 4
| • | Death on Two Legs - Queen, Queen | | • | Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon - Queen, Mercury | | • | I'm in Love With My Car - Queen, Queen | | • | You're My Best Friend - Queen, Queen | | • | '39 - Queen, Queen | | • | Sweet Lady - Queen, Queen | | • | Seaside Rendezvous - Queen, Queen | | • | The Prophet's Song - Queen, Queen | | • | Love of My Life - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Good Company - Queen, Queen | | • | Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen, Queen | | • | God Save the Queen - Queen, Queen |
Disc 5
| • | Tie Your Mother Down - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | You Take My Breath Away - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Long Away - Queen, May, Brian | | • | The Millionaire Waltz - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | You and I - Queen, Deacon, John | | • | Somebody to Love - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | White Man - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Drowse - Queen, Taylor, Roger | | • | Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together) - Queen, May, Brian [1] |
Disc 6
| • | We Will Rock You - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | We Are the Champions - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Sheer Heart Attack - Queen, Taylor, Roger [1] | | • | All Dead, All Dead - Queen, May, Brian | | • | Spread Your Wings - Queen, Deacon, John | | • | Fight from the Inside - Queen, Taylor, Roger | | • | Get Down, Make Love | | • | Sleeping On The Sidewalk | | • | Who Needs You | | • | It's Late | | • | My Melancholy Blues |
Disc 7
| • | Mustapha - Queen, Mercury | | • | Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Jealousy - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Bicycle Race - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | If You Can't Beat Them - Queen, Deacon, John | | • | Let Me Entertain You - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Dead on Time - Queen, May, Brian | | • | In Only Seven Days - Queen, Deacon, John | | • | Dreamer's Ball - Queen, May, Brian | | • | Fun It - Queen, Taylor, Roger | | • | Leaving Home Ain't Easy - Queen, May, Brian | | • | Don't Stop Me Now - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | More of That Jazz - Queen, Taylor, Roger |
Disc 8
| • | Play the Game - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Dragon Attack - Queen, May, Brian [1] | | • | Another One Bites the Dust - Queen, Deacon, John | | • | Need Your Loving Tonight - Queen, Deacon, John | | • | Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Rock It - Queen, Taylor, Roger [1] | | • | Don't Try Suicide - Queen, Mercury, Freddie | | • | Sail Away Sweet Sister (To the Sister I Never Had) - Queen, May, Brian | | • | Coming Soon - Queen, Taylor, Roger [1] | | • | Save Me - Queen, May, Brian [1] |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 51 more reviews...
 Jewels need polish. October 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This box set of Queen did the band a couple huge favors. First, each album is presented in its original running order minus Hollywood Records moronic "Bonus Tracks." While the set is made up of the Elektra years studio albums, the dissapointing and and very unclassic Hot Space is left out, ending the series at The Game. Jazz includes the infamous Naked Bicycle Race poster (in minature). Each CD is in a cardboard case with a non-abrasive slip sleeve, all stored in a felt-covered box. There's also a good book insert, with lyrics, plenty of pics and a history.
Starting with the Queen debut, which contains a few of the elements that would eventually define the band, but is very much a generic early 70's Prog-rock/metal album. The pomp and grandiosity that would become Queen hallmarks are largely absent, however Freddy Mercury's distinct voice and Brian May's original guitar tones are in evidence throughout. The key tracks are "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Liar." The band has not quite gelled and the Queen everyone knows and loves emerged in full on the second album.
The difference between "Queen" and Queen II is really nothing short of amazing. While the first album was a pretty auspicious debut from a nervy prog-rock band, the second album comes off as a band thoroughly settled into its own personality and letting every idea flow free. Queen split the original album into a white and black half, with the white half dealing with the regal issues ("Procession" "White Queen As It Began") and the black being the harder rocking ("Ogre Battle" "March of The Black Queen"). You also get a clearer picture of the band's blueprint for extravagance (the really heavy vocal arrangements) along with Brian May's unique guitar sound. In my opinion - was the Queen album that had the best song-flow overall.
Queen rushed into the studio after "Queen II" when it became clear that Brian May (who had fallen ill) would be unable to tour for a spell. His sickness was our game, as Sheer Heart Attack was the album that gave Queen their first major American success with "Killer Queen," a flawless slice of trashy glam that featured Freddie Mercury's soaring falsetto and Brian May's wild guitar tones. "Sheer Heart Attack" contained a few other eye openers, one of which was Roger Taylor's first great Queen song, "Tenement Funster." "Stone Cold Crazy" is one of Queen's hardest rockers, yet right near that is the ragtime take on "Bring Back Leroy Brown."
