Music News

Billy Squier releases archival EP, 'Past Perfect,' featuring rare Freddie Mercury collaboration

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Cover: Alina Broome/UMG

A new Billy Squier compilation EP called Past Perfect that features six songs from four of the veteran rocker’s studio albums was recently made available via streaming services.

Among the tracks is the original full-length extended version of “Love Is a Hero,” a song featuring guest backing vocals by Queen‘s Freddie Mercury, which first appeared on Squier’s 1986 album, Enough Is Enough.

Writing about the collaboration on his Facebook page, Squier notes that the full version of “Love Is a Hero” boasts “a spectacular intro-piece” from Mercury, and recalls that it was “[c]onjured out of thin air in the early morning hours at Garden Lodge, Freddie’s home in West London. What a night!”

Past Perfect also includes a remastered version of Squier’s 1981 hit “In the Dark,” from his second studio effort, Don’t Say No.  In addition, the EP features “The Big Beat” and “Calley Oh” from Billy’s 1980 debut, The Tale of the Tape, and two songs from his 1993 album, Tell the Truth: “Angry” and “Hercules.”

Squier hasn’t released an album of new music since 1998’s Happy Blue.

Here’s the Past Perfect track list:

“The Big Beat”
“Calley Oh”
“In the Dark”
“Love Is a Hero”
“Angry”
“Hercules”

By Matt Friedlander
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