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Queen - Greatest Video Hits 1

Queen - Greatest Video Hits 1

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $22.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Long overdue!!!
Review: Queen fans should rejoyce! I first discovered Queen somewhere around 1983, I still have vivid memories of hearing the 'Greatest Hits' LP, back when they were still with Elektra. I remember when I first spotted the 'Greatest Flix' video as a rental, picking it up and being enthralled with these crude performance video's. Unfortunately, the 'Greatest Flix' video became unavailible. Years later, even the 'Classic Queen' and Greatest Hits' video's that Hollywood Records released, felt incomplete. In some cases, they felt like a real cheat. Hollywood Video has redeemed themselves.

The DTS sound is wonderful. With the restoration of the picture quality of the video, or in some cases, film sources, this is a marked improvement. I noticed that some people are very critical of the 16;9 anamorphic format. I'm hardly bothered by it at all, which is odd, because having a limited involment in the film industry, I'm usually quite picky. I see it as a small tradeoff.
The audio commentaries by Brian and Roger and as well as Freddie and John are a nice touch. It has been years since I have seen the video's for 'Flash' and 'Love Of My Life', so it's quite welcome. The bonus video's on disk two are a treat.

The video's are shown unedited, meaning the heads and tails of the video's have not been clipped off. Hats off to the video producers for doing that, bravo! The extra segment with Brian discussing the making of Bohemian Rhapsody is a must see for all fans. Brian takes time to isolate the various parts of the song and I feel that this segment will be invaluable to music fans or musicans. Good job with the DVD packageing as well, the booklet is well done. I can't wait for 'Greatest Video Hits II'!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The lesser Flix
Review: Queen finally begin releasing their music videos with this first volume, "Greatest Video Hits 1".

While I'm happy the band have begun releasing DVD's, this first effort has as many negatives as positives.The picture quality of these videos is pretty harsh, grainy, bleeding colors, etc. It almost seems as if no work was done at all in re-mastering them. Virtually all of the clips are no better than their VHS companions. However one must keep in mind that these are low budget music videos from the 1970's so the source material is in nowhere near pristine form so perhaps this is as good as it can possibly look? It should also be noted that all the videos on disc 1 have been matted for widescreen (and anamorphic enhanced.) The videos were always shown in 4:3 format so if the idea of matting full screen bothers you then you've been warned. However I do feel the matting does not mar the framing so I suppose it will depend on your own tastes.

I cannot comment on the DTS sound but the other option, PCM stereo sounds incredible and betters any Queen CD that I've heard. The other audio option is a full audio commentary track by the band (mostly a newly recorded track by Brian May and Roger Taylor) which is highly enjoyable.

Disc 2 offers a few rare videos but again suffer from poor picture quality. Only "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" looks decent (and it's also the only bonus clip to be presented in widescreen.) There is also a "hidden" video of an alternate version of "..Rhapsody" on disc 2.
The "Inside the Rhapsody" documentary starts off slow with interviews with May and Taylor but kicks into high gear when May is in the studio breaking down the legendary song note by note. The other "extras" are a photo montage set to "Seven Seas of Rhye" and a promo for Queen's official web site are merely filler.

All in all, this is still recommended for any Queen fan. Video quality runs from poor to decent but as I said, perhaps only so much can be done to make them look good. The audio is fantastic and some of the extras really give us insight into the making of the videos.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Queen on screen in the Seventies...it's brilliant
Review: Queen in the seventies is truly very musically rich. The compilation presented here is mostly representative of the true "Queen's Greatest Hits" collection (the US never really got it, with their lame "Classic Queen" compilation instead). These really are some of Queen's best of this era - from "Queen" through to "The Game". The pinnacle is "Somebody To Love" (from "A Day At The Races"), which is both an amazing song and an exceptional video, but other great tracks include "Save Me" (which has easily the best video of the entire compilation) and "Tie Your Mother Down".
Anyone who even vaguely likes Queen will get a good kick out of the first DVD alone. The second features some interesting bonus videos (props for the live performance of "Now I'm Here") and the "Bohemian Rhapsody" doco, which is quite interesting, but the bonuses are hardly spectauclar. On the whole, it's the awesome first disk, containing all fifteen professional videos and one Top Of The Pops appearance (all remixed in superb DTS 5.1) that will keep you coming back again and again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Queen was the best.

this video brought back a lot of really good memories.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic Queen at its best
Review: Queen was, in addition to a landmark group in rock and roll music, also a pioneer in music videos. This excellent 2 DVD set shows some of the best seventies and early eighties Queen videos, which were simple and mostly focused on the performance. The quality of the image and sound are incredible. I have been a Queen fan for 25 years and have all their VHS production as well as the regular and bootleg CDs I have been able to get my hands on. This is great material, don't doubt on buying it. Rock and roll history for your collection. A MUST.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Amazing Musical and Visual History of this Brilliant Band
Review: Queen where not only among the greatest musicians in the 20th century but also among history's greatest showmen.
I have the original version of this video released in 1981.
Freddie Mercury's stage antics, the sound lightning, stage management and special effects combine to form an extravaganza of the senses.
Much of what Queen did in the 1970's clearly influenced the performances of others in the 80's and 90's , such as Michael Jackson and Madonna.
The video is set in chronological order enabling us to trace the fascinating history of the band development.
All the videos are the original films of the song performances with the exception of the Killer Queen video, which is made especially for the compilation and present a collage of pictures and film of Queen from 1972 to 1981.
Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) shows us the camp majesty of Freddie Mercury and the skill of the rest of the band at the time when the band had taken the world by storm with this smash hit , followed by other mid-70's hits featuring Queen's golden era such the rock opera 'Somebody to Love' (1976) and the hard rock 'Tie Your Mother Down' (1976)
We get a live performance of 'We Are the Champions' in 1977, and of course that delightful video, 'Bicycle Race' (1978) which feature 50 lovely young ladies riding around a stadium in the buff.
On this compilation, panties are drawn on the girls and colour slides block out the nudity, allowing for a very mild titillation, but even the uncensored version is quite tasteful and has none of the crudity of so many of today's videos.
I just have to add that there is a few seconds' shot of a beautiful blonde young lady, giving us the most charming natural smile-in the place where Freddie sings 'smile' and I would love to know who this most exquisite creature is.
'Save Me' (1980) is also done incredibly well with the most brilliant and expressive artwork.
This video covers Queen's first and best ten years, though I would have also liked it to have included Queen's early hits such as 'Keep Yourself Alive' (1973) and 'Seven Seas of Rhye (1974).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Queen never sounded so good, but never looked so BAD!!
Review: The 5.1 audio remasters are wonderful. However, for some insane reason the videos have been matted to create a false widescreen presentation for 16:9 TVs. (In other words, they took the original videos created for normal TVs and covered up the tops and bottoms with black bars to make them look widescreen.) By doing this, they have cut off the tops of heads and feet throughout the videos!

The videos in this collection were all created for normal TV broadcasts before widescreen TV even existed. Butchering these classic videos so badly just so they can fill the screen of a new TV format is unforgivable.

If you wanted this collection because you loved these videos when they originally aired years ago, I recommend renting it first to see if you can tolerate the matting. Buyer beware!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: this is amazing
Review: The quality of this DVD is beyond a proper review. The video was restored as best it could be for such old, low budget, dated stock. The audio however is absolute reference. The DTS 96/24 audio is the most incredibly detailed recording I have heard. This is not the typical live sound, or video mix versions, these are the original album versions, completely remastered, and then properly synched to the video. Detail and spaciousness are stunning. Tracks like Another One Bites The Dust make excellent use of the surround channels for effects, most of the tracks have a very convincing 3D sound without being overbearing. Some 5.1 music sounds like the recording engineers were trying to set a new record for how much they could use the surround channels, not so here. I was simply blown away by the audio quality of this DVD, my recommendation is that if you are an audiophile, and any sort of Queen fan, buy this now!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: FINALLY!
Review: They helped invent music video, and at long last they are on DVD! I've almost worn out my VHS copies of this stuff, so this could not have come at a better time. To the folk who re-mastered this stuff, my hat is off! It looks and sounds better than ever.
This is material to truly treasure. The only reason that it only gets 4 stars, is it is incomplete...(...C'mon Volume #2!)

...and you'll love it, Mom!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty good
Review: This collection of Queens videos captures the first half of thier career and features Live Material which will probably be released with its full concert not too long from now which will make it redundant on this disk and like Greatest Video Hits II this is for total die hard fans. Keep Yourself Alive and Seven Seas Of Rhye are missing here. Mostly though this is a pretty good compilation which features stuff just about everybody knows on Music Video to lesser known Music Videos like Spread Your Wings. Its a shame that Queens Greatest Video Hits III wont be coming out at all.


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