Barcelona (album)

Barcelona
Studio album by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé
Released 10 October 1988
Recorded January 1987 – June 1988
Studio Townhouse and Mountain Studios[1]
Genre Classical crossover
Length 39:56
Language English, Spanish, Japanese
Label Polydor, Hollywood
Producer Freddie Mercury, Mike Moran, David Richards
2012 reissue produced and orchestrated by Stuart Morley
Freddie Mercury chronology
Mr. Bad Guy
(1985)		 Barcelona
(1988)		 The Freddie Mercury Album
(1992)
Alternative cover
2012 reissue cover
Singles from Barcelona
  1. "Barcelona"
    Released: 26 October 1987
  2. "The Golden Boy"
    Released: 24 October 1988
  3. "How Can I Go On"
    Released: 23 January 1989
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Entertainment WeeklyB[3]

Barcelona is the second solo album recorded by Freddie Mercury, frontman of popular British rock band Queen, and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. Released in 1988. It is the second and final solo album recorded by Mercury.

After Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, Mercury was approached to write a song as a theme for the forthcoming games. The idea was to create a duet with Caballé, as she is from the city. He had been a long-standing admirer of her and she in turn grew to respect his talents very highly. They decided to work on an album together, with Mercury and Mike Moran taking the creative lead as songwriters. Mercury and Moran made and sent her tapes of the music with Mercury singing in falsetto as a guide vocal for Montserrat's parts. As they rarely had an opening in their schedule to meet, her parts were recorded at another location.[4]

A special edition of the album was released on 3 September 2012. It features a new version of the album with the previous instrumental tracks replaced with new, live symphonic orchestration and percussion rather than synthesizers and drum machines. The new edition also has a new unique album cover.[5]

Track listing

All tracks written by Freddie Mercury and Mike Moran, except where noted. 

No. Title Length
1. "Barcelona"   5:37
2. "La Japonaise"   4:49
3. "The Fallen Priest" (Mercury, Moran, Tim Rice) 5:46
4. "Ensueño" (Mercury, Moran, Montserrat Caballé) 4:27
5. "The Golden Boy" (Mercury, Moran, Rice) 6:04
6. "Guide Me Home"   2:49
7. "How Can I Go On"   3:51
8. "Overture Piccante"   6:40

Content

Barcelona

The song was composed and produced by Mike Moran and Freddie Mercury. The recording sessions include violins by Homi Kanga and Laurie Lewis, cello by Deborah Ann Johnston, horn by Barry Castle and percussion by Frank Ricotti. "Barcelona" was chosen to be the anthem of 1992 Olympics in Spain, but Mercury died less than seven months before the games. It was, however, featured at the opening ceremony,[6][7] and it was used as the title music to the BBC's coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics.[8] The music video was filmed at the world's largest nightclub, Ku, nowadays named Privilege in Ibiza.

Russell Watson covers it on his album The Voice with Shaun Ryder.

La Japonaise

The song was recorded on 9 November 1987 (an early demo comes from 1 September). Mercury wrote all the lyrics including the ones in Japanese, and sang some parts in falsetto which were kept on the final version.

The Fallen Priest

Originally a virtuoso piano piece by Moran with some high vocals from Mercury, it was named "Rachmaninov's Revenge" (demos come from 26 January and 19 February respectively). Then it was named "The Duet" and finally "The Fallen Priest" when Tim Rice wrote the lyrics for it. Elaine Paige was living with Rice at the time and she was working on an album of Queen covers. Also released in 1987 it was also produced by Moran who conducted the orchestra, wrote the arrangements and played piano and keyboards.

Ensueño

When Mercury first met Montserrat Caballé on March 1987, he brought in a piece he and Moran had composed called "Exercises in Free Love", to which Caballé added lyrics and became "Ensueño" later on. She asked him to sing it in his natural speaking (baritone) voice.[9]

The Golden Boy

Main article: The Golden Boy

This song also included lyrics from Rice and was recorded on 1 December 1987 (early demos come from 2 May and 9 November). The celebrity gospel choir featured Madeline Bell, Dennis Bishop, Lance Ellington, Miriam Stockley, Peter Straker, Mark Williamson, and Carol Woods. Straker was Mercury's friend who helped him out with some lyrics of "I'm Going Slightly Mad", and Stockley sang later on with Brian May.

Guide Me Home

Originally titled "Freddie's Overture", it was one of the last numbers to be written (early 1988).

How Can I Go On

This song comes from spring 1987. On the album its beginning is seamlessly merged with the end of the previous track. It features John Deacon on bass.

Overture Piccante

The last track on the album mixes parts of other tracks into a new piece.

