From Queenpedia.com
1991 was a big year for Queen. Not only did it see them back on the top of the charts – both album and singles – with Innuendo and the title track, but America was finally starting to take notice of them again. This was due to an aggressive marketing campaign by Hollywood Records, with whom Queen had signed the year before. As a result, the band's back catalog was reissued on CD, and while there were problems with the sound and grievances about certain bonus tracks, it achieved the desired result, and Queen were suddenly big news again in the States. Back at home, the band were as high profile as ever, though moreso in the tabloids than in the music papers. Speculation was rising about the state of Freddie's health, which was being reported on an almost daily basis. In order to remind everyone that Queen was still very much alive and busy, and also to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band's formation, Greatest Hits II was assembled and released to astronomical sales and acclaim. Much like its predecessor, a trio of packages – Hits, Flix, and Pix – was unleashed, with the "hits" collection rounding up seventeen of Queen's most beloved singles from between 1981 and 1991. Unlike its predecessor, the tracklist remained unanimous around the world – no variations were offered based on the territory. A forerunner to the album – and the final single from Innuendo – was released in October. The Show Must Go On was a perfect career summation for the band, though no one knew at the time it would be the last single released in Freddie's lifetime. The other sixteen tracks on the album collected the best and finest from the decade prior, meaning that, again, nothing that didn't reach the UK Top 30 was included. Curiously, only Under Pressure was released from Hot Space, while Scandal was also nowhere to be found. (While the former issue was resolved on Greatest Hits III, the latter has yet to be fixed.) The album peaked at #1 in the UK and various European countries (Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, Italy, Spain, and Hungary), and in its home country had remained in the charts for more than 100 weeks, with over 1.2 million copies sold. Curiously, America didn't receive the album, though Hollywood Records were assembling its own collection, a variation of this album. Tracklists
Credits
Charts
Information supplied by Fedepeti, 24 August 2004 Additional info
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