Queen Miracle LP First Press Vinyl LP with lyric inner 1989 Freddie Mercury

$

50

Queen – The Miracle
Label: Capitol Records – C1-92357 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Specialty Pressing Country: US Released: 1989 Genre: Rock Style: Pop Rock A1 Party A2 Khashoggi's Ship 5:13 A3 The Miracle 5:02 A4 I Want It All 4:40 A5 The Invisible Man 3:56 B1 Breakthru 4:07 B2 Rain Must Fall 4:20 B3 Scandal 4:42 B4 My Baby Does Me 3:22 B5 Was It All Worth It 5:45 Record Company – Capitol-EMI Music, Inc. Manufactured By – Capitol Records, Inc. Record Company – Queen Productions Ltd. Record Company – Raincloud Productions Ltd. Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Queen Productions Ltd. Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Raincloud Productions Ltd. Copyright © – Queen Productions Ltd. Copyright © – Raincloud Productions Ltd. Licensed To – Capitol Records, Inc. Recorded At – Olympic Studios Recorded At – The Town House Recorded At – Mountain Studios Mastered At – The Town House Mastered At – Capitol Mastering Pressed By – Specialty Records Corporation Published By – Queen Music Copyright © – Queen Music Ltd. Published By – Beechwood Music Corp. Artwork [Quantel Graphic Paintbox Operator] – Richard Baker (14) Coordinator [Studio Equipment Co-ordinator] – Brian Zellis, Martin P. Groves* Engineer – David Richards Engineer [Assistant] – Andrew Bradfield, Andy Mason, Angelique Cooper, Claude Frider, John Brough, Justin Shirley-Smith Lacquer Cut By – ES* Make-Up – Paul Kennington Mastered By – Gordon Vickary*, Kevin Metcalf* Photography By – Simon Fowler (2) Producer – David Richards, Queen Programmed By [Computer] – Brian Zellis Public Relations [World Publicity] – Lipsey Meade, Roxy Meade Sleeve [Album Sleeve Design], Design [Album Sleeve Design] – Richard Gray (2) Written-By – Brian May, Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Queen, Roger Taylor Album recorded at Olympic Studios and The Townhouse Studios, London, England and Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland. Mastered at The Townhouse Studios.
"SRC" logo stamped in runouts, and "E A S T" embossed around center spindle hole denote Specialty Records Corporation pressing. Remainder of runouts etched, mastering logo stamped.
Issued with printed inner sleeve with lyrics, photo and credits.
Jacket back: ℗1989 Original Sound Recordings made by Queen Productions Ltd./Raincloud Productions, Ltd. Under exclusive License to Capitol Records, Inc. © 1989 Queen Productions Ltd./Raincloud Productions Ltd. Manufactured by Capitol Records, Inc., a subsidiary of Capitol-EMI Music, Inc. Printed in U.S.A.
The Miracle is the thirteenth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 22 May 1989 by Parlophone Records and Capitol Records in both the United Kingdom and the U.S. respectively, where it was the band's third and final studio album to be released on latter label, and their first studio album on the former label. The album was recorded following Brian May's marital problems and Freddie Mercury's HIV diagnosis in 1987. Recording started in January 1988 and lasted for an entire year. The album was originally going to be called The Invisible Men, but three weeks before the release, according to Roger Taylor, they changed the name to The Miracle. It was also the last Queen album with a photo of all four members on the front cover.
The album reached number one in the UK, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, and number 24 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. AllMusic would name The Miracle as Queen's best album of the 1980s, along with The Game.[2] It would prove to be the band's penultimate album to be released in Freddie Mercury's lifetime, as he died on 24 November 1991, nine months after their next album, Innuendo, was released.
Songs Side one "Party" "Party" began as a jam session between Freddie Mercury, Brian May and John Deacon. Mercury was at the piano and he started off the "we had a good night" section. From then on the three of them worked together and completed it. May sings lead on a small portion of the song near the beginning.
