Greatest Hits I & II is box set by Queen, released on 14 November 1994 by Parlophone, EMI and Hollywood Records.
Contents
Background and content
In the early 1990s, Hollywood Records purchased Queen's catalogue, and alongside rereleasing the 1981 compilation Greatest Hits, they also released a new compilation titled Classic Queen. In 1991, the band released a sequel to Greatest Hits titled Greatest Hits II. This box set contains both Greatest Hits one and two, alongside a 40-page booklet.
Release and reception
The set was initially released on 14 November 1994 and was later released in the United States in 1995 to capitalise on the release of the band's final album Made in Heaven, which was released on 6 November 1995. The box set did not do very well on the charts due to a limited amount of promotion.
Reception
In a review for BBC Music, John Doran wrote that the first disk includes "songs that even your grandma knows", and that the second disk "isn’t quite as stunningly impressive, it still charts the second half of their career well".
Personnel
Queen
Freddie Mercury – lead, backing and operatic vocals, acoustic piano, jangle piano, Hammond organ, fingersnaps, bicycle bells, handclaps, acoustic guitar, organ, synthesiser, footstomps, synth bass, sampler, Korg M1 synthesizer on "I'm Going Slightly Mad"
Brian May – acoustic and electric guitars, co-lead vocals on "Fat Bottomed Girls" (chorus), backing and operatic vocals, bicycle bells, handclaps, piano, synthesiser, footstomps, co-lead vocals on "Keep Yourself Alive" (bridge)
John Deacon – bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic and electric pianos, bicycle bells, handclaps, footstomps
Roger Taylor – drums, percussion, backing and operatic vocals, timpani, gong, triangle, chimes, bicycle bells, handclaps, woodblocks, tambourine, footstomps, cowbell, co-lead vocals on "Keep Yourself Alive" (bridge), drum machine, backing vocals, synthesizer, electric guitar and sampler on "The Invisible Man"
Additional performers
Fred Mandel – synthesizers
David Bowie – lead and backing vocals, Jupiter-8, handclaps and finger snaps on "Under Pressure"
Mike Stone – co-lead vocals on "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"
Roy Thomas Baker – stylophone on "Seven Seas of Rhye"
Chris Rea – fingerclicks on "A Kind of Magic"
Spike Edney – synthesizer on "A Kind of Magic"
David Richards – piano on "Under Pressure", keyboards, synth bass and programming on "Breakthru"
Steve Howe – classical guitar and Spanish guitar solos on "Innuendo"
Michael Kamen – orchestral arrangements and conductor on "Who Wants to Live Forever"
National Philharmonic Orchestra – strings, brass and percussion on "Who Wants to Live Forever"