Queen releases in unusual formats

I was looking around online to see what formats beyond the obvious ones like LPs, cassettes, and CDs that Queen ever had albums released on. (since I'm a geek sometimes and I find that kind of thing interesting )

As far as I can tell, everything up to Hot Space came out on 8-track. Maybe that doesn't quite qualify as "unusual", since 8-tracks were a big deal for a good period of time, but I find those releases interesting because the songs are often in a different order, to make the "tracks" roughly even in length. Like, speaking of Hot Space, Las Palabras De Amor is after Dancer, and it's split into two parts at that!

The one that really surprises me is that Greatest Hits and The Game were released (by Elektra in the US, anyway) on reel-to-reel. I had thought that pre-recorded music on reel-to-reel tape was already a thing of the past by then, but I guess it kept hanging on until the mid-'80s, who knew?

The only other one I found was Minidisc, which GH, GH II, and GH III were all released on. Makes sense, I guess, because II and III, at least, were released when MiniDisc was kind of a thing, or right around the time. Maybe it was more successful in the UK and Europe than the US, I dunno, but I think I only ever knew ONE person that had them, and I believe it was just used as a recorder in that case.

Anyone know of any thing else like that? I know Digital Compact Cassette was around at the same time as MiniDisc, but I can't find any Queen stuff on those, there just wasn't a lot of prerecorded music released in that format anyway. Of course, it's pretty much gotten to the point now where ALL physical music formats are obsolete, or getting that way, hasn't it?

Not really an official product as far as I know but the Making of Night at the Opera (which Roger and Brian were involved with) was released on UMD. And Rock Montreal came out on HD-DVD. Greatest Flix was on VCD in some countries, I think and there's a few Laserdiscs on eBay although I don't think they are all official releases.

Ooh, ya know, I wasn't even thinking about video releases. Looks like there were a few things on LaserDisc...



Or how about this for an odd one, Greatest Flix on RCA "Selectavision" otherwise known as CED: (I saw a video about those once, sounds like they were a major pain in the ass really )

I have a Japanese boxset with 3" CDs and I Was Born to Love You on 3" as well. I don't know if they had a special name or if they are just CDs.

Oh yeah, I've heard of that box set. I think the 3" CDs were more popular in Japan than anywhere else. I remember some CD players would have a special indentation for them, but I don't think I ever saw an actual 3" CD.

[WeeMann]

They were sold individually in the UK. I have about half of them.

Oh yeah, I've heard of that box set. I think the 3" CDs were more popular in Japan than anywhere else. I remember some CD players would have a special indentation for them, but I don't think I ever saw an actual 3" CD.

They were really popular around the time of The Miracle. I have the Japanese box set mentioned plus Japanese issues of IWIA, IWBTLY, LML/DSMN, Boh Rhap and solo Japanese issues of Foreign Sand, The Great Pretender x2, Guide Me Home and The Golden Boy. All the Japanese issues came in an extended package (3" x 6"). I have the complete set of 12 UK 3" CD's and the 4 3" CD's issues from Germany, IWIA, The Invisible Man Scandal and The Miracle. I have never seen a 3" CD of Breakthru from Germany, for no apparent reason unlike all The Miracle singles I believe it wasn't issued on 3" CD.

[Kes]

Well, you now know two people who have the three Greatest Hits albums on minidisc.

The curious thing about the 12x3" CD set, was that if you bought them in the UK, they are a mix and match between CDs pressed by DADC in Austria, and Nimbus in the UK. I don't know anyone who has a set of the non-Japanese ones with them all made in one country (hopes someone now proves me wrong!).

Go round the world, and you DO find a few unusual things, like Karaoke Greatest Hits on VCD in the Philippines, and the REALLY unusual thing about that one, is that one side of the stereo channel is an instrumental version, and the other side is the version with the lead vocal, so everything plays with the lead vocal panned to one side. Another rare thing to find is musicassettes of anything issued comparitively recently, like LOLSOS. I think I have two copies of it, from somewhere like South Korea.

Another unusual one is the full Five Live thing on 12" vinyl. There were only a handful of countries to make a version of it, so you're doing well if you managed to get one.

I wondered if anything had ever been released on Betamax and a quick look on eBay suggests YES. We Will Rock You/Montreal and Live in Rio both appear to have been released in this format at least.

[Kes]

And Greatest Flix 1.

And Greatest Flix 1.

Yes i can remember on my copy of Flix 1 it said "Also available in Betamax" on the back.

[Kes]

Knocking around somewhere, I had a copy of it on Beta. Never owned a Betamax player, but still.

I've got a load of 8-tracks, but have never owned an 8-track player, so it's not THAT unusual, I'd guess.

Ooh, ya know, I wasn't even thinking about video releases. Looks like there were a few things on LaserDisc...

LaserDisc

I only ever saw a LaserDisc once, when I was a kid, visiting a school friend's house (he also had one of those monstrous back-projection TVs). For the longest time afterwards I thought I'd simply imagined him playing a movie off a big shiny vinyl record lol. It wasn't until much more recently that I learned this had been a real thing.

I think it was Braveheart we watched. We had to stop to turn over/chance discs three times during the course of the movie

[Kes]

You've got to remember that only a few years before the advent of laserdisc, VHS and CD audio had only recently been introduced, and given the technology of the day, LD was quite an advancement.


Primitive as fuck NOW, I'll concede, but we weren't that many years on from only two TV channels, and the average person's inability to record either of them.

Actually, CD came a few years after LD. CD was basically an outgrowth of the technology used for LD.