"Khashoggi's Ship" "Khashoggi's Ship" was started by Mercury with all four band members contributing to the lyrics and music. The song is about famous billionaire Adnan Khashoggi and a ship (the Nabila, now Kingdom 5KR) that he owned at the time and was one of the largest private yachts in the world. On the album, this track segues from "Party", to which it has a very similar lyrical theme. The song served as the reference to the name of the Khashoggi character in the We Will Rock You musical.
"The Miracle" Main article: The Miracle (song) "The Miracle" is one of the most complex songs from the band's later years. Mercury and Deacon co-wrote the chords together. It is one of May's favourite songs.[3] The entire band contributed lyrical and some musical ideas, and Mercury played piano as well as many synth tracks, using a Korg M1 and a Roland D-50. The Collector's Edition included an alternate version ("Original Take with John's Ending").
"I Want It All" Main article: I Want It All (Queen song) "I Want It All" was composed by May in 1987. On the "Greatest Video Hits II" DVD, May commented that the song was inspired by his second wife, Anita Dobson's, favourite motto, "I want it all, and I want it now!" The idea of having intro, verses, choruses and solos over the same chord progression was reused on their next album with another May song, "The Show Must Go On", from 1991. Mercury sang lead vocals for most of the song, but Mercury and May share lead vocals during the bridge. Mercury played keyboards, May played acoustic and electric guitars while Taylor used double-kick bass drums for the first (and only) time.
"The Invisible Man" Main article: The Invisible Man (song) "The Invisible Man" is Taylor's first song on the album. The lyrical idea came from a book he was reading. May and Taylor commented (Queen for an Hour interview, 1989) that Taylor wrote part of the song in the bath (similarly to what happened with Mercury and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" ten years before). Each of the four band members are name-checked in the vocals by Freddie throughout the course of the song: "Freddie Mercury" right before the first verse begins (done by Roger Taylor), "John Deacon" after the first verse, "Brian May" (said twice) before his guitar solo, and "Roger Taylor" (with the initial "r" rolled by Mercury to sound like a drum roll) after the final chorus; Taylor "answers" with a drum fill. The demo version contains a completely different middle-eight with Mercury singing alternate lyrics in the style of Elvis Presley. The whispered parts of the chorus are sung by Taylor.
Side two "Breakthru" Main article: Breakthru (song) "Breakthru" is a combination of two songs: "When Love Breaks Up", by Mercury, and "Breakthru", written by Taylor with input by the others in the key change. Taylor's mid-1980s songs tended to be in flat keys, when he started writing at the piano instead of on a guitar. This song was released as a single and made the top ten in the UK over the summer of 1989. "When Love Breaks Up" was eventually released as part of the 2022 Collector's Edition.
"Rain Must Fall" "Rain Must Fall" is a collaboration between Deacon (music) and Mercury (lyrics). Taylor recorded a lot of Latin percussion but most of that was edited out in order to have more space for vocal harmonies, guitars and keyboards, the latter shared between Mercury and Deacon in this piece.
"Scandal" Main article: Scandal (song) "Scandal" was written by May about the British press, in the wake of media-fuelled controversy about his recent divorce, his relationship with Anita Dobson, and Mercury's rare public appearances due to his battle with AIDS. May played keyboards and did the guitar solo as a first take. Mercury's lead vocals were also a first take. Synth-bass is played by David Richards. May has since commented that the song is very close to his heart.
"My Baby Does Me" "My Baby Does Me" is another collaboration of Mercury and Deacon. Both of them had the idea of a simpler track in order to ease off the album. In a Radio 1 interview in 1989, each of them claimed the other had constructed the bassline. The song was originally demoed as "My Baby Loves Me", but was rewritten to replace the word "loves" with "does" throughout.[4]
"Was It All Worth It" "Was It All Worth It" was composed by Mercury. The song harks back to the band's intricately produced sound in the 1970s. Though the bulk of the song was masterminded by Mercury, all members contributed ideas and lyrics (for example, Taylor contributed the line "we love you madly!"). Deacon later cited the song as his favourite on the album. Taylor uses a gong and timpani. Despite it not being released as a single, it remains hugely popular among the Queen fanbase.
