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Barcelona
Studio album by Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé
Released	October 10, 1988
Recorded	1987-1988 at Townhouse and Mountain Studios
Genre	Rock, Classical Crossover
Length	39:56
Label	Polydor, Hollywood
Producer	Freddie Mercury, Mike Moran and David Richards
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Freddie Mercury chronology
Mr. Bad Guy (1985) Barcelona (1988) The Freddie Mercury Album (1992)

Barcelona is an album recorded by Freddie Mercury, the front-man of the popular British rock band Queen, and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. The album was recorded in 1987 and 1988, and released in 1988.

After Barcelona was selected to be the next Olympic city, Freddie was approached to write a song as a theme for the forthcoming games. The idea was to create a duet with Montserrat, as she is from that city. During the initial meetings, Freddie and Montserrat had developed a respect for each others music and voices. They soon decided to work on an album together, with Mercury and Mike Moran taking the creative lead as songwriters.^[1]

Some opera fans thought the music was too pop influenced. Similarly, some rock fans found it to be far too operatic.

Contents 1 Track listing 2 Track information 3 Personnel 4 Charts 4.1 Album 4.2 Singles 5 External links 6 References

All songs by Freddie Mercury & Mike Moran, except where noted.

Side 1

1. "Barcelona" – 5:37
2. "La Japonaise" – 4:49
3. "The Fallen Priest" (Mercury/Moran/Rice) – 5:46
4. "Ensueño" (Mercury/Moran/Caballé) – 4:27

Side 2

1. "The Golden Boy" (Mercury/Moran/Rice) – 6:04
2. "Too Much in Love to Care" (Webber/Mercury/Moran) – 4:10
3. "How Can I Go On" – 3:51
4. "Overture Piccante" – 6:40

"Barcelona" was composed by Mercury by request of Montserrat Caballé (she asked him to write a song about her city), and includes violins by Homi Kanga and Laurie Lewis, cello by Deborah Ann Johnston, horn by Barry Castle and percussion by Frank Ricotti. Russell Watson covers it on his album The Voice. It was the theme song of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.^{[citation needed]}

"La Japonaise" was recorded on 9 November 1987 (an early demo comes from 1 September). Mercury wrote all the lyrics including the ones in Japanese, and sang some parts in falsetto which were kept on the final version.

"The Fallen Priest" was originally a virtuoso piano piece by Mike Moran with some high vocals from Mercury, and it was named "Rachmaninov's Revenge" back then (demos come from January 26 and February 19 respectively). Then it was named "The Duet" and finally "The Fallen Priest" when Tim Rice wrote the lyrics for it. Elaine Paige was living with Rice at the time and she was working on an album of Queen covers, which was released a decade later and included Mike Moran conducting the orchestra and making arrangements as well as playing piano and keyboards.

When Mercury first met Caballé on March 1987, he brought in a piece he and Mike Moran had composed called "Exercises In Free Love," to which Caballé added lyrics and became "Ensueño" later on. She asked him to sing it in his baritone voice.

"The Golden Boy" included lyrics from Tim Rice as well and was recorded on December 1, 1987 (early demos come from May 2 and November 9). The celebrity gospel choir featured Madeline Bell, Debbie Bishop, Lance Ellington, Miriam Stockley, Peter Straker, Mark Williamson and Carol Woods. Peter Straker was Mercury's friend who helped him out with some lyrics of "I'm Going Slightly Mad," and Miriam Stockley sang later on with Brian May.

"Guide Me Home" was originally titled "Freddie's Overture" and was one of the last numbers to be written (early 1988), while "How Can I Go On" comes from spring 1987 and features John Deacon playing bass.

• Freddie Mercury: Vocals, producer, arranger.
• Montserrat Caballé: Vocals.
• Mike Moran: all keyboards; production, arrangements.
• David Richards: production.
• John Deacon: Bass guitar ("How Can I Go On").
• Homi Kanga: Violin ("Barcelona").
• Laurie Lewis: Violin ("Barcelona").
• Deborah Ann Johnston: Cello ("Barcelona").
• Barry Castle: Horn ("Barcelona").
• Frank Ricotti: Percussion ("Barcelona").
• Madeline Bell: Backing vocals ("The Golden Boy").
• Debbie Bishop: Backing vocals ("The Golden Boy").
• Lance Ellington: Backing vocals ("The Golden Boy").
• Miriam Stockley: Backing vocals ("The Golden Boy").
• Peter Straker: Backing vocals ("The Golden Boy").
• Mark Williamson: Backing vocals ("The Golden Boy").
• Carol Woods: Backing vocals ("The Golden Boy").

Album Barcelona

Country	Charts				Sales
	1988:		1992 reissue:		Certification
	Peak position	Weeks	Peak position	Weeks
Austria			24	6	–
Germany			41	18	–
Japan			93	1
Netherlands			9	22
Sweden			37	1
Switzerland			18	5	platinum[2]
United Kingdom	25		15	8	silver[3]
USA			6		–

Single Barcelona (1987/1992)

Country	Charts
	Peak position	Weeks
	1987:
United Kingdom	8	9
Sweden	15
Netherlands	34	3
	1992 reissue:
Netherlands	2	10
United Kingdom	2	8
Switzerland	8	13
Sweden	12
Australia	42	3

Single The Golden Boy (1988)

Country	Charts
	Peak position	Weeks
United Kingdom	80

Single How Can I Go On (1989)

Country	Charts
	Peak position	Weeks
United Kingdom	95

• Full liner notes at Queen Picture Hall
• Partial liner notes at official artist site

1. ^ Freestone, Peter (1999), Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir By the Man Who Knew Him Best, London: Omnibus Press, ISBN 0711978010
2. ^ swisscharts.com.
3. ^ BPI. Certified Awards.