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 enlarge | Artist: Queen
Label: Hollywood Records
Category: Music
List Price: $22.99
Buy New: $14.97
You Save: $8.02 (35%)
New (33) Used (23) from $12.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  93 reviews
Sales Rank: 438
Format: Box Set, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 5 x 1.1
MPN: 162360
UPC: 720616236029
EAN: 0720616236029
ASIN: B00006JIA4
Release Date: September 24, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 queen platinum album April 20, 2008
this collection is perfect if you love queen. you won't be skipping tracks to get to your favorites - they are all good!
A Queen Compilation that provides the most value January 20, 2008
Looking back at the 1970s, sometimes many forget how big the band Queen was. Even as Queen moved into the 1980s, while their popularity did slightly decline in the United States, it continued to be very high in Europe. Their performance at Live Aid is widely considered one of the greatest of all-time and their subsequent "Magic" tour is considered one of the all-time greatest concert tours. If it weren't for Freddie Mercury's death in 1991, we might still be talking about Queen being as big a band as the Beatles. Numerous compilation albums are available containing much of Queen's music. The period from 1974-1980 is considered the period where Queen achieved its most popularity - especially in the United States. Following 1980, Queen's popularity continued, but this was mostly in Europe. However, there was a lot of good music still done by Queen, thus continuing their legacy. In 1981, Queen released an album "Greatest Hits" covering that 1974-1980 period. Ten years later, Queen would release a second greatest hits collection - "Greatest Hits Volume II", that would cover the post 1980 period until Mercury's death in 1991. After Mercury's death, Queen would not officially disband. However the majority of the work in the 1990s would consist of "projects" or live performances. In 1999, a compilation of this project work, live performances, and solo work would be released under the title of "Greatest Hits III". In 2000, These three collections would be packaged into a single boxed set entitled "Queen - The Platinum Collection: Greatest Hits I II & III".
Queen is an example of the sum of the parts actually being greater than the whole. However, if you take each of the four members of Queen, they easily stand on their own as a top musician in their profession. Freddie Mercury is easily known to be the emotional and flamboyant lead vocalist of Queen who indeed has a legendary voice. Brian May is the legendary lead guitarist and probably the second most popular member of the band. Roger Taylor and John Deacon go extremely underrated. Listen to Taylor's thundering drumming in the studio or live and one can easily understand why he was asked to participate in an All Star Drum Jam (The S.O.S. All-Stars) at the Live Earth concert. As for John Deacon, he might be one of music's all-time underrated bass players. Many of his bass lines have proven to be the foundation for Queen's musical sound. In addition to being top musicians, all four members play integral roles in the songwriting.
The first CD represents "Greatest Hits I" and covers eight of the nine albums from 1973 through 1980. The albums represented on the 1981 UK Version are "Queen II" ("Seven Seas of Rhye"); "Sheer Heart Attack" ("Killer Queen", "Now I'm Here"); "A Night at the Opera" ("Bohemian Rhapsody", "You're My Best Friend"); "A Day at the Races" ("Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "Somebody to Love"); "News of the World" ("We Will Rock You", "We are the Champions"); "Jazz" ("Fat Bottomed Girls", "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now"); "The Game" ("Another One Bites the Dust", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Save Me", "Play the Game"); "Flash Gordon" ("Flash"). The only album not represented is "Queen", however it is important to know that technically "Seven Seas of Rhye" appeared in an "unfinished" version on the "Queen" album. On "Queen II" the full version of "Seven Seas of Rhye" appears on that collection and that is the version that is included on this version of "Greatest Hits".
The second CD is "Greatest Hits II" and covers the five albums from 1981 to 1991. These albums include: "Hot Space" ("Under Pressure); "The Works" ("Radio Ga Ga", "I Want to Break Free", "It's a Hard Life", "Hammer to Fall"); "A Kind of Magic" ("A Kind of Magic", "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Friends Will be Friends", "One Vision"); "The Miracle" ("I Want it All", "Breakthru", "The Miracle", "The Invisible Man"); "Innuendo" ("Innuendo", "Headlong", "I'm Going Slightly Mad", "The Show Must Go On").
From "Greatest Hits III, there is a nice mix of Queen remixes, solo material from both Freddie Mercury and Brian May, material from "Made in Heaven" (the album released posthumously after Mercury's death), Queen's Christmas song - "Thank God It's Christmas", and two collaborations (also posthumous to Mercury's death) with both Elton John ("The Show Must Go On") and George Michael ("Somebody to Love").
One thing that disappoints me about this collection is that despite the fact the two volumes are divided by time, the songs are not ordered in chronological order on each disco. One reason why I like greatest hits collections to be chronologically ordered is because it often shows how a band has progressed over time. Queen originally started as a good mix of progressive rock and early heavy metal. Queen would eventually move away from their progressive roots and incorporate a variety of other types of musical genres including a more theatrical type of element, a pop element, rockabilly, and even Dance/Disco (as demonstrated on the "Hot Space" album) The shuffling of the order of these sounds really takes away from seeing how Queen evolved their sound.
As mentioned above each of the volumes are available as single volume releases. There also is a compilation that just includes "Greatest Hits I & II". One other boxed set worth mentioning is "The Crown Jewels". This is a boxed set that includes all Queen's first eight albums in their entirety (but doesn't include anything from "Volume II or III").
The liner notes include a nice booklet that has a detailed discography with background on each of the songs packaged in this collection. With the exception of "Tie Your Mother Down" not being included, Queen does a good job at providing a good snapshot of their musical portfolio. Overall, I'd recommend this greatest hits collection from Queen because it provides the most completeness and most value for your money.
 The Greatest voice in Rock History December 1, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I do not have much to say about this, really. Just that my long held opinion that Freddie Mercury had the greatest voice in the history is once again verified by this set. George Micheal and Elton John are rock greats, with voices as good as anyone. But listen to the Mercury versions then the ones by John and Micheal and you will see they do not even come close. Mercury's range and power have never been equaled. I gave this set 4 stars because I could never give anything Queen (with Freddie) has done less. But, like many of the other reviews, I recommend picking up other Queen stuff.
"Queen - The Platinum Collection: Greatest Hits I, II & III" September 10, 2007
Volumes I and III are great, the middle CD not very exciting. If to do over, I would have selected one of the other greatest hits albums. Nonetheless, Queen rocks.
queen greatest hits I, II, III August 25, 2007
love this CD. Love Queen music. Play it all the time on my way to and from work.
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