Single Release Chaos

Hi folks. This is a brief post to clear up any confusion (if any) about the single These Are the Days of Our Lives and where and when it was released as a single and music video in 1991 and 1992. On December 9th 1991 Bohemian Rhapsody was rereleased, after the death of Freddie and the other track on the CD single was These Are the Days of Our Lives, taken from Innuendo, 2 months after Greatest Hits II was released and the song The Show Must Go On was released in the UK as a single. This all happened across the pond from me and The Show Must Go On would be released, backed by bohemian Rhapsody, or is it the other way around? I guess it depends on Radio format and the main focus track, or point track. For rock radio it was Show Must Go On and for top 40 radio it would be Boh Rhap , during March, April and May 1992. This was in the US and Canada, while Classic Queen was doing gangbusters and flying off the shelves on CD and tapes.

Before then, let’s go back to September 5th 1991, while the Innuendo album was still being promoted, despite no tour to support it. In the US and Canada: Headlong, I Can’t Live With You and the title track were all released as singles, or promotional singles. In the UK it was: Innuendo, I’m Going Slightly Mad and Headlong which all came out as singles, before GH II and events coming after it. In the US and Canada, These Are the Days of Our Lives would come out on Freddie’s 45th birthday and it was the last video with him contributing to it in any form. Then came GH II, Boh Rhap, Classic Queen and wait… … another music video for These Are the Days of Our Lives? Yup, in order to help promote Classic Queen and no further singles released with the song included on them.

I wanted to post this because I find it intriguing, that this amount of chaos had been inadvertently created around Queen, due to signing with Hollywood records in the US and Canada and the wish to release Greatest Hits II, worldwide and at the same time with the same track listing. However, with every Queen album coming out on CD for the first time, it wouldn’t have been possible and especially in the US and Canada, as The Works wasn’t out yet and even The Miracle would get the 1991 rerelease. I had talked about that during my second post on The Miracle boxed set in November last year so, no need to rehash anything from that.

The thing is, I wonder why These Are The Days Of Our Lives was released as a single in the US and Canada on Freddie’s 45th birthday? This happening while The Show Must Go On would be released a month later in the UK, before the release of GH II. On both sides of the Atlantic, you had a situation where two albums were being worked at the same time, with a recent album and a compilation or Greatest Hits album using songs from the most recent studio album to work them both as a single or music video. This is rather unusual and yet, it was all part of the chaos with Queen changing record labels on one side of the pond and staying with the same label, on the other.

I just find this fascinating to have learned about this and watched some of it going on around me, all the while Queen were dealing with the inevitability of Freddie being ill and dying of bronchial pneumonia in November and the band being inactive for a while as a result. Yet, in North America they had a new start with a new record label so, they were between a rock and a hard place and despite this, everything was swirling around with different songs being released as singles throughout the world from 1991 to 1992, along with new music videos for not just Bohemian Rhapsody, but also Stone Cold Crazy. You see? If you were a Queen fan back in the early 90s and especially in the US in Canada, it was very interesting to watch both MTV and Much Music, along with listening to the radio from January 91, to Christmas 1992. We got to watch Queen get a resurgence again and become cool, but it took chaos for it to happen and this is how it started with the song by Roger reflecting on his kids and it taking on a wider meaning with the initial music video, with Freddie saying goodbye at the end. Well, I will say goodbye for now and I’ll be back with a new post. When? I’m not sure but in case I don’t post before Christmas, have a great Christmas holiday season and I just might do a post talking about the year review.