"Sheer Heart Attack" previewed the crazy diversity that Queen would perfect on their next album, A Night at the Opera. This is the album that essentially defined Queen to an American Audience via the operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody," "A Night At The Opera" mixed all the grand elements of Queen's first three albums into one pastiche of glory. Each band member contributed songs and Roy Thomas Baker perfected his kitchen sink approach to production. From the simple Sci-Fi Ballad "39" to the Prog-rock excess of "The Prophet Song" to the snappy rock of "Death on Two Legs," "A Night At The Opera" had it all.There are stories that the vocals for "Bohemian Rhapsody" consisted of over 1,000 overdubbed Mercurys, Taylors and Mays to get it perfect, and yet the show-hall sounds of "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon" couldn't be goofier. It was almost as if the band was trying to show up prog bands like Yes, only to squeak a rubber-duck in their faces at the coda.
It was once reported that the late, great Freddie Mercury wanted A Day At The Races and "A Night at the Opera" to have been a double album. It's too bad that they weren't, because leaving "Races" to follow the first five star classic Queen album makes it seem like a lesser vehicle. From the reverse color scheme to copping a Marx Brothers movie title, "A Day at The Races" came off sounding like a desperate attempt to copy the mad success of "Opera," selling "Races" short. While there was no stunner ala "Bohemian Rhapsody" here, there was the Top 20 "Somebody To Love," which utilized the now trademark multi-tracked vocal style to Gospel effect. The album opener, "Tie Your Mother Down," played it kinky while still mimicking "Death on Two Legs" as a big concert rocker. As always, there are nods to camp and vaudeville ("Millionaire Waltz" and the Ooh La La of "Good Old Fashioned Lover boy"). However, there's an unusually high number of filler songs (the dreadful "White Man" and the maudlin "Teo Torriatte" being the most flagrant).
"A Day At The Races" is more easily viewed as the bridge between "A Night At The Opera" and the second five-star Queen album, News of the World. Go to any sports match around the world, and eventually the boom-boom-clap of "We Will Rock You" will thunder through the stadium. Watch any final series recap and you'll likely hear "We Are The Champions." Over 30 years later, and they are the reason "News Of The World" remains an essential seventies album for Queen, even as the ferocity of punk was beginning to make its presence felt. Not that Queen didn't take notice; "Sheer Heart Attack" rates as one of Queen's hardest rockers next to "Stone Cold Crazy." As usual, Queen took as many musical detours on this album as they did on their previous discs. "Get Down Make Love" is a detached grinder, while "Sleeping On The Sidewalk" veers into Latin Rhythms and ends with Freddie Mercury's typical camp crooning on "My Melancholy Blues." It has been rare that any band could become so massively huge and yet be so willing to spin their styles all over the map. "News Of The World" is, in my opinion, the last brilliant Queen album.
The last of Queen's "No Synthesizers" albums, Jazz, was an mixed bag. From the opening oddity of "Mustapha" to the final pastiche of "More of The Jazz," "Jazz" found Queen running amok through their stylistic grab bag without the coherency that marked their best albums. Despite the inconsistency, "Jazz" includes two of the band's goofiest singles, the classic "Fat Bottom Girls" and "Bicycle Race." "Jazz," like "News of the World" before it, continued Queen's indulgence of excess. How else does one explain the gloriously over-the-top "Mustapha," one of the oddest album kickoffs for a major label rock band, ever? There's even the parade of glorifications in "Let Me Entertain You." The band was so self-assured at this stage that there was nothing too far-out to try and little too weird to record. There was heavy ("Dead On Time"), music hall lite ("Dreamer's Ball") and a great Beatlesque Brian May ballad ("Leaving Home Ain't Easy"). To foreshadow the next album, Roger Taylor drops the mechanical funk of "Fun It." Queen was at the top and they darn well knew it. They wanted to be bigger than The Beatles and would spare neither expense nor excess. "Jazz" was the last album before slickness and the times overtook them on The Game.
That was the album that opened Queen 2.0. For the first time, the band declared they would use synthesizers on record, after being almost militant about not using them. So how best to state the obvious? Make a huge descending set of synth sweeps the first sounds on "The Game." Those sounds, and the ensuing album, found Queen sand-blasting their style. Gone where the 1,000 voice overdubbed choirs, muliti-tracked to oblivion guitars, and epic theatrics. Instead, the band crafted an arena ready parcel of big popo-rockers (like the terific "Dragon Attack") with an eye towards new wave bands entering the scene. For example, there's the chiming guitar in "Don't Try Suicide" that cops directly from The Police's "Walking On The Moon" and the The Stray Cats faux rockabilly of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." After being the Kings of Excess for so many years, it was as if Freddie Mercury and company opted to prove that they could do it without the pomp. Nowhere is this more evident than the monster hit "Another One Bites The Dust." Blatantly lifting from Chic's "Le Freak" (Chic successfully sued), it was Queen's most successful foray into funk and highlights the underrated bassist John Deacon's playing and songwriting. It also emphasized that Queen, even if they weren't layering it on musically, was still willing to step outside expectations and make an extraordinary song outside their usual realm. Same for "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a song so classic that Dwight Yoakam eventually covered it without any irony involved whatsoever.