Special edition (2012)

The 2012 special edition replaces original instrumentation, created using synthesizers and samplers, with a full symphonic orchestra.[10]

The score was transcribed and re-orchestrated by Stuart Morley, the musical director for Queen's musical We Will Rock You, who is also the album's producer. Morley listened to the original record to capture the harmony and leading parts, then re-orchestrated the score with traditional paper, pen and eraser, using Rimsky-Korsakov's Treatise on Orchestration and Scheherazade, Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony and Debussy's La Mer as a reference.[11]

The score was performed by the Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra. Naoko Kikuchi recorded a koto part for ‘La Japonaise’, while Rufus Taylor, the son of Queen member Roger Taylor, recorded drums for the ‘The Golden Boy’ and ‘How Can I Go On’, and classical violinist David Garrett recorded a new violin solo for the latter.

Disc one – New orchestrated album

  1. "Barcelona" - 5:43
  2. "La Japonaise" - 4:52
  3. "The Fallen Priest" - 5:46
  4. "Ensueño" - 4:22
  5. "The Golden Boy" - 6:04
  6. "Guide Me Home" - 2:50
  7. "How Can I Go On" - 3:49
  8. "Exercises in Free Love" - 3:57
  9. "Overture Piccante" - 6:47
  10. "How Can I Go On" [Bonus Track featuring David Garrett] – 3:56

Disc two – The Best of the Rarities and Session Outtakes

  1. "Exercises in Free Love" [1987 B-side] – 4:26
  2. "Barcelona" [Early Version: Freddie's Demo Vocal] – 4:21
  3. "La Japonaise" [Early Version: Freddie's Demo Vocal] – 4:41
  4. "Rachmaninov's Revenge (The Fallen Priest)" [Later Version: Freddie's Demo Vocal] – 5:51
  5. "Ensueño" [Monsterrat's Live Takes] – 5:36
  6. "The Golden Boy" [Early Version: Freddie's Demo Vocal] – 3:54
  7. "Guide Me Home" [Alternative Version] – 2:50
  8. "How Can I Go On" [Alternative Version] – 4:03
  9. "How Can I Go On" [Alternative Piano Version] – 3:44

Disc three – Album orchestral version

  1. "Barcelona" [Instrumental] – 5:39
  2. "La Japonaise" [Instrumental] – 4:51
  3. "The Fallen Priest" [Instrumental] – 5:47
  4. "Ensueño" [Instrumental] – 4:01
  5. "The Golden Boy" [Instrumental] – 6:03
  6. "Guide Me Home" [Instrumental] – 2:50
  7. "How Can I Go On" [Instrumental] – 3:37
  8. "Exercises in Free Love" [Instrumental] – 3:57
  9. "Overture Piccante" [Instrumental] – 6:43

Disc four – DVD

  1. "Barcelona"
  1. "Barcelona"
  2. "How Can I Go On"
  3. "The Golden Boy"

Personnel

Chart positions

Album

Album Barcelona

CountryChartsSales
1988:1992 reissue:Certification
Peak positionWeeksPeak positionWeeks
Austria[12] 246–
Germany 4118–
Japan 931
Netherlands 922
New Zealand[12] 139
Sweden[12] 371
Switzerland 185Platinum[12]
United Kingdom25 158Silver[13]
USA 6 –

Singles

Single Barcelona (1987/1992)

CountryCharts[14]
Peak positionWeeks
1987:
United Kingdom89
Sweden15
Netherlands343
1992 reissue:
Netherlands210
United Kingdom28
Switzerland813
Sweden12
Australia423

Single The Golden Boy (1988)

CountryCharts
Peak positionWeeks
United Kingdom80

Single How Can I Go On (1989)

CountryCharts
Peak positionWeeks
United Kingdom95

References

  1. ↑ Barcelona (album) queenpedia.com Retrieved 2014-10-07.
  2. ↑ Allmusic Review
  3. ↑ Entertainment Weekly Review
  4. ↑ Freestone, Peter (1999). Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir By the Man Who Knew Him Best. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-8674-9. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
  5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Umy0azDV0
  6. ↑ "Barcelona 92: inicio de la ceremonia". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
  7. ↑ "La ceremonia de inauguración". El Mundo Deportivo(newspaper library). 1992-07-20. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
  8. ↑ Sport | BBC | Olympics. TVARK. Retrieved on 2011-03-02.
  9. ↑ Peter Freestone (2001). Freddie Mercury: an intimate memoir by the man who knew him best. Omnibus Press. pp. 100–. ISBN 978-0-7119-8674-9. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
  10. ↑ http://www.queenonline.com/en/news-archive/press-release-barcelona-special-edition/
  11. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-23.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Charts (album)
  13. ↑ BPI. Certified Awards. Archived 11 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ↑ Charts (single)

External links

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