A Winter's Tale (Queen song)



"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

 * Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, keyboards
 * Brian May - electric guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals
 * Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals
 * John Deacon - bass guitar

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.