The Miracle

"The Miracle" is the fifth and final single from Queen's 1989 studio album of the same name. It was composed by the entire band, though Freddie Mercury and John Deacon were the main writers. It was released as a single on 27 November 1989 and it was the band's final single release of the 1980s. Composition The idea for the song came from Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, who wrote the basic chord structure for the song. All four contributed to the lyrics and musical ideas, and the song was still credited to the entire band because they had agreed to do so during the album recording, regardless of who had been the actual writer. While both Mercury and May regarded this as one of their favourites, Taylor said in the audio commentary of Greatest Video Hits II that although it was not a favourite of his, he respected it as "an incredibly complex track". The song describes several of "God's creations, great and small", such as great buildings like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Taj Mahal and the Tower of Babel, all described as "miracles" in the song, yet the one miracle "we're all waiting for" is "peace on Earth and an end to war." The song also references well-known figures such as Captain Cook, Cain and Abel, and Jimi Hendrix. Release The sleeve artwork for the single uses the album's artwork inverted with a hologram-like fashion. The B-sides of the single are live versions of the songs "Stone Cold Crazy" and "My Melancholy Blues" originally from the albums Sheer Heart Attack and News Of The World respectively. Specifically, Stone Cold Crazy comes from one of the two Rainbow shows that took place in November 1974, and My Melancholy Blues comes from the Houston show that took place in December of 1977.