Music > The Freddie Mercury Album
The Freddie Mercury Album was released through EMI on November 17th 1992, with Hollywood Records following a week later — on the first anniversary of Freddie’s death — under the title ‘The Great Pretender’.
Conceived as a tribute, and featuring a mixture of Freddie’s best-known solo hits and album material, the album (in both its forms) went on to become his biggest-selling solo project by far. It topped the album charts in numerous territories and has, to date, sold in excess of three million copies.
The album features eleven tracks, comprised for the most part of specially commissioned remixes. However, while many fans harboured strong reservations about the remixes, phenomenal sales figures in every corner of the globe brought Freddie’s music to a whole new audience.
The US version features My Love Is Dangerous (Jeff Lord-Alge remix) in place of Barcelona (album version, as contained on the EMI disc), Brian Malouf’s remix of The Great Pretender instead of the original cut (as contained on the European counterpart), and Richard Wolf’s remix of Love Kills in place of the original version on the EMI disc. The remaining eight tracks were identical across both discs — Steve Brown’s remixes of Foolin’ Around and Your Kind Of Lover, In My Defence (Ron Nevison remix), Time (Nile Rodgers remix), Mr Bad Guy (Brian Malouf remix), a new mix of Living On My Own (featuring additional production by Julian Raymond), Let’s Turn It On (Jeff Lord-Alge remix) and the original version of Exercises In Free Love.
Some North American pressings of ‘The Great Pretender’ featured a 3.25 Techno Mix of Living On My Own as an extra track.