Made in Heaven

In the first half of 1991 the band worked at Mountain Studios in Montreux around Freddie Mercury's failing health, recording whenever he could come in; May recalls him saying they should write him anything and he would sing it, leaving them as much as he could. Mercury died at his home in Kensington on the evening of 24 November 1991, aged 45. John Deacon and Roger Taylor began a framework while May was promoting Back to the Light, but it did not feel right, and the three started again with David Richards. Queen produced the album, with Richards, Justin Shirley-Smith and Joshua J. Macrae as co-producers and engineers. The songs were assembled from material spanning 1980 to 1995. "It's a Beautiful Day" began as an improvisation at Musicland in Munich in 1980, and "Made in Heaven" and "I Was Born to Love You" were songs from Mercury's solo album Mr. Bad Guy, rebuilt with the band. "Let Me Live" had been meant for The Works, and "Mother Love" was the last song Mercury and May wrote together; May sings the final verse that Mercury could not. "Heaven for Everyone" came from Taylor's band The Cross, and "Too Much Love Will Kill You", tried for The Miracle, had appeared on May's solo album. Richards pieced "You Don't Fool Me" together from fragments, and "A Winter's Tale", one of Mercury's last songs, describes the view over Lake Geneva. The cover, conceived by Queen and Richard Gray, features Irena Sedlecka's statue of Mercury overlooking Lake Geneva at sunrise, with a sunset view inside; the statue itself was unveiled by the lake by Montserrat Caballé on 25 November 1996. Released by Parlophone in Britain on 6 November 1995, the album went to No. 1; on Hollywood Records it reached No. 58 in America, and Toshiba EMI's Japanese edition, out on 17 November, peaked at No. 10 on the Oricon chart. Five songs became singles, among them "Heaven for Everyone" (UK No. 2); in Japan "I Was Born to Love You" was used in a Kirin beer commercial in 1996 and as the theme of the TV drama Pride in 2004. The sleeve credits end by dedicating the album to the immortal spirit of Freddie Mercury.