Made in Heaven

It was the band's first and only album released solely under the name "Queen" after the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1991.

Put to tape during this time were primarily "A Winter's Tale", "Mother Love" and what would eventually become "You Don't Fool Me".

'Producer David Richards also added: The thing that was really unusual about these last songs they recorded was that Freddie insisted on doing final vocals.

Which also means that he definitely wanted these things to be released, there's simply no other reason why he would have done that.After Mercury's death, the band returned to the studio in 1993 to begin work on finishing the tracks.

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.

"[2] 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.

Near the end, a short orchestral sample from the coda of "La Calinda" by English composer Frederick Delius can clearly be heard.

[citation needed] Part of the backing vocals featured lyrics too closely resembling Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart".

Mercury never made it back to the studio due to his worsening condition, thus May sang the last verse on the track.

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 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.

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.

[7] "Heaven for Everyone" is a track Taylor wrote and tried out with Queen in 1987,[8] although according to some sources it was written with Joan Armatrading in mind to sing it.

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.

[9] "Too Much Love Will Kill You" was composed by May, Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers sometime between the sessions for A Kind of Magic and The Miracle.

This is the only track on the Made in Heaven album which wasn't reworked by the remaining members of the band during 1993–1995 sessions, as it is the original 1989 mix prepared for The Miracle.

At The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, May played the song on piano and sang it for the first time in public and then released it as part of his solo album Back to the Light.

May has explained on his website that producer David Richards more or less created the framework of the song single-handedly, building from bits of lyrics recorded just before Mercury's death.

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.

An essential purchase for Queen fans, certainly, but even without its special significance, Made in Heaven is probably a better album than Innuendo and a fitting swan song by one of the most incandescent groups in rock.

Made in Heaven is also the last musical will and testament of a star who was never going to be turned into a saint, but whose grandstanding performances were, right to the very end, always marked by reckless enthusiasm and a rare generosity of spirit."

When we eventually reach the drum-crashing finale, 'It's a Beautiful Day', which kicks in with Mercury's umpteenth randy-rottweiler howl, it feels as if far more than 70 minutes has passed.

Despite its overdue delivery, Made in Heaven stands up remarkably well as the closing chapter in a spectacular pop odyssey."

AllMusic wrote: "Made in Heaven harked back to Queen's 1970s heyday with its strong melodies and hard rock guitar playing, topped by Mercury's bravura singing and some of the massed choir effects familiar from 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

The odd thing about this was that Mercury's over-the-top singing had always contained a hint of camp humour, and it continued to here, even when the sentiments clearly were as heartfelt as they were theatrically overstated.

The male lead of Resident Evil 0, Billy Coen, has an arm-length tattoo which says 'Mother Love', another song from the album.

[21] It was also the name of Enrico Pucci's final Stand in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean.

The statue of Freddie Mercury overlooking Lake Geneva in Montreux , Switzerland , which is featured on the cover of the album.