Time for the next part of this little series about Queen singles’ B-sides, this time “Hang On In There” from the “I Want It All” single from May 2, 1989 from the The Miracle album.

The A side is a nice hard rock song with a bearded Freddie in the performance video – Wikipedia writes:

It was purposely shot using strong halogen lighting and in black and white in order to ‘mask’ Freddie’s increasingly gaunt appearance as his tragic battle with AIDS started to show some two years before he lost to it. If observed closely at Freddie in the previous Queen single-video, it is noticeable that there was a marked difference in his appearance from his appearance in the video for this single.

For the single version, the album version’s guitar intro was replaced with a chorus intro, and Brian’s solo in the middle (before the fast part) removed.

The B side starts as a quiet pop-rock song with acoustic guitar, but Queen had not been Queen if they hadn’t added something special, and this little change starts at about 2½ minutes… so enjoy:

» “I Want It All” – Video (HQ)
» “I Want It All” – longer album version
» lyrics
» “Hang On In There” – lyrics video
» lyrics

Photo: clix/sxc