A new box set of Freddie Mercury contributions to the music industry outside of those with Queen, called Never Boring, will be released next Friday.
To celebrate this latest collection, Hollywood Records has put out a restored video of Living on My Own which featured as part of his only solo album, 1985’s Mr. Bad Guy.
The video comes with it’s own controversial history, on Freddie’s 39th birthday, he threw a party for 300 of his friends at Old Mrs. Henderson’s, a Munich transvestite club.
The guest list included Brian May, Mary Austin and Boy George, he told all his invited guests to dress in drag and adhere to a strict black and white only colour code.
Mercury filmed the birthday guests and the flamboyant party footage was made into a video.
According to UCR, the CBS Records president at the time, Walter Yetnikoff refused to send the footage out because a press release about the video referred to it’s “perceived promiscuity.”
This undoubtedly had an impact on the single’s ratings on the U.K. Singles chart, and it climbed no further than No. 50.
The song sat in the dark until 1993, but after the death of Mercury, it accompanied the remixed version of the song by No More Brothers which became a global hit.
The three CDs on Never Boring includes Mr. Bad Guy, his 1988 Barcelona collaboration with opera star Montserrat Cabelle.
A compilation of other solo performances are included on the Blu-ray and the DVD, which includes music videos and other live footage.
The collection comes with a hardback book containing rare photos and an introduction from Rami Malek, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Mercury in last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
The clip below takes the original 35mm footage and remasters it in 4K
