Embedded below, the performance was recorded Aug. 17, 2014, during their set at Tokyo's Summer Sonic Festival at Marine Stadium. According to a press release, it was the first time they'd ever performed "I Was Born to Love You" with this arrangement, having previously only played the track -- originally from Freddie Mercury's 1985 solo album Mr. Bad Guy but re-made a decade later for Made in Heaven -- in a shortened acoustic version.
"I had an obsession with the song, and had the idea to make a new version, simulating how it would have sounded if we had been able to play it live with Freddie on stage," Brian May said. "So the Queen version was put together as a 'virtual' live track, using Freddie's spectacular vocal as the central thread. Roger [Taylor], John [Deacon] and I played our parts live, to a rearranged template I'd put together - complete with some additions to the arrangement, taking some liberties with the vocal, and even borrowing some choice Freddie ad-libs, to add to the feeling that it was a live band recording. Little did we know that years later we'd have the opportunity with Adam to finally bring this arrangement to life on a real stage."
"I Was Born to Love You" has a special connection to Japan. It was featured in a 1996 commercial for Kirin Beer and gave Queen their first charting single in that country since 1977. Queen + Adam Lambert have played in Japan twice since 2014, but the Summer Sonic set stands out in their minds.
"We all thought it was quite a difficult gig," May continued "The audience was wonderful, but with the extreme heat and humidity, it was very difficult to play. However, when we saw the video, we all thought that it had great energy and the interaction with the crowd was great."
"The Japanese audience was so passionate, so emotional," Lambert concurred. "You could feel the connection. And it's different than in other countries; there is something very special there."
Live Around the World will be released in audio and home-video formats on Oct. 2. You can check out "The Show Must Go On" here.
