Classic Queen is a 1992 compilation album by the British rock band Queen. The album is seen as a US version of Greatest Hits II and was issued to capitalise on the renewed popularity of Queen which was generated in the United States following the release of the movie Wayne's World,[2] and the death of Freddie Mercury. The album reached number four on the US Billboard 200, and is certified three times platinum in the US, and five times platinum in Canada.[3][4]
Accumulated sales (Greatest Hits II and Classic Queen for the US and Canada combined) are in excess of 25 million worldwide.[5][6]
Although critically acclaimed as an excellent compilation,[citation needed]Classic Queen did not fit in with the previous Queen compilations. It overlapped both the 1981 Greatest Hits and the 1991 import Greatest Hits II, and contained a few tracks not found in either of the previous releases. To remedy this situation, Hollywood Records re-released Greatest Hits six months later in 1992 in the US only, containing two different tracks from the UK edition. This was an effort to make it a companion collection with Classic Queen. The two compilations had near-identical covers, with Greatest Hits having a red background, while Classic Queen has royal blue. Being that the two were seen as counterparts, many of Queen's biggest hits were left off of Classic Queen, such as "Another One Bites the Dust", "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions", "Somebody to Love" and "Don't Stop Me Now", since they appear on Greatest Hits.
There is also a video cassette version of the album released (modelled after the "Greatest Flix II" video), but long out of print.[7]
Brian May – electric, acoustic and slide guitars, co-lead vocals on "I Want It All", "Keep Yourself Alive" (bridge), and "Who Wants to Live Forever", operatic and backing vocals, synthesizer, sampler, piano, keyboards, programming, drum programming, handclaps, finger snaps, orchestral arrangements (except on "One Year of Love")
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