8359 - Queen RIAA Gold Sales Award for ‘Innuendo,’ with Rare Band-Signed Appreciation Letter

Queen RIAA Gold Sales Award for ‘Innuendo,’ with Rare Band-Signed Appreciation Letter Sought-after official ‘R’ hologram-style RIAA gold sales award presented to “Jimmie Fay to commemorate the sale of more than 500,000 copies of the Hollywood Records cassette and C.D. 'Innuendo.'" Framed with its CD, cassette, plate, small album cover, and a rare TLS letter from Queen, signed in black felt tip by Freddie Mercury and Brian May, in black ballpoint by Roger Taylor, and in blue ink by John Deacon, 8.25 x 11.75, Queen Productions Ltd. letterhead, dated June 1991, addressed to a "Queen Fan," in full: "Thank you for your support in helping Queen, in our 20th year, achieve Gold sales status on INNUENDO. You have proven to us, through your energetic and positive endorsement of the project, that Queen still has a home in America." The display measures to an overall size of 21 x 17. In fine condition. Innuendo was released on February 5, 1991, and was Queen’s last studio album released during Freddie Mercury's lifetime—he sadly passed away on November 24, 1991, some nine months after the album's release. Session notes for 'The Show Must Go On,' the last track from this album: After listening to John Deacon and Roger Taylor playing the chord sequence that later on would be the basis for almost the entire song, Brian May sat down with Freddie Mercury, and the two of them decided the theme of the song and wrote some lyrics. May wrote down the rest of the words as well as the melody, and added a bridge with a chord sequence inspired by Pachelbel’s Canon. Demo versions featured May singing, having to sing some parts in falsetto because they were too high. When Brian May presented the final demo to Mercury, he had doubts that Mercury would be physically capable of singing the song’s highly demanding vocal line, due to the extent of his illness at the time. To May’s surprise, when the time came to record the vocals, Mercury consumed a measure of vodka and said, ‘I'll f*cking do it, darling!’ then proceeded to perform the vocal line in one take without problems.