Made in Heaven is the fifteenth and final studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 6 November 1995 by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by Hollywood Records in the United States. It is the final studio album to be released under the name "Queen" and it was the band's first and only album released solely under the name "Queen" after the death of lead vocalist Freddie Mercury in November 1991. Following Mercury's death, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bass guitarist John Deacon worked with vocal and piano parts that Mercury recorded before his death, adding new instrumentation to the recordings. Both stages of recording, before and after Mercury's death, were completed at the band's studio in Montreux, Switzerland. The album debuted at number 1 in the UK, where it went quadruple platinum selling 1.2 million copies. 500,000 copies were shipped in the United States.
After the recordings, Queen released the single "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)" in 1997 and only played sporadic concerts together until 2004, when May and Taylor started touring with Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers and later with Adam Lambert; Deacon retired from music in 1997 and has not taken part in any Queen activity since then.
The cover for the album has two different photos: the CD cover photo was shot at dusk, depicting Irena Sedlecká's Mercury sculpture located at Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland, on the front, with May, Taylor and Deacon gazing at the Alps on the rear cover; meanwhile, the LP cover photo was shot in the same spot at dawn, depicting the same statue on the front but with May, Taylor and Deacon gazing at the sunrise on the rear cover.
Background and recording
The album was recorded in a much different way from Queen's other studio albums. In early 1991, having completed work on Innuendo, and some months before his death, Freddie Mercury recorded as many vocals as he could, with the instruction to the rest of the band (Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon) to complete the songs later. Put to tape during this time were primarily "A Winter's Tale", "Mother Love" and what would eventually become "You Don't Fool Me".
In the documentary Champions of the World, May described these sessions with Mercury as such:
Producer David Richards also added:
After Mercury's death, the band returned to the studio in 1993 to begin work on finishing the tracks. May has described in interviews that Taylor and Deacon had begun some work in 1992, while May was on tour promoting his Back to the Light album. Upon his return in 1993, May felt they were not on the right path with the music and they more or less started from scratch with the three of them working together with producer David Richards.
With less than an album's worth to work with, the band decided to revisit previously recorded material. The band did not discuss whether Mercury had any input before his death regarding which songs might be considered. The idea was to take existing songs on which Mercury sang and rework them as Queen songs.
In 2013, Brian May said about the album "[Made in Heaven] was possibly the best Queen album we ever made. It has so much beauty in it. It was a long, long process, painstakingly put together. A real labour of love."Mojo, January 2014, pg. 16
Songs "It's a Beautiful Day" Years before Mercury started recording solo material, he created a sound clip of himself experimenting on the piano at Musicland Studios in Munich in 1980 during the sessions of The Game. Later, for the use of this album, the song was extended to two minutes and 32 seconds. The more classical section, without Mercury's improvisation, was put together by John Deacon. Near the end, a short orchestral sample from the coda of "La Calinda" by English composer Frederick Delius can clearly be heard.
"Made in Heaven"
Originally from Mercury's Mr. Bad Guy, this song, along with the other Mercury solo track "I Was Born to Love You", was reworked to a "Queen sound" and Mercury's original vocals were placed over the new music. In an interview with Far Out, May called the song one of his favourite Queen tracks.
"Let Me Live"
"Let Me Live" is a rock ballad, which features a rare sharing of the vocals between Mercury, May, and Taylor. This track was originally recorded with Rod Stewart during sessions for the 1984 album The Works. Once finished in 1995 for Made in Heaven, Queen made one 11th-hour change to the song to avoid legal action. Part of the backing vocals featured lyrics too closely resembling Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart". The potentially problematic section was mixed out and the track was released. Promo cassettes from the US feature the unaltered backing track. Early Mexican and Dutch CD pressings are reported to have this alternate version as well.
"Mother Love"
"Mother Love" was the final song co-written by Mercury and May, and was also Mercury's last vocal performance.Queen Online – History – Discography: Made in Heaven Retrieved 22 January 2011 Mercury's vocals for "Mother Love" were recorded 13–16 May 1991. On his website, May discussed the writing process he and Mercury had (writing both separately and together, and conscious of the nature of the song and the lyrics). Upon reaching the final verse, Mercury told May that he had to go and "have a rest", but that he would return later and finish it. Mercury never made it back to the studio due to his worsening condition, thus May sang the last verse on the track.
The song features a sample of the vocal improvisation from Queen's famous 12 July 1986 concert at Wembley Stadium, and a sample from the intro of the studio version of "One Vision" and "Tie Your Mother Down". It also features a sample from a cover of "Goin' Back", a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, for which Mercury had provided lead vocals in 1972. The cover was released as a B-side to "I Can Hear Music", a Ronettes cover, by Larry Lurex (a pseudonym of Mercury's), not long before the release of Queen's debut album. The sound bursts between the sing along and the "Goin' Back" sample are apparently a few milliseconds of every Queen track ever recorded, put together, and then rapidly sped through a tape machine. At the very end of the song, a baby is heard crying. This video is age-restricted on YouTube.
