A Hot August Night at the Opera?

My brother and I went to see Neil Diamond the other night since he’s back on another world tour; this one being the 40th anniversary of his Hot August Night live album. This was my third time seeing him in concert and as some readers of Queenville already know, I have his autograph . . . well, I think I do.

Sitting in the stands at the Neil show got me thinking about how he and Queen are connected. By all accounts, there’s not a lot of common ground between the two although I remember reading a Diamond quote in the Phil Sutcliffe book which came out recently. Here’s a shot of page 2 where it appears:

Seeing Neil Diamond sharing the same page as Geddy Lee, both waxing poetic about Queen’s influence on contemporary music, was a juxtaposition I did not expect. I wonder where Sutcliffe found that quote and what the circumstances were behind Diamond offering up his opinion on a band who travels a very different road than himself.

In mainstream culture, both acts have been featured on American Idol and Glee, although Queen’s appearance on both of those programs are significantly more pervasive than Diamond’s.


The soundtrack history of Queen and Diamond are similar, I suppose. Diamond released Jonathon Livingston Seagull in 1973 and won a Grammy for it. Queen released Flash Gordon in 1980 and definitely did not get a Grammy for it. Both albums did, however, make more money than the films in which they appear.

As well, they have both released albums with “jazz” in the title: Jazz and The Jazz Singer. Neither of them had any genuine jazz on them though.

There is minimal convergence between the artists on social media sites it seems. I did find this Facebook page that is one person’s celebration of both Neil Diamond and Queen. The fact that it only has one Like and no Friend activity doesn’t bode well for the person who created this page. Or maybe this person is too busy listening to his or her two favourite artists to maintain this Facebook page.

What about statistics for them? Both are heavy hitters in their respective genres but how do their numbers compare? Here’s what I could find:

Not much similarity, I’m afraid. Queen kicks butt in pretty much all these categories. What I didn’t partition out were how many of Queen’s 62 singles were Top 40 hits. Diamond’s 37 singles are definitely Top 40, according to Wikipedia.

With nearly twice as many studio albums under his belt, Neil still has less than half the number of album sales as Queen. In his defence, though, each Diamond album is carried by him alone, generally. Queen had four songwriters to help divvy up the workload.

What is really surprising in these numbers are the legion of Twitter fans that Neil has — more than three times the number that Queen has. Sup with that?

Perhaps the closest Neil Diamond and Queen got musically was in 1973 when Freddie, Brian, and Roger recorded material by Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, the same producers who mentored Diamond when he was a newly signed artist for Bang Records in the 1960s.

Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Neil Diamond (c. 1966)

Speaking of record producers, Rick Rubin is an interesting modern-day connection between the two. Way before Rubin resurrected Johnny Cash’s career and then collaborated with Diamond on two albums, he ruined We Will Rock You in 1991 as one of the Hollywood Records remixes. Way to go, Rick.

http://www.queenpedia.com/index.php?title=Queen_Songs_in_Commercials
http://www.queenpedia.com/index.php?title=Queen_Songs_in_Movies
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004871/
http://a4.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/52/bfece1ef54720044a800b2116b5685ae/l.jpg

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Spokane harbours Highlander soundtrack?

Spokane was another destination my wife and I had in mind before the summer was out, so we rounded up the little guy, packed the van for a week’s trip, and headed out to the border crossing at Yahk, BC.

There were two used record stores that I found in Spokane that yielded some additions to my collection: 4000 Holes and Recorded Memories. Here’s what I picked up at each:

4000 Holes

An 8-track of The Game from 1980. An 8-track from the 1980s? I thought those things became relics before the end of the ’70s? Apparently not since “…in the U.S., eight-track cartridges were phased out of retail stores by late 1982” (Wikipedia). Hmm, I wonder if that means Greatest Hits, Flash Gordon, and Hot Space are also floating around in 8-track land as well.

With Bob’s help — the owner of Holes — I found a picture disc of Jazz. This was a nice surprise as my collection of picture discs is limited to At the Beeb and an old Heavy Pettin’ record I found years ago.

And the best find at this record store was a picture disc of what appears to be a genuine Highlander soundtrack, not a repackaging of A Kind of Magic but an official film soundtrack that features only those Queen songs that appear in the movie (although the Highlander Theme track on Side 2 is probably a Michael Kamen composition).

This physical artifact would seem to contradict what is on Wikipedia about the AKOM and Highlander projects:

“The album [AKOM] enjoys the status of an unofficial soundtrack for the 1986 film ‘Highlander’ (for which no official soundtrack album was ever released). The title, ‘A Kind of Magic,’ may have come from one of the lines Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) says to describe his immortality. Six out of nine songs on the album appeared in the film, although in different versions. The three songs that did not appear in ’Highlander’ are ‘Pain Is So Close to Pleasure,’ ‘Friends Will Be Friends’ and ‘One Vision’ (which was featured a year earlier in the film ‘Iron Eagle’). Conversely, a recording of ‘Theme from New York, New York’ made specifically for a scene in ‘Highlander’ does not appear on ‘A Kind of Magic,’ and in fact has never been released in album form to date [emphasis added by PB]. According to a statement by Brian May on the ‘Greatest Video Hits 2’ DVD (2003), at least at that point, he had the intention to work on a proper ‘Highlander’ soundtrack in the future. In one scene, a snippet of ‘Hammer to Fall’ plays on a radio, a song from the previously released ‘The Works’ album.”

Recorded Memories

A few blocks east of 4000 Holes is another well-stocked record store, Recorded Memories. Here, I picked up these items from Richard, the owner.

While not a rare item by any means, this 1998 Queen calendar was one I didn’t have so I snagged it. The Queen crest is an interesting treatment as I’ve never seen the astrology symbols, crown, and Q being arranged in a manner like this before. I wonder if it was specific to this calendar or if other 1998 merchandise reflected this crest design as well.

Richard also dug out this shrink-wrapped 45 of Keep Yourself Alive that was a limited release for the band’s 40th Anniversary celebrations:

Again, not a rarity as such, but an item I didn’t have.

I guess with all of these new vinyl additions to my collection, I should consider buying a USB turntable. Maybe I could listen to that version of New York, New York on the Highlander picture disc and confirm whether it’s merely the edited clip from the film or a full-length song that everyone has been asking for since 1986.

Postscript (January 2, 2013) — I had a listen to New York, New York off of the Highlander record this past weekend and it’s the same truncated clip of the song that appears in the movie. Damn it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Kind_Of_Magic
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Queen: At The Circus