<\/p>\n
Almost 20 years ago the Record Collector published this article. A lot has changed since then. Many new items have been discovered and also many of the ones listed here have drastically drop their value.<\/p>\n
I think it’s time to update this list.<\/p>\n
Send me your Top Queen rarities with values and will try soon to compile a new one.<\/p>\n
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Record Collector Article January 1998<\/p>\n
QUEEN: THE CROWN JEWELS<\/span><\/p>\n Even years after the death of Freddie Mercury, Queen’s position as one of rock’s greatest-ever acts remains secure.\u00a0 The recent “Queen Rocks” compilation saw the band back at No. 1 in the charts, although plans to release their first post-Mercury track, “No One But you (Only The Good Die Young)”, were apparently scotched due to the song’s poor reception from hardcore fans.<\/span><\/p>\n New Freddie-free offerings may be destined to suffer the same critical fate as the reformed beatles singles, ‘Free As A Bird” and “Real love”, but Queen’s classic old stuff still sparkles with enough magic to ensure that the band’s music will live on well into the 21st century. <\/span> DEMAND<\/span><\/p>\n That said, demand for late 80s and early 90s mass-produced ‘special editions’ is steadily diminishing, and Queen’s multi-formatted releases rarely command more than a few times their original asking price.\u00a0 The big money is reserved for bona fide limited releases like the 1978 blue vinyl “Bohemian Rhapsody” – a rarity as classic as the song itself – as well as promos, and obscure overseas issues.\u00a0 As a general rule, there are three main points to consider when buying the overseas stuff: the age of the item (usually, the older the better), its visual appeal (particularly in the case of alternative picture sleeves, coloured vinyl and picture discs), and its condition (a tatty cover will still sell if it’s genuinely rare, but for the real vinyl junkie, it has to be Mint). <\/span> BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY<\/span><\/p>\n More than any other song, ‘Bo Rhap” epitomizes the very essence of Queen.\u00a0 All the ingredients are there: the exotic title, the pop sensibility, the operatic mid-section, the hard-rocking coda, sales in the millions.\u00a0 The single is one of the most reissued in the band’s history, with eight U.K. formats alone. The most famous of these is the blue-vinyl queen’s Award For Industry issue, which was pressed in a limited edition of just 200 to celebrate EMI winning the coveted badge of honour (for more info, see RC 143).\u00a0 These days, a cool \u00a32,000 is the starting place for a copy in its picture sleeve.\u00a0 Add an extra \u00a3500 if its outer card carrying envelope is intact, and a further grand if it comes with all the trimmings, as presented to the lucky few at a reception at Selfridges in London on 26th July 1978. <\/span> FOREIGN SLEEVES<\/span><\/p>\n Overseas sleeves are the mainstay of collecting Queen, with examples from Portugal being a firm favorite – they are hard to find and easy to sell.\u00a0 Queen broke through internationally in 1974 with ‘Killer Queen”, which was a hit all around the world.\u00a0 Nevertheless, overseas picture sleeves for the single were scarce even then, and in some countries it seems as if fewer than 1,000 copies were printed (but at least they made the effort: Queen’s first U.K sleeve wasn’t until 1975’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”).\u00a0 Picture sleeves for their debut, “Seven Seas Of Rhye”, are even harder to come by – there are only five examples, from Portugal, Holland, Japan, France and Yugoslavia – while ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ was only issued in a picture sleeve in the first three of these countries.\u00a0 Elsewhere, exotic A-sides, like “Mustapha’ from Bolivia, and ‘Long Away” from Thailand, command hefty sums simply because they are so unusual. <\/span> JAPANESE SINGLES<\/span><\/p>\n Japanese singles will forever hold sway over western collectors thanks to the exotic nature of their packaging.\u00a0 Beautifully put together with fold-over colour inserts, unique photographs and space-age graphics, Japanese singles look as though they come from another world, let alone another country.\u00a0 The home market has always been relatively small compared to the U.K. or the U.S., and pressing runs were kept appropriately economical.