"My Life Has Been Saved" "My Life Has Been Saved" was started as an acoustic track composed mainly by Deacon in 1987–1988. Producer David Richards helped him out doing the demo and the keyboards, then Mercury sang on it, and later on the entire band recorded it. The Made in Heaven version is different from that of 1989 (which originally featured as the B-side to the single "Scandal"), although it uses the same vocals from Mercury. Deacon plays guitar and keyboards as well as his usual instrument, bass guitar.
"I Was Born to Love You"
"I Was Born to Love You" was originally recorded (piano, vocals, synths) by Mercury on 25 May 1984, for his Mr. Bad Guy album, as a late addition (when told by the record company that the album needed "a single"). May, Taylor and Deacon re-recorded it and added their instruments, turning the song into fast-paced rock, mainly featuring hard rock guitar from May. That track became popular in Japan during 2004 when it was used for the theme song of a television drama named Pride (プライド). This version also contains samples of Mercury's ad-lib vocals from "A Kind of Magic", from the 1986 album of the same name, and from "Living on My Own", from his Mr. Bad Guy album. The music video for this version of the song, also made in 2004, is composed mainly of clips from the Mercury solo video and from Queen: Live at Wembley.I Was Born To Love You (2004 video) on YouTube.
"Heaven for Everyone"
"Heaven for Everyone" is a track Taylor wrote and tried out with Queen in 1987,Purvis, Georg (2007) Queen: Complete Works p.375. Reynolds & Hearn, 2007 although according to some sources it was written with Joan Armatrading in mind to sing it. Whether she turned it down or Taylor withdrew the song is unclear, but it was recorded by his other band The Cross. One night Mercury came to visit The Cross at the studio and after some drinks he gave them ideas of how to sing the song and ended up recording the lead vocals for it. Mercury appeared on the UK version of their album Shove It as guest lead vocalist on the song, with Taylor doing backing vocals. The roles were reversed on the single and the American version of Shove It. Mercury's vocals were then used for the Made in Heaven release, with a couple of different lines and May singing backing vocals instead of Taylor, with Richards adding several arrangement ideas. It was released as the leading single two weeks before the album's release, with the song's music video commemorating Mercury, and also containing footage of various silent films from the 1900s, including Walter R. Booth's 1906 film The '?' Motorist, Georges Méliès' seminal 1902 film A Trip to the Moon as well as his 1904 film The Impossible Voyage.Queen Promo Videos: Heaven For Everyone Ultimate Queen. Retrieved 14 November 2011
Too Much Love Will Kill You
"Too Much Love Will Kill You" was written by Brian May, Frank Musker, and Elizabeth Lamers sometime between the sessions for A Kind of Magic and The Miracle.Billboard, 21 June 1997. Retrieved 16 January 2011. The song was written in the United States, with Freddie Mercury singing lead vocals on the Queen recording. Due to disputes over the publishing rights held by companies representing Musker and Lamers, the band was unable to clear the song for release on The Miracle at the time. It nonetheless appeared in the album's original proposed track listing, sequenced between "I Want It All" and "The Invisible Man", before being dropped. As a result, it is the only track on Made in Heaven that was not reworked or re-recorded by the surviving band members during the 1993–1995 sessions; the version used is the original 1989 mix intended for The Miracle.
May first performed the song publicly at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, playing piano and singing lead vocals himself. He subsequently included a solo version on his album Back to the Light (1992), arranged differently from the Queen recording, with an acoustic guitar solo and no drums. Despite this stripped-back studio version, May performed the song live with his touring band during 1992–1993 in an arrangement closer to Queen's original. The song won Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards.
In 2003, the song was performed by Queen with Luciano Pavarotti, with Pavarotti singing the latter parts of the verses in Italian."Pavarotti and Friends 2003: Press and News". . brianmay.com. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
"You Don't Fool Me"
"You Don't Fool Me" was one of the last tracks recorded for Made in Heaven. May has explained on his website that producer David Richards more or less created the framework of the song single-handedly, building from unfinished musical ideas and fragments recorded with Mercury's vocals in May 1991 before his death. May has said that before Richards' work, there was no full song to speak of. However, after Richards edited and mixed the song (including a bit of harmonies recorded for "A Winter's Tale") he presented it to the band. May, Taylor and Deacon then added their instruments and backing vocals and were surprised to end up with a finished song that had begun as nothing. The style of the song is reminiscent of their 1982 album Hot Space, and a comment over that featured on their Greatest Hits III album.
"A Winter's Tale"
"A Winter's Tale" is a ballad written and composed by Mercury at his apartment in Montreux, Switzerland. It is the last complete song Mercury composed on his own (the music for "Mother Love" is by May). It has been branded as one of few Christmas songs from the band, along with "Thank God It's Christmas".