Limited edition set comes June 17th
Queen’s The Platinum Collection, featuring all three of their Greatest Hits albums, is coming to vinyl for the first time ever this summer. EMI will release the set as a limited edition 6 LP colored vinyl set on June 17th in a slipcase with new artwork. Each vinyl will be a different color and be housed in its own individually designed sleeve. The set also comes with an exclusive 24 page 12-inch photo booklet.
Living up to its name, The Platinum Collection was recently certified by the UK music industry organization the BPI as having been certified 8x Platinum, representing sales of 2.4 million achieved since its June 2011 re-release as part of Queen’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
Queen Greatest Hits first released in 1981, is the best-selling album of all time in the UK, having sold over 6.8 million copies, with global sales in excess of 25 million. Spanning Queen’s triumphant first act, from 1974 to 1980, Greatest Hits includes some of the world’s most beloved rock standards, including the stadium-sized symphonic chart-topper “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the roof-raising “We Are The Champions,” which was named the most catchy song of all time by a team of scientists in 2011. But this album also dazzles with its stylistically promiscuous range, from the crowd-rousing “We Will Rock You,” the tongue in cheek “Fat Bottomed Girls,” the stomp-stomp-stomp late 70’s disco-inspired “Another One Bites the Dust,” to the finger-snapping jukebox retro-rock homage “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and the soaring, impassioned, gospel-fired Aretha-isms of “Somebody To Love.”
Queen Greatest Hits II originally released shortly before Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, has sold over 19 million copies worldwide. It spans 1981 to 1991, the period which followed Queen having dropped their famous no synthesizers rule elevating them to new heights of creativity. Opening up their guitar-heavy sound to embrace funk, disco and electronics resulted in rich rewards, transforming these former Seventies glam rockers into a glossy, streamlined, emphatically contemporary super-group. Rebooted and rewired, Queen produced some of their most immortal hits during this imperial Eighties phase. Built around an improvised studio jam, their infectious David Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure” became a global chart-topping smash. The retro-futurist epic “Radio Gaga” and the humorously romantic “I Want To Break Free” stand as testaments to their early mastery of synthesizers, while the muscular ripcord riffs of “Hammer To Fall” and octave-vaulting grand-piano acrobatics of “It’s a Hard Life” are vintage Queen both sonically and lyrically. Officially the tenth best-selling album of all time in the UK, Greatest Hits 2 also features the tender sentiments of “Friends Will Be Friends,” the planet-sized synth-rock fanfares of “One Vision,” and the heroically defiant swan song “The Show Must Go On,” featuring Freddie Mercury in his last days still playing shamelessly to the gallery.
Queen Greatest Hits III, rarely available on vinyl, features their latter-day songs, the band members’ solo hits and the band’s collaborations with other artists including Elton John, Montserrat Caballé, George Michael and Wyclef Jean.
The band will also release the Queen Platinum Collection hardcover book featuring full-band transcriptions for nearly 50 classics from the iconic band. Every instrument, every note, every lyric, and every nuance of every song is carefully transcribed. It’s beautifully packaged in a protective sturdy slipcase.
