The Miracle

Queen's last concert with Freddie Mercury was at Knebworth Park in August 1986, and in 1987 the members went their own ways: Brian May produced other artists, Mercury made the Barcelona album with Montserrat Caballé, and Roger Taylor formed a new band, The Cross. The group reconvened at The Townhouse in London and also recorded at Olympic Studios and Mountain Studios in Montreux. The co-producer's chair passed from Mack, who had worked with the band through the 1980s, to David Richards, an engineer with them since Live Killers, who also engineered these sessions. For the first time every song was credited to the whole band, whoever wrote it; May later said they left their egos at the studio door and worked as a real band, and wished they had done it years before. Of more than thirty songs from the sessions, ten made the album, while others became B-sides or solo tracks or were carried over to Innuendo and Made in Heaven. May has said "I Want It All", written before the sessions, was never played live with Mercury; "Scandal" was his response to press intrusion into the members' private lives; and the title track is the one he often names as his favourite Queen song. The album was planned with eleven tracks, but "Too Much Love Will Kill You" was dropped at the last moment over unresolved publishing issues. Richard Gray, the band's art director, merged the four faces into one for the cover, an image of the band's unity; the working title, The Invisible Men, was changed weeks before release. Released by Parlophone in Britain on 22 May 1989, the album went to No. 1; Capitol issued it in America about two weeks later, and it reached No. 24 there. Five songs became singles, among them "I Want It All" (UK No. 3) and "Breakthru" (UK No. 7). Toshiba EMI's Japanese edition followed on 9 June and reached No. 23 on the Oricon chart. On BBC Radio 1 on 29 May, Mercury suggested for the first time that his touring days were over, and no tour followed. The 2022 Collector's Edition added a sessions disc with six unheard songs, among them "Face It Alone", and an LP with "Too Much Love Will Kill You" back in place.