\u00a0 Add to this the extremely limited nature of, say, a promotional-only 7″, and even more exclusive promo CDs, and you’ve got a virtual license to print money.\u00a0 This is particularly so with the top Japanese Queen collectable a red vinyl promo-only “Sheer Heart Attack” LP.\u00a0 While anti-static, “Everclear” red vinyl discs were once reasonably common in Japan by artists like the Beatles, no commercial albums by Queen were issued in this form. Few collectors have even seen this record, although we are assured that it exists, and at the vinyl is a deep “blood-red” colour, In fact, the one known copy reportedly came from no less a source than Roger Taylor. (A French red vinyl copy of the same album, incidentally, is a counterfeit.) <\/span> COLOURED VINYL & PICTURE DISCS<\/span><\/p>\n Coloured vinyl is traditional collectors’ fare.\u00a0 There have always been records pressed in plastic other than black, but the trend really took hold in the 1970s.\u00a0 Unusually, though, leaving aside the special issue ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Queen were somewhat overlooked in this respect at the time, as labels like A&M whipped up a whole palette’s worth of hues for the likes of Squeeze and the Police.\u00a0 It was left to EMI’s overseas affiliates to ensure that Queen were included in on the act.\u00a0 France knocked out colour coordinated copies of ‘A Night At The Opera” and “News Of The World’ and later “A Kind Of Magic’, while this last album was given an extra lease of life in New Zealand, where it appeared on orangey-pink vinyl, and as a one-off burgundy-coloured ‘factory custom pressing.<\/span><\/p>\n The 1995 multicoloured-vinyl Czechoslovakian reissues of “Queen” were apparently test-pressings for record-company executives pitching, for a licence to reissue the band’s first album in that country.\u00a0 The licence was granted, and the Czechs went on to press copies of ‘Queen’ on pink vinyl (value: \u00a380) and green ($30).\u00a0 But the sought-after issue is the multicoloured vinyl one, not least because just 30 copies were pressed! <\/span> PROMOS<\/span><\/p>\n Most of the CDs listed in our sought-after centenary are promos.\u00a0 Understandably, “The Greatest 3” triple-disc Japanese set is hugely in demand, as it contains a separate CD by Queen, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles not a bad triumvirate when it comes to collecting.\u00a0 Some sets come with a special ‘dealer pack’, which includes Japanese language newspaper, outlining a brief history of each group.\u00a0 Put together to celebrate both Queen and the Stones joining the EMI stable (Queen had previously been on Elektra in Japan), “The Greatest 3” was such a big deal when it was released in 1991 that it was itself promoted via a sampler CD containing six of the best from each act.\u00a0 This disc alone sells for \u00a3400. <\/span> UNRELEASED AND WITHDRAWN ITEMS<\/span><\/p>\n If you want to spice up your collecting life with something few other buggers have got, then you need a record that’s unreleased or has been withdrawn.\u00a0 Copies of the 1984 single, “Hammer To Fall”, with a long-distance live shot of Queen on the picture sleeve, are stalwarts of the collecting scene, and both the U.K. 7″ and 12″ editions have been known to fetch \u00a3180 apiece.\u00a0 The single was shipped to branches of Woolworth’s before, as the story goes, Brian May decided he didn’t like the image as it gave the false impression that the single was a live recording.\u00a0 The sleeve [was] quickly pulled in favour of a last-minute replacement featuring little more than the record’s title.\u00a0 Less familiar is the U.S. 7″ version, which features the same photograph as its U.K. counterpart, but appeared in far fewer numbers, hence its \u00a3500 price tag. <\/span> MISCELLANEOUS<\/span><\/p>
\nOnce you’ve been lured into the labyrinthine world of Queen collecting, the finest details of packaging become fascinating.\u00a0 Succumb to the charms of an alternative “Bohemian Rhapsody” picture sleeve and, before you know it, there goes your Christmas bonus!\u00a0 The demand for such items can be measured by the sums of money they fetch.\u00a0 There are over two dozen Queen overseas picture sleeves which regularly sell for anything from \u00a3100 to \u00a3800 – not even the Beatles can match that!<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0This list has been compiled from records issued in every corner of the globe, from the U.K. to Uruguay, from Turkey to Thailand.\u00a0 Some records issued in, say, Hungary or Czechoslovakia, may be of dubious legality, but their vintage and obscurity assures them a place in our hallowed hundred.\u00a0 Broadly speaking, each entry in the Top 100 can be slotted into one or another of the following categories.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThe complete ‘Bo Rhap” Queen’s Award inventory should include the numbered record in its picture sleeve, the outer envelope, an invitation, a blue silk scarf and a set of two EMI goblets housed in card box, itself lined in blue silk.\u00a0 Sets occasionally appear with a commemorative biro, but its absence isn’t likely to effect the price much. <\/span>
