The Platinum Collection
By Gary Taylor
Originally released on 13th November 2000 especially for the Christmas market, this 3 CD set includes all three volumes of the original Greatest Hits albums. The CD only album entered the UK charts at No 63 on 19th November and fell to No 70 the week after.
Initially only available until the 31st December the same year, this special package was made to combine Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II and Greatest Hits III in a triple CD case in one unique package with a 48 page booklet and an outer slipcase.
The silver embossed slipcase featuring the latest Queen crest in black, was made in similar style to the 1994 gold slipcase cover for the first two Greatest Hits CDs. For this release all the CDs are reproduced on high quality picture disc format for the first time, with Greatest Hits III presented in a new blue colour cover version.
In 2002, with renewed interest in the band and the success of the musical We Will Rock You, the compilation was re released on 13th May and entered the UK charts at No 2, remaining in the top 10 for three months. The album has since gone triple Platinum in the UK, also achieving the No 1 position in Spain, South Africa and Italy, and Platinum award status elsewhere in the world, and has since gone on to become one of their biggest selling albums. Released in September 2002, the album reached No 48 in the USA, going platinum and making it the highest charting compilation album in US history.
A specially made TV advert was made to promote the album on TV.
In 2005 a box set edition was given away free to attendees of the Official International Queen Fan Club convention, having initially been produced in 2003 to sell on a German TV shopping channel (the idea was halted by Roger), and having spent the last few years in a warehouse. The set comprised 3 individual CDs, a booklet and a VHS video of the first Greatest Flix home video re titled Greatest Video Hits, all presented in a thick long box. In Spain, another box set edition was produced which included a black T shirt with a silver crest on and the triple edition CD inside a silver tin box.
By this time the band were recognised by Guinness World Records, and Queen were crowned as the most popular group of all time, having spent more time on the British albums chart than both the Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Roger responded to the news by saying: "We were always incredibly ambitious. But we never expected to see a list that read Queen, then the Beatles, then Elvis."
For full track listing of each album:
Greatest Hits I
Greatest Hits II
Greatest Hits III
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Platinum Collection