Queen Reissue Batch to Feature Another Compilation

What’s a batch of Queen reissues without some compilations? The same day of the latest catalogue overhaul in the U.K., Island will release Deep Cuts 1973-1976.

True enough to its name, it will feature album sides from the first five albums, with no bonus material. While some of the tunes are known even to casual fans (“Stone Cold Crazy,” “Keep Yourself Alive”), it’s a fine enough disc for anyone who wants to dip more of their foot into the waters of Queen’s discography (or see how new remastering has treated the catalogue).

There’s some interesting celebrity input on this set: Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor put the track list together with Taylor Hawkins of The Foo Fighters, and liner notes were written by British comedian Rhys Thomas, a longtime fan who’s actually produced several of Queen’s DVDs over the past few years.

Another interesting fact in the press release for Deep Cuts is the dates for the next two batches of reissues: June 13 and September 5. Mark your calendars appropriately.

And while we’re at it, here’s some more Queen clean-up for you:

  • Maybe others were confused about this – I know I was – but these reissues look like they’ll have two forms in the U.K. – straight single-disc remasters and double-disc deluxe editions. The latter sets will be the ones with bonus tracks, which is good to know albeit kind of wasteful (seriously, five or six bonus tracks on CD?).
  • It’s also worth noting, fresh off MusicTAP’s Twitter feed, that Hollywood Records has Greatest Hits II slated for an April 19 release in the U.S. Maybe…?

The track list for this new disc is after the jump.

Queen, Deep Cuts 1973-1976 (Island/UMe (U.K.), 2011)

  1. Ogre Battle
  2. Stone Cold Crazy
  3. My Fairy King
  4. I’m in Love with My Car
  5. Keep Yourself Alive
  6. Long Away
  7. The Millionaire Waltz
  8. ’39
  9. Tenement Funster
  10. Flick of the Wrist
  11. Lily of the Valley
  12. Good Company
  13. The March of the Black Queen
  14. In the Lap of the Gods…Revisited

Tracks 1 and 13 from Queen II (EMI, 1974)
Tracks 2, 9-11 and 14 from Sheer Heart Attack (EMI, 1974)
Tracks 3 and 5 from Queen (EMI, 1973)
Tracks 4, 8 and 12 from A Night at the Opera (EMI, 1975)
Tracks 6-7 from A Day at the Races (EMI, 1976)

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Mike Duquette
Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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0 thoughts on “Queen Reissue Batch to Feature Another Compilation”

  1. The reissues will be an iTunes “exclusive.” Somewhere (iTunes?) I read that the downloads will have bonus features-additional photos and the like that will not be available in the cd packaging. No mention if the exclusivity agreement is similar to the Duran Duran deal, that was exclusive to iTunes for a while, then released to more tradition channels. It would be interesting to compare sales through the various Amazon channels/eBay, vs iTunes download.

  2. Good choices. Interesting to see tracks 3, 4, and 5 of Sheer Heart Attack (which run into each other) are here in sequence.

    I had theorized that there would be two more batches of five albums each (my lineup had the Flash Gordon soundtrack in the third). The only question is: what about the live albums? There are five of them, not counting At the Beeb.

  3. This looks like a good compilation. I think I will add it to my preorder with the deluxe editions. I think Universal is doing a great job with these deluxe editions. I just received the Thin Lizzy reissues which are fantastic aside from a couple of track listing errors. I also got the deluxe edition of Rainbow’s Down To Earth which is so much better than the 1999 single disc remaster. I am now awaiting the Rainbow Rising and Black Sabbath Dehumanizer deluxe editions.

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