A History of Pop Music Albums – 1991

Featured Album: Greatest_Hits_II_(Queen_album)

This is a series of articles looking at albums from 1960 to whatever year we end up in.

I will select a featured album for each year and the link for the whole album, Plus list the songs on it.

As before, it is not just about the songs and tunes, it is very much about memories, and good ones, I hope.

Not everyone will like my choices of course, and you may remember some from each particular year that you feel should have been included, so do please post a link to the song.

1991 was a good year work wise. At Eurotunnel we had the North tunnel breakthrough then a few months later the South Tunnel breakthrough, so now all 3 tunnels ran from the UK to France. Still, lots of work to run a two-stop railway station though. The “missing link” which was the last bit of Motorway on the M20 was finished at last, saved me 10 minutes each way to work. It was late November and I remember well the news saying Freddy had got AIDS. The following day he passed away.

The featured album for 1991 is: Greatest_Hits_II_(Queen_album)

I have featured Queen before; I am a big fan of their music, and as a tribute I offer this as the featured album. It was a rather good year for music, as you will see further down from the to 10 best sellers, for which I had most of them. Yes, I do know it is another “best of” album but it is about the year it was released, as that is what brings back the memories, and hopefully good ones.

Greatest Hits II is a compilation album by the British rock band Queen, released on 28 October 1991. The album consisted of Queen’s biggest hits between 1981 to 1991, which covers chart toppers “Under Pressure” to “Innuendo”. Greatest Hits II was released less than a month before the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury and was the last Queen release of any kind while he was still alive.

The compilation Greatest Hits II reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and is the tenth best-selling album in the UK with sales of 3.9 million copies as of 2014. It is the seventh best-selling album in Germany, the thirteenth best-selling album in France, and the best-selling album by a foreign artist in Finland. Accumulated sales (Greatest Hits II and Classic Queen for the US and Canada combined) are in excess of 25 million worldwide.

Track listing

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	“A Kind of Magic” (from A Kind of Magic, 1986)	Roger Taylor	4:22
2.	“Under Pressure” (with David Bowie; from Hot Space, 1982)	Queen, David Bowie	3:57
3.	“Radio Ga Ga” (from The Works, 1984)	Taylor	5:43
4.	“I Want It All” (single mix, from The Miracle, 1989)	Queen (Brian May)	4:01
5.	“I Want to Break Free” (single mix, from The Works, 1984)	John Deacon	4:18

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	“Innuendo” (from Innuendo, 1991)	Queen (Mercury/Taylor)	6:27
7.	“It’s a Hard Life” (from The Works, 1984)	Freddie Mercury	4:09
8.	“Breakthru” (from The Miracle, 1989)	Queen (Mercury/Taylor)	4:09
9.	“Who Wants to Live Forever” (from A Kind of Magic, 1986)	May	5:16

Side three
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
10.	“Headlong” (from Innuendo, 1991)	Queen (May)	4:37
11.	“The Miracle” (from The Miracle, 1989)	Queen (Mercury/Deacon)	5:01
12.	“I’m Going Slightly Mad” (from Innuendo, 1991)	Queen (Mercury)	4:22
13.	“The Invisible Man” (from The Miracle, 1989)	Queen (Taylor)	3:58

Side four
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
14.	“Hammer to Fall” (single mix, from The Works, 1984)	May	3:40
15.	“Friends Will Be Friends” (from A Kind of Magic, 1986)	Mercury, Deacon	4:08
16.	“The Show Must Go On” (from Innuendo, 1991)	Queen (May)	4:37
17.	“One Vision” (single mix, from A Kind of Magic, 1986)	Queen (Taylor)	4:02
Total length:			76:32

More writings on this album here: Greatest Hits II (Queen album)

So, on we go with 1991:

The top 10 sellers for 1991 are below, for a change, not half bad at all.

Top Tip: Right-click and open in new tab

Top Albums of 1991
1	Simply Red	Stars
2	Eurythmics	Greatest Hits
3	Queen	Greatest Hits II
4	Michael Jackson	Dangerous
5	Tina Turner	Simply The Best
6	R.E.M.	Out Of Time
7	Michael Bolton	Time Love And Tenderness
8	Madonna	The Immaculate Collection
9	Paul Young	From Time To Time – The Singles Collection
10	Cher	Love Hurts

Most ladies had the Stars album. Eurythmics album is most excellent and were it not for being the year Freddy died, would have been my featured album. Includes “Sweet Dreams”, “Who’s that girl”, a favourite of mine “There must be an Angel” and many others. Tina Turner still belting them out, I cannot imagine anyone not liking Nutbush City Limits. One I played a lot was R.E.M with “Losing my religion”. Another excellent album is the Paul Young singles collection, which really does include some magic tracks.

Overall a pretty good year, though there was a staggering amount of “Best of”” albums being released.

As promised: Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion I

Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion II

Enya – Shepherd Moons – Bigly nice driving music, relaxing

Jimmy Somerville – The Singles Collection 1984-1990– A Friday special, and yes, I quite like a lot of this music!

Dedication: The Very Best of Thin Lizzy – Kicks off with Whisky in a Jar, super album

Chris Rea – Auberge – Most excellent, to me just as good as Road to Hell.

The Commitments (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – One of my all-time favourite films and along with Cabaret (Liza Minelli and Joel Grey, although 2002), which gives me an idea for the next series.

Scoring:

As you know I like to review your “tunes” that you post.

*Note. Anyone scoring a Morrissey (lowest score possible) will be reported and blocked.

Hat tips to these sites:

http://www.everyhit.com/chart1.html these give the top 10 songs for each year.

https://www.youtube.com/ you know them.

Next Time: 1992. Will it get better? Forecast: (bit of a turn for the worse I’m afraid)

Featured Image: “Queen Greatest Hits (Remaster 2011)” by Brett Jordan is licensed under CC BY 2.0