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Greatest Hits II is a 1991 Queen compilation. It was #1 on the UK Albums Chart. The disc contains all of Queen's European hits from 1981 to 1991. Accumulated sales (Greatest Hits II and Classic Queen for the U.S. and Canada combined) are in excess of 16 million worldwide. It was released less than a month before the death of vocalist Freddie Mercury and the last Queen release of any kind while he was still alive, it was later made available in the United States in two box sets: Greatest Hits I & II and The Platinum Collection: Greatest Hits I, II & III.
[edit] Track listing
- "A Kind of Magic" (Roger Taylor) – 4:22
- "Under Pressure" (Queen, David Bowie) (edit) – 3:56
- "Radio Ga Ga" (Taylor) – 5:43
- "I Want It All" (Queen) (single version) – 4:01
- "I Want to Break Free" (Deacon) (single version) – 4:18
- "Innuendo" (Queen) (early fade edit) – 6:27
- "It's a Hard Life" (Mercury) – 4:09
- "Breakthru" (Queen) – 4:09
- "Who Wants to Live Forever" (May) (edit) – 4:57
- "Headlong" (Queen) (early faded) – 4:33
- "The Miracle" (Queen) (early faded) – 4:54
- "I'm Going Slightly Mad" (Queen) (edit) – 4:07
- "The Invisible Man" (Queen) – 3:58
- "Hammer to Fall" (May) (single version) – 3:40
- "Friends Will Be Friends" (Mercury) – 4:08
- "The Show Must Go On" (Queen) (early faded) – 4:23
- "One Vision" (Queen) (single version) – 4:02
[edit] Success
- This album had strong sales during 1991 and 1992 in Europe. It was number one in UK during 5 weeks, and with only 8 weeks at the end of the year, it was the third best selling album (with more than 1,200,000 copies). It spent 108 weeks on the charts (last week was in 2000), and was the 12th best selling album of the 90s in UK, with a figure of 3,600,000. It was also 8 platinum award in 2000.
- In The Netherlands, it was 13 weeks at number one between the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992 (11 weeks were in a row, and the other two were in may 1992). It was 5 platinum award in 1997 (and sales are estimated at 600,000 copies). It was 97 weeks on the charts.
- In Switzerland, it was 11 weeks at number one, and a massive 53 weeks on the charts. Even in the third week of 1992 Queen had this album at number one, and Greatest Hits at number 5, and Innuendo at number 10. They had three albums at top ten. The album was 5 platinum awards (more than 250,000 copies).
- It was 3 weeks at number one in Austria, and 47 weeks on the charts. It was give 4 platinum awards in 1997 (more than 200,000 copies).
- In Germany, it peaked at number 2, but it was 12 weeks at that position (only second to Genesis' We Can't Dance album first, and then a local artist). The album was 4 platinum awards in 1993 (more than 2 millions copies). It was a massive 117 weeks on the charts.
- In Finland, it was number one, and the best selling foreign album of all time according to the official finish charts in 2003. It was 5 platinum awards, and sold more than 132,000 copies (in the meantime EMI reported in 2004 (News on Queen On Line) 150,000 copies had been sold).
- In 2007 ARIA certified 8 platinum in Australia for 600.000 copies sold
- In Italy, it was at number one between 1991 and 1992, and had sold 1 million copies until that moment.
- The album was also 8 weeks at number one in Spain, and was certified 5 platinum awards in 1992, and according to EMI, it had sold 606,600 copies only in CDs until 2004.
- Greatest Hits II was also diamond award in France (more than 1 million copies until 1992), and diamond in Argentina in 2002 (with estimated sales of 1 million copies). The album peaked at number 2 in Sweden and was platinum award (it was the second best selling album of 1992). In Brazil, it was 2 platinum award (more than 500,000 copies).
- It was also number one in Hungary, and according to several sources, it was the best selling foreign album of all time in that country.
- Estimated sales for this album (including Classic Queen in U.S. and Canada) are about 35 millions copies.
- They have sold almost 100 million Greatest Hits albums, 1(43M)2(35M)3(6M)box set(11M) and with the way 1 & 2 continue to sell it will go well above that figure.
[edit] Miscellanea
The individual pictures of the band in the inlay booklet, taken in the year of the album's release, 1991, were obviously taken straight after the "These Are the Days of Our Lives" video shoot (on 31 May 1991), as the band are all wearing exactly the same clothes in their individual pictures as they are wearing in the video. The pictures were also featured on the back cover of the related video release, Greatest Flix 2.