\nDespite official denials, it now appears as if unnumbered copies of the blue vinyl single do exist after all.\u00a0 These seem likely to be test or after-hours pressings, and while they come with finished labels, they aren’t numbered and don’t have picture sleeves. Dealers report that these copies can sell for around the \u00a3500-\u00a3600 mark, but are hard to shift. <\/span>
\nOther, less pricey, top “Bo Rhap’ collectables include the famous ‘little girl” picture sleeve from France (printed on thin paper and very hard to find in Mint condition!) and a four-track various-artists EP from Thailand which, although of dubious provenance, does at least come with a Queen-related cover (unlike many Far Eastern issues).\u00a0 There’s also a recently discovered Turkish issue (backed with “Sweet Lady” from “A Night At The Opera’) on the Max label – the band’s only confirmed picture sleeve from this country.\u00a0 Making up the numbers is a French promo edit from 1979’s “Live Killers” campaign, which omits the song’s operatic mid-section, and the Official Queen Fan Club’s 10th anniversary reissue from 1995, which sells for \u00a3175 or more.\u00a0 Beware of \u00a350-rated, unnumbered ‘back door” copies of this latter single, incidentally, which although pressed at EMI, were done so unofficially, and don’t form part of the initial run of 2,000.\u00a0 And it’s worth noting here that 1995 copies on blue, black or marbled purple vinyl are clever counterfeits, despite their \u00a325 price tags.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nAlternative LP sleeves are less common, as most countries opted, or were obliged, to merely reproduce EMI’s U.K. originals.\u00a0 Notable exceptions include the Turkish edition of “Flash”, which added a “Live Killers’-style photo to the familiar yellow sleeve, and a copy of “Jazz’ from the same country which re-titled the LP after its lead single, “Bicycle Race”.\u00a0 Even more appealing is the Portuguese record club issue of ‘Sheer Heart Attack”, which looks like the design for a packet of wine gums, and a couple of oddities from far-flung Venezuela: a “A Night At The Opera”, which swapped Freddie’s colourful regal crest for a gloomy live shot reminiscent of “Queen 1″; and a version of ‘Queen II”, for which the colour scheme was white instead of black, and which depicted the band members looking suitably ghoulish with purple faces and mad-dog yellow eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nUntil recently, the Japanese ‘I Want It All’ promo-only single was valued at \u00a3900 or more.\u00a0 Then it was cleverly counterfeited, which effectively knocked \u00a3200 off the asking price of the original – many collectors, it seems, were happy enough with the $30 fake.\u00a0 Should you be in the market for the genuine article, check the run-off groove.\u00a0 The matrix number should be intact, if it has been scratched out, you’re being offered a dud.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMost obscure of all, though, is a series of coloured vinyls from Colombia.\u00a0 Significant among these are the 12″ singles, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Under Pressure”, all of which appeared in a variety of colours in generic “EMI Disco” sleeves.\u00a0 “Crazy Little Thing” is backed by an unusual mix of ‘Bicycle Race”, in which the track stops two-thirds of the way through only to return to the intro to play the song once more in its entirety.\u00a0 Most Colombian pressings were cheaply produced, with sound quality far from a primary concern (even if the 12″s were probably only issued to club DJs).\u00a0 They also appear to have been put into some particularly demanding service and more often than not turn up in dreadful condition. <\/span>