Thing is, "The Game" the first album where Queen seemed less interested in strutting their stuff than blatantly pleading for your attention. "The Game" is hyper eager to please (right down to Freddie's new haircut) and straight-ahead poppy while still among their most consistent albums, but there's nothing particularly regal here. Given that the band would completely loose focus on the follow-up, "Hot Space," "The Game's" new direction and stunning commercial success seems almost accidental, and close the classic years.
Onc quibble with the box, one of the hinges came loose shortly after the purchase. Not the best construction for a high ticket item. But given that buying all the discs seperate would cost more, this is a solid buy for Queen fans.
 Great Box Set Containing Their First Eight Albums August 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you are a Queen fan and still don't have any of their first eight albums, then this is a must buy! Queen was easily one of the best rock bands in the history of the universe!
The albums included were remastered and they are "Queen" (1973), "Queen II" (1974), "Sheer Heart Attack" (1974), "A Night At The Opera" (1975), "A Day At The Races" (1976), "News Of The World" (1977), "Jazz" (1978), and "The Game" (1980).
All these albums are fantastic and show diverse songwriting styles. These guys, (singer/piano player Freddy Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor), were never afraid of trying any style that they could think of. All four members of the group get a chance to show their songwriting skills and with the exception of John Deacon, they also get to sing lead vocals throughout too.
Throughout this box set there's hard rock ("Keep Yourself Alive", "Liar", "Great King Rat", "Sweet Lady"), folk rock ("Night Comes Down", "39", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy"), lots of piano driven ballads ("Doing Alright", "Nevermore", "Dear Friends", "Jealousy"), excellent pop singles ("Killer Queen", You're My Best Friend", Seven Seas Of Rhye", "Don't Stop Me Now"), progressive rock ("The March Of The Black Queen", "The Prophet's Song"), jazzy ballads ("My Melancholy Blues", "Dreamer's Ball"), funk rock ("Fun It", "Another One Bites The Dust", "Fight From The Inside", "Dragon Attack"), new wave-influenced tracks ("Coming Soon", "Rock It"), heavy metal ("Stone Cold Crazy", "Brighton Rock", "Dead On Time"), a latin-infused pop number ("Who Needs You"), arena rock ("It's Late", "Spread Your Wings", "We Are The Champions"), punk rock ("Sheer Heart Attack"), rockabilly ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), blues-rock ("Sleeping On The Sidewalk"), opera-influenced passages ("Bohemian Rhapsody"), and even an eastern influenced song ("Mustapha"). Man! Talk about diversity!
Some minor complains:
The live album released in 1979 "Live Killers" was left off. So don't forget to get that one too!
The albums come in mini LP style cardboard covers that look really nice, however they are quite fragile. Of course the booklet, while containing an essay and all song lyrics, is a little disappointing though. More rare pictures could have been added. Also, some unreleased songs would have been a good addition too.
But those are only minor complains. It's still an excellent box set with awesome remastered sound so this is, by far, the best way to get these eight classic albums in one package.
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Later...
Queen's Best Music, Box Needs Better Treatment June 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This box set captures Queen at their highest peak. Every album is essential Queen.
BUT, as a box set, I feel like Hollywood Records could have done a much better job. The blue velvet box is quite nice, but the racks inside the box are cheapy vacuum-formed plastic, and not even very well glued in. The booklet is long, but it's primarily just the lyrics and a single essay. No extra photos, no critical analysis. Bummer.
I love the mini-LP jacket reproductions, especially the gatefold covers! It's too bad the shortcomings really subtract from the nostalgic geeky joy of the packaging. The inner sleeves are all plain white, so we're missing out on a lot of the original packaging. The Game's chrome treatment is missing, and it has a different (inferior) cover photo (oddly, the correct photo is reproduced inside the lyrics booklet). Jazz's gatefold photo is poor quality. And what happened to the cover of News Of The World? There's a horrible green border around all the front and back covers.
Anyway, enough ranting. If you don't have this music already, buy this set! As for me, I'm going to listen to the great Crown Jewels CDs and drag out my old albums to enjoy the full experience of the sleeves, art and inserts.
Wow, what an exelent Box - Queen will never die. January 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It was my very first time with Queen and I would like to say, WOW.
This Box includes the first 8 records and all of them are "remastered".
The musik of Queen don't need any emplaination, she is timeless good.
"Crown Jewels'' they are. August 13, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is my opinion but this was the height of their career. Although the 80's and 90's Queen was good, it didn't come up to their epic grandeur embodied in their 70's recordings. This box set has all the good stuff from Queen to The Game. Queen did it all progressive, hard rock, heavy metal, speed metal, ballads, rockabilly, vaudeville, glam etc. like no other band. No other band could pull off this pastiche with such skill. All the band members strengths shine through. Freddie's Operatic vocals, Brian's texture laying guitar, John's throbbing bass lines and Roger's expert rippling on percussion. Though they had a awesome career after the 70's this still was their best and a good band at it's prime. Buying all these albums seperately used comes to the same price as this set, so if you are a fan of classic rock and a good band, by all means get this set you won't be disappointed.
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