25 January 1993 – “The Great Pretender” is reissued as it was featured in Irwin Winkler’s film ‘Night And The City’, starring Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange.
The single picked at #29 in the UK charts, though it had been remixed considerably for inclusion on the US compilation album ‘The Great Pretender’.
Remixed by Brian Malouf, who had also provided the Headbangers mix of “Hammer To Fall”, the song’s distinctive, percolating keyboard melody is replaced with a jangly guitar, lending it a more powerful, anthemic sound that adds a different feel to the emotion already provided in the original.
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“In my own work, I travel extensively and it was on one of my long haul trips that I finally realised Freddie’s world class stature.
After leaving a factory in the jungles of Malaysia, I settled in the back of the car for a two hour journey to Kuala Lumpur. We were driving through an incredible tropical storm and you could see little through the windows of the car. I was tired and put my head back and relaxed. The music from the speakers behind me quietly permeated my conscious state.
Ah! One of my great favourites from my teenage was being played. ‘The Great Pretender’. It had had great meaning at that time in my life. But… Something was wrong. It wasn’t The Platters singing. Strange, I thought. The voice, however, seemed familiar. At first I was irritated but suddenly realised I liked this unfamiliar interpretation. I closed my eyes and then of course I realised it was Freddie. I was amazed as I never thought he sang those old songs.
I asked my host, a young Malaysian businessman skilled in the manufacture of plastic trash bags if he knew who was singing. The reply was immediate. ‘Sure! That’s Freddie Mercury!’ I felt so proud.”
- Extracted from ‘This Was The Real Life’ memory by Nigel Quiney, a businessman and designer of gift wraps and greetings cards since the early sixties and Freddie’s friend