\nColombia also issued a “A Kind Of Magic” album on blue (rumours of ‘Greatest Hits” in a similar colour are unfounded) and a two tone ‘Live Killers’ – one disc black, the other blue.\u00a0 This latter issue sells for a whopping \u00a3700, ten times more than the red-and-green Japanese issue!\u00a0 Elsewhere in South America, EMI’s Venezuelan contingent issued the highly prized (and highly priced) “Hot Space” on delightful slate-grey vinyl. <\/span>
\nOnly two picture discs make it into our Top 100, both of which have acquired near legendary status among collectors.\u00a0 “Jazz” appeared in France with either a black or white perimeter border printed with a series of white or black bicycle motifs (completists need both, of course).\u00a0 Look out for poor quality fakes, on which the picture-disc image is fuzzy.\u00a0 Sold as a ‘reproduction”, this will fetch \u00a325 while, amazingly, there’s even demand for the white-vinyl test-pressing of this forgery, which can command as much as \u00a3100. <\/span>
\n‘Greatest Hits’ was manufactured in East Germany for sale in, of all places, Bulgaria.\u00a0 This used a picture of the band live in Montreux instead of the more formal Snowdon photograph which adorned the standard LP sleeve elsewhere.\u00a0 Valued at more than \u00a3600, it’s easy to why this disc, too, has been counterfeited.\u00a0 But it’s easy to tell the difference between the fake and the original.\u00a0 Even if you’re unsure about just how fuzzy (the fake) or sharp (the original) the Montreux image should be, check out the top amplifier in the picture.\u00a0 If you can see the word “Marshall”, you’re on safe ground, if not, your disc is decidedly dodgy.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOther in-demand Japanese promo-only compilations include the 15-track “Made In Heaven”-era “Ultimate Collection”, which also includes solo Freddie material, and ‘Their Greatest History”, numbered copies of which are worth more than their unnumbered counterparts.\u00a0 Both of these are streets ahead of similar U.S. compilations – such as the lavishly packaged ‘Their Best”, and the 4-CD set, “Rocks Box” – in terms of value and scarcity.\u00a0 ‘Rocks Box” is a unique 20th anniversary compilation (four volumes of ‘Queen Rocks”), in which each disc is housed in a tray which slides into a mini card chest of drawers. <\/span>
\n“Their Best” includes two CDs: ‘Greatest Hits”, which is a U.S.-only compilation featuring a different sleeve and tracks to the regular album with the same title, and a three track disc featuring “We Are The Champions”, and the regular and remixed versions of “We Will Rock You”.\u00a0 Both of these fit into foam recesses inside a hard plastic carrying case, measuring 13″ x\u00a0 10″.\u00a0 This also contains a silver-embossed folder, inside which is a 1974 Mick Rock photograph (as per the Japanese ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye” picture sleeve), a two page biography dated August 1992, and a numbered Hollywood Records paper slip. <\/span>
\nOne of the most sought-after U.K. Queen promos bears the unwieldy title of “Promotional Sampler From The U.K. Pop Group Conference ’73”.\u00a0 This white-label disc is actually the group’s debut LP, and comes housed in a generic die-cut sleeve, which is printed with mug shots of EMI’s top executives of the day, among whom are Colin Miles, now head of the See For Miles reissue label, and Paul Watts, who was interviewed in RC 143 about the blue vinyl “Bo Rhap”, and pictured in RC 162 in our report on the Thames TV record library sell-off.\u00a0 Super-rare copies of this “Conference” LP come with another purple envelope embossed in gold with Queen’s crest, which also contains a press release (printed on purple paper) and a set of 10″ x 8″ glossy photographs.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n“Radio Ga Ga” was originally planned with a sleeve featuring a still from the famous Metropolis-style video shoot, but was eventually abandoned in favour of a group portrait.\u00a0 The dummy sleeve only survives as a printer’s proof (i.e. the front and back appear on the same card sheet), and also carries a value of some P-500.\u00a0 Mystery surrounds the cancelled double A-side single, “The Show Must Go On”\/”Bohemian Rhapsody”, but it looks as if this was intended to be released in late 1991.\u00a0 “The Show” did indeed become the final single from ‘Innuendo”, but not with this flipside.\u00a0 Freddie’s death scotched the idea as, inevitably, EMI quickly prepared a reissue of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody” in its own right.<\/span><\/p>\n