Made in Heaven
Released 6 November 1995
Recorded January–May 1991, October 1993 – February 1995
Studio Mountain Studios, Allerton Hill, Cosford Mill, and Metropolis Studios
Genre Rock
Length
70:21
47:45 (original LP, Cassette)
Label
Parlophone Hollywood
Producer Queen
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 band’s first release since the death of singer Freddie Mercury in 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 fresh 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 5× platinum. The album became the band’s best-selling studio album, selling over 20 million copies around the world.
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”.
On the video Champions of the World, May described these sessions with Mercury as such:
By the time we were recording these other tracks after Innuendo, we had had the discussions and we knew that we were totally on borrowed time because Freddie had been told that he would not make it to that point. I think our plan was to go in there whenever Freddie felt well enough, just to make as much use of him as much as possible, we basically lived in the studio for a while and when he would call and say, ‘I can come in for a few hours’, our plan was to just make as much use of him as we could, you know he told us, ‘Get me to sing anything, write me anything and I will sing it and I will leave you as much as I possibly can.’
After Mercury’s death, the band returned to the studio in 1993 to begin work 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 that 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.”
Track listing
The writers of tracks credited to Queen are listed in parentheses.
CD
No. Title Writer(s) Lead Vocals Length
1. “It’s a Beautiful Day” Queen (Freddie Mercury, John Deacon) 2:32
2. “Made in Heaven” Mercury 5:25
3. “Let Me Live” Queen Roger Taylor, Brian May and Mercury 4:45
4. “Mother Love” Mercury, Brian May Mercury with May 4:49
5. “My Life Has Been Saved” Queen (Deacon) 3:15
6. “I Was Born to Love You” Mercury 4:49
7. “Heaven for Everyone” Roger Taylor 5:36
8. “Too Much Love Will Kill You” May, Frank Musker, Elizabeth Lamers 4:20
9. “You Don’t Fool Me” Queen 5:24
10. “A Winter’s Tale” Queen (Mercury) 3:49
11. “It’s a Beautiful Day” (reprise) Queen (Mercury) 3:01
12. “Yeah” (hidden track) Queen Spoken word by Mercury 0:04
13. Untitled (hidden track) Queen (May, Taylor, David Richards) Spoken word by Mercury 22:32
2011 bonus EP
2011 iTunes deluxe edition bonus videos
1995 LP
Two tracks on the vinyl version of Made in Heaven had to be edited to fit on one vinyl disc. These two tracks are “I Was Born to Love You” and “You Don’t Fool Me”. Also, the version of “Heaven for Everyone” included on the vinyl version is the single version.
Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “It’s a Beautiful Day” Queen (Mercury, Deacon) 2:32
2. “Made in Heaven” Mercury 5:25
3. “Let Me Live” Queen 4:45
4. “Mother Love” Mercury, May 4:49
5. “My Life Has Been Saved” Queen (Deacon) 3:15
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
6. “I Was Born to Love You” Mercury 4:25
7. “Heaven for Everyone” (single version) Taylor 4:43
8. “Too Much Love Will Kill You” May, Musker, Lamers 4:20
9. “You Don’t Fool Me” Queen 4:46
10. “A Winter’s Tale” Queen (Mercury) 3:49
11. “It’s a Beautiful Day (Reprise)” Queen (Mercury) 3:01
12. “Yeah” (unlisted) Queen (Mercury) 0:15
2015 LP
Made in Heaven was reissued on vinyl on 25 September 2015, alongside all of Queen’s other studio albums. This is the first time that the complete album was released on vinyl, spread across 2 LPs. Track 13 is also presented on vinyl for the first time, listed as “13” on the artwork, and taking up all of side four.
Side 1
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “It’s a Beautiful Day” Queen (Mercury, John Deacon) 2:32
2. “Made in Heaven” Mercury 5:25
3. “Let Me Live” Queen 4:45
4. “Mother Love” Mercury, May 4:46
Side 2
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “My Life Has Been Saved” Queen (Deacon) 3:15
2. “I Was Born to Love You” Mercury 4:51
3. “Heaven for Everyone” Taylor 5:34
Side 3
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “Too Much Love Will Kill You” May, Musker, Lamers 4:20
2. “You Don’t Fool Me” Queen 5:23
3. “A Winter’s Tale” Queen (Mercury) 3:49
4. “It’s a Beautiful Day (Reprise)” Queen (Mercury) 3:00
5. “Yeah” (unlisted) Queen (Mercury) 0:11
Side 4
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “13” Queen (May, Taylor, Richards) 22:32
Personnel
Queen
Freddie Mercury – lead vocals (all tracks), keyboards (1-3, 6, 10, 11), backing vocals (2, 6, 9, 10), drum machine (4)
Brian May – electric guitar (all tracks), backing vocals (3, 7, 8, 10, 11), keyboards (3, 4, 6, 8, 10), lead vocals (3, 4)
Roger Taylor – drums (all but 1), backing vocals (3, 7, 9-11), percussion (1-3, 6, 9), keyboards (7, 9), lead vocals (3)
John Deacon – bass (all tracks), keyboards (1, 5, 11), electric guitar (5)
Additional personnel
Rebecca Leigh-White, Gary Martin, Catherine Porter, Miriam Stockley – backing vocals (3)
David Richards – keyboards (5, 8, 13), co-production, engineering, mixing supervision
Justin Shirley-Smith – co-production, engineering
Josh Macrae – co-production, engineering
Reinhold Mack – recording of additional material in the 80’s
Kevin Metcalfe – mastering
Richard Gray – artwork, cover photograph of Irena Sedlecká’s Mercury sculpture in Montreux
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