Queen released The Platinum Collection in the UK on November 13, 2000, through Parlophone. The three-CD box gathered Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II and Greatest Hits III, keeping the compilations together as separate discs. Its 51 tracks covered the familiar singles, but also the solo recordings, guest performances and later Queen songs collected on the third volume.
Among those later recordings was “No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young).” Written by Brian May, the song was released as a tribute to Freddie Mercury and first appeared on Queen Rocks in 1997. John Deacon took part in the October recording session, making it his final recording with the band. Its inclusion placed that closing chapter of Deacon’s recording career within the same package as his earlier work.
The first disc returned to Greatest Hits, originally released in 1981. The UK selection covered the band’s singles from 1974 to 1980, opening with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and ending with “We Are the Champions.” Keeping the compilation intact preserved its running order: listeners moved between different albums and musical styles, rather than following a strict year-by-year history. Greatest Hits II, issued in 1991, covered the following decade. “Radio Ga Ga” and “I Want to Break Free” represented the band’s embrace of synthesizers, while “I Want It All” retained a prominent place for May’s guitar. “The Show Must Go On” appeared near the end of the disc. The second collection had been released shortly before Mercury’s death, making it a survey of the band’s later work completed during his lifetime.
The third volume widened the scope. Released in 1999 under the Queen+ name, Greatest Hits III included individual members’ work alongside recordings credited to the band. May’s “Driven by You” and Mercury’s “Living on My Own” put their solo careers inside the same collection. Queen’s posthumous studio album Made in Heaven, released in 1995, supplied four selections, including “Heaven for Everyone” and “Too Much Love Will Kill You.” Those choices gave the final disc a different character from the first two. It moved between the musicians’ separate projects and the band’s later recordings, with Mercury’s voice present in both parts of that story.
It also let listeners hear familiar songs with different singers. “Somebody to Love” appeared as the studio recording on disc one and as George Michael’s performance with Queen at the 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute concert on disc three. “The Show Must Go On” similarly paired the studio version on disc two with a live performance featuring Elton John from 1997. Those versions had already appeared on Greatest Hits III before they became part of this box.
The American edition followed through Hollywood Records in September 2002. The package subsequently returned in remastered form in 2011, and on June 17, 2022, The Platinum Collection received its first vinyl release. That edition spread the three compilations across six colored LPs, with new artwork and a 24-page photo booklet.
