“The title track is the real killer, venting a familiar yet too rare side of Queen which manifests itself in multifarious monsters of invention.” Vox Magazine

Queen's 14th studio album, and their first of the 1990s, was recorded at Metropolis in London and Mountain Studios in Montreux between March 1989 and November 1990. Produced by Queen and David Richards, Innuendo contains several of the band's best-known hits and, subsequently, some of the most memorable and poignant videos. It would prove to be the last album Freddie worked upon and yet also, despite his palpably deteriorating health, a work containing some of his most powerful and emotive vocal performances of all.

At the time of the Innuendo sessions, only a few people closest to Freddie knew the extent of his illness and just how little time was left. As has been confirmed several times since, the four band members pulled together like never before to support Freddie in every possible way for as long as they could through the final months of his life. This included keeping the truth from the world's media until the very last moment. The fans, meanwhile, though having seen Freddie's startling appearance in the I’m Going Slightly Mad and These Are The Days Of Our Lives videos. At the BPI awards ceremony on television, while aware that something was wrong, they were completely unprepared for the devastating news contained within Freddie's last press statement, released one day before he died, in which he confirmed he was suffering from AIDS.

Despite his personal anguish, Freddie somehow found the strength to muster some truly breathtaking vocal performances for Innuendo, digging deep within himself and finding a depth and spirit like never before. He seemed to find a new dimension to his voice and poured his heart and soul into every note. This is all the more remarkable when one considers his physical condition during this time, as is so evident in the aforementioned last videos he filmed. As Brian would later recall, Freddie could barely stand up during the final sessions; every hour he was present at Mountain studios required superhuman effort, and yet none of this is evident on the final album.

It is impossible to believe that the extraordinary voice behind songs such as Headlong, All God's People, Don't Try So Hard, The Show Must Go On, and the album's title track could have been recorded by someone as physically weak as Freddie was. Many people agree that these performances (and those to emerge later on Made In Heaven) are not only great, but among the best and most moving of his entire career.

As with its predecessor, The Miracle, in 1989, all songs (but one) on Innuendo were credited to all four Queen members equally, regardless of who actually conceived them. (All God's People is the exception, originating from Freddie's 1988 Barcelona sessions and co-written with Mike Moran). This was another clever Freddie idea, and a rather generous one at that, when one considers that Freddie had historically written many of the band's most successful hits. The equal billing concept was the perfect solution to the age-old problem of whose track gets chosen as a single, whose tracks are B-sides, whose songs are disregarded, and all the related writing royalty issues that always arise. These troublesome aspects of albums and singles have dogged numerous bands through the decades. They’ve been the catalyst for endless arguments and have split many a great group up, but from 1989 onwards, for Queen at least, the problem was overcome with Freddie's forward-thinking.

When Innuendo emerged in February 1991, with the cloak of secrecy around Freddie still tighter than ever, Queen fans loved it, and it was universally acclaimed by the press. Reviews were uncommonly flattering, and with the title track song having already entered the UK charts at No 1 a month earlier, Queen were very much back with a bang!

With hindsight, many of the songs on Innuendo are extremely personal, which was not necessarily evident at the time the LP emerged. Certain songs are clearly written in the knowledge that Freddie's battle for life is nearing the end, and with the band members struggling to come to terms with the imminent reality of losing the person they would later describe as ‘the most beloved member of our family.’

Both Brian and Roger would later recall that the Innuendo sessions, and subsequent recordings that would eventually make up the Made In Heaven album (released four years after Freddie's death), was a curious mixture of sadness and joy, with great humor and some of the best times the four men ever enjoyed together. The band united like never before to make maximum use of every second available to them in the studio. They recorded as much as they could in the time they had left, precisely as Freddie requested.

The Show Must Go On has to be singled out as probably the most poignant and emotive recording on the album, and of course, is the track that closes the LP. Freddie and Brian conceived and developed this song together, with Brian furiously scribbling down lyrics for Freddie to record while he still could. It is a triumph on every level, and of course, it would become a much-loved Queen classic.

The Innuendo album cover was designed by the band and Richard Gray and featured various illustrations inspired by an 18th-century illustrator called Granville (1803-1847). The idea had come from Roger when he found a book of illustrations and showed one particular black and white pencil drawing, A Juggler Of Universes, to the band. They loved it, and Richard Gray was called in with a view to adapting the image for the front cover. Additional illustrations by Angela Lumley, also based on Granville's work, were used on the back cover and for numerous subsequent worldwide singles sleeves.

The Innuendo album was released on Feb 4th 1991, and a week later crashed into the UK album charts at No 1, ultimately achieving Platinum sales status. It would soon attain the No 1 position in Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Portugal and Italy.