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A Winter's Tale (Queen song)

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"A Winter's Tale"
Single by Queen
from the album Made in Heaven
B-side
Released11 December 1995
Recorded1991, 1993-1995
Length3:49
LabelParlophone (Europe)
Hollywood (North America)
Songwriter(s)Queen
(Freddie Mercury)
Producer(s)
Queen singles chronology
"Heaven for Everyone"
(1995)
"A Winter's Tale"
(1995)
"I Was Born to Love You"
(1996)
Music video
"A Winter's Tale" on YouTube

"A Winter's Tale" is a song by Queen, from the album Made in Heaven, released in 1995 after Freddie Mercury's death in 1991. It was written after the Innuendo sessions, inspired as Mercury was staring out the windows of his apartment, in Montreux. The song has a psychedelic, dreamy feel, and describes what Mercury saw outside the windows.

Mercury wrote and composed the song, and also performed the vocals and keyboards (although the track is credited to Queen). In the 1995 documentary Queen: Champions of the World, it was stated that this was, if not the first, then an extremely rare style of recording for Mercury, as it was all performed in one take live in the studio. It was stated in the film that Mercury had always insisted upon music being completed prior to the vocal arrangement beginning, but acknowledged that he had little time left and there was not enough time to work on it differently.

The song was released as the second single from the album. In the UK the single was also available in a special limited edition green paper CD case which resembled Christmas wrapping.

Personnel

Music video

The music video, produced after his death, resembled the form of an epitaph, as Mercury's actual written song notes were displayed alongside imagery and clips of Mercury's past performances.

Chart performance

Chart (1995-96) Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart[1] 71
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[2] 23
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[3] 33
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[4] 34
Invalid chart entered Germany2 62
Ireland (IRMA)[5] 23
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[6] 25
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[7] 16
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[8] 28
UK Singles (OCC)[9] 6

References

  1. ^ "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart – Week Ending 04 Feb 1996". Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). Retrieved 21 July 2017. N.B. The HP column displays the highest peak reached.
  2. ^ "Queen – A Winter's Tale" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  3. ^ "Queen – A Winter's Tale" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Queen – A Winter's Tale" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  5. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – A Winter's Tale". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  6. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Queen" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  7. ^ "Queen – A Winter's Tale" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Queen – A Winter's Tale". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Queen: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 3 August 2020.