Artwork The cover art was created by designer Richard Gray, utilising a chroma key and the Quantel Paintbox workstation, then state of the art image-manipulation technology, to combine photographs of the familiar faces of the four band members into one morphed gestalt image. This visual is in line with their decision to dispense with individual credits and simply present their music as the product of Queen; the back cover went a step further with a seamless regiment pattern of the band's eyes.[4] May said in 2022 that nowadays, it could easily be made in Photoshop, but back then, the machinery required to produce the artwork was as big as a room and the process was very "enterprising" for its time.[8]
Singles Five singles were released from the album, all in 1989:
"I Want It All" was the lead single from the album, released in the UK on 2 May; it hit number three in the British charts but made it to number one in numerous other European countries. The song became an anti-apartheid anthem among youth in South Africa and also has been used to protest other causes. This well-known anthem has been heard as a rallying song for African youth. The song became Queen's first American rock radio hit since "Under Pressure" by peaking at number three on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Singles chart, but only reached number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. "Breakthru" was the second single from the album released in the UK on 19 June; its video was filmed on a private steam train known as The Miracle Express. The song peaked at number seven in the UK. The song was also released as a single in the US. Also appearing in the video was Debbie Leng, who was at the time Roger Taylor's girlfriend. "The Invisible Man", released in the UK on 7 August, hit number 12 in the UK and was a hit throughout Europe; the video showed scores of computer-duplicated band members moving in unison. This song was later covered by Scatman John. "Scandal" was the album's fourth single, and peaked at number 25 in the UK. It is a protest song about the way the tabloids dealt with May's relationship with Anita Dobson. "The Miracle" was the fifth and final single from the album, released on 27 November in the UK, reaching number 21 on the British charts. Its video involved young Queen lookalikes (including a then-unknown Ross McCall) who performed a Queen-style stage show. The real band appeared only at the end jamming with their younger counterparts. Critical reception Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating AllMusic StarStarStarHalf star[2] Chicago Tribune Star[9] Encyclopedia of Popular Music StarStar[10] MusicHound Rock StarStarHalf star[11] NME 6/10[12] Q StarStarStarStar[13] Record Mirror StarStarStarStarStar[14] Rolling Stone StarStar[15] The Rolling Stone Album Guide StarStar[16] The Sun-Sentinel wrote "With Freddie Mercury in vintage light-operatic form, here's an album (like so many of Queen's others) that should be used as a pop music how-to for aspirants. Combining the forces of rock, pop, metal, clever melodies and cunning stylisations, The Miracle never lets down. From one track to the next there is, as usual, no telling which way this band will go, affording even the most jaded ear a challenge."[17]
Newsday (Melville, NY) wrote "On The Miracle, Mercury's voice is steady and solid, May's runs are as flashy and supple as ever. Most of the 10 songs, written collaboratively by the four members, stick pretty much to the band's formula of mini-suites: edgy pop with tempos that change half-way into the number and some delicious hooks."[18]
Rolling Stone stated "The Miracle is a showcase for Freddie Mercury and his love of sweeping, quasi-operatic vocals. And indeed, Mercury – especially on the title track – has never sounded better... Only on a few tracks ("Khashoggi's Ship" and "Was It All Worth It") does May really let it rip, and when he does, it's like the old Queen peeping out for just a moment and then turning tail... At least The Miracle offers little snippets of Queen's former majesty."[15]
AllMusic stated "The Miracle packs quite a sonic punch, recalling the rich sounds of their past classics (1976's A Day at the Races, etc.). Split 50/50 between pop and heavy rock, the album was another global smash. Along with The Game, The Miracle is Queen's strongest album of the '80s.