This is going to take a little explaining. In 1981, when it was contracted to Elektra Records in the U.S.,
Queen released an album called
Greatest Hits (Elektra 564), which contained 14 songs that chronicled singles from 1973 to 1981. In 1990, Hollywood Records acquired CD rights to
Queen's catalog, by which time the Elektra
Greatest Hits had gone out of print on vinyl. Hollywood released
Classic Queen, a compilation that covered
Queen's hits from 1982 to its demise in 1991, with a few older songs thrown in. Then it released this album, its version of
Greatest Hits, which is a 17-track album that deletes the songs from the first
Greatest Hits that appeared on
Classic Queen (among them
Queen's biggest hit, "Bohemian Rhapsody") and adds a few tracks from the 1973-1982 era that did not appear on the original release. The Elektra
Greatest Hits LP had a superior selection, but it's gone now, so you're stuck with this. (New fans don't seem to have minded, as this new
Greatest Hits sold better than the first one.) ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide