Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure

I just recently purchased Best Of Bowie, which has the track with Queen, "Under Pressure." On a first listen to this track, I thought it sounded different than what I was used to hearing, but I wasn't sure. Todd just sent me some of his notes, and he says that the 45 has some vocal overdubs.

Finally, I pulled out my copy of Classic Queen and compared it with Best Of Bowie and sure enough, the mixes on those two discs are different. The mix on Best Of Bowie has more reverb on the vocals and some of the instruments are mixed differently. For example, the high hat cymbal is farther back in the mix on the Best Of Bowie cd.

Does anyone know which is the 45 version, or is it neither of these CDs?

OK, after listening to the 45 of "Under Pressure," here is my conclusion:

- Versions listed as "missing some vocal overdubs" are NOT the 45 version (like on Classic Queen).

- Versions running about (3:56), such as the version on Best Of Bowie, are edits of the 45 version.

- Versions with no comments and running around (4:02) are the 45 version (and LP version). This mix can be found on the old Queen's Greatest Hits CD (Elektra 564).

That's a good question, Todd. It certainly seems odd that the edit, which only shortens the song by about four seconds, would have been made years later for a CD release. Personally, I think the version missing the overdubs (like on Classic Queen) is a better mix--it's much brighter and clearer sounding.

According to abagon, the actual commercial 45 run time of Queen & David Bowie's "Under Pressure" is 4:01, not 4:05 as stated on the record label.

crapfromthepast wrote: Aaron reports that this version is also on Queen's GH on Elektra; I'd always thought that the song was released after the GH LP at the time, and the UK EMI CD release of GH doesn't include "Under Pressure".

aaronk is correct; here in the U.S., "Under Pressure" first appeared on Queen's Greatest Hits album, released in October of '81 (Elektra 564). You're also right that the song didn't appear on the U.K. edition of GH, even back in '81 - this was a case where some countries got a version of the collection that included "UP", and some didn't, but us fans here in North America were among the lucky ones. :-) As was traditionally done back in those days, the "UP" single (Elektra 47235) was released here just a week or two prior to that album, to help boost sales of the new collection over the 1981 holiday season...

However, "UP" ALSO appeared on the group's next studio album, Hot Space, released about seven months later, in May of '82 (Elektra 60128); the lead single was "Body Language", released several weeks prior, in April. I suspect this was a case where Elektra decided that because some fans in the world had been deprived of "UP" on the GH collection when it came out in late '81 - yet had become a hit in the interim - that they would just go ahead and tack on the song to ALL worldwide editions of Hot Space in '82, even though it wasn't meant specifically for that album...

So forget about all the re-issues & remasters of both the Queen and Bowie catalog that have been made since the late '80s, if only for a moment. I suspect what we may have here is a 1981 GH version of "UP" (which matches the 45), a 1982 Hot Space version of the song (the one you've labeled "edit of 45"), and a '90s "new mix". Now, if somebody w/ both of the original U.S. LPs of Elektra 564 and 60128 could just come forward and do a comparison, we'd be one step closer. :-) I could be wrong - just making an educated guess here. (Have Elektra 564 on cassette, but have never owned 60128 in any format; otherwise, I would've checked myself before posting here...)