The 40th anniversary of legendary Queen singer Freddie Mercury and his majestic debut solo album Mr Bad Guy, is being celebrated with a lavish new vinyl reissue. Pre-Order Mr Bad Guy: https://freddiemercury.lnk.to/MrBadGuy40th
Originally released end of April 1985, Mr Bad Guy was Mercury’s first album away from the group he had co-founded 15 years before and helped steer to staggering artistic and commercial heights. It found him breaking free from the confines of a band, swapping Queen’s chameleonic, arena-sized music for a set of songs that combined his unique songwriting with a driving, dance and pop-inspired sound.
Forty years after it first came out, Mr Bad Guy will be reissued on spectacular 180g translucent green vinyl on December 5 as well as picture disc LP exclusively via D2C.
The singer had tested the waters for a solo career with his 1984 single Love Kills, a pulsing dance track produced by disco legend Giorgio Moroder which had appeared on the soundtrack for a restored version of iconic silent movie Metropolis. Love Kills’ success would embolden Mercury to travel even further down that avenue.
Mr Bad Guy found him shouldering all the songwriting duties for the album, purposefully avoiding asking his Queen bandmates to appear on the album. He enlisted a team of crack musicians, including drummer Curt Cress, bassist Stephan Wissnet, guitarist Paul Vincent and Queen touring keyboard player Fred Mandel.
Mr Bad Guy showed a very different side to the singer, one that had been hinted at a few years earlier on Queen’s more dance-orientated Hot Space album. It was partly a love letter to the club scene Freddie Mercury was immersed in but also a chance for Freddie to reveal more of himself than he ever had before.
Forty years on, Mr Bad Guy remains a pivotal album for Freddie Mercury. It allowed him to flex his creative muscles and seek out new sounds and styles, ensuring he returned to Queen re-energised and revitalised.
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