In My Defence

"In My Defence" is a power ballad performed by Queen lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. It was from the 1986 musical Time by Dave Clark and featured on the Time concept album. The song was not a hit during Mercury's lifetime but was released posthumously in 1992, reaching number eight in the UK Singles Chart.

Background

The song was written by Dave Clark, David Soames and Jeff Daniels for the musical Time. During the musical, Mercury performed the song as a duet with Cliff Richard; this was last time Mercury sang live in concert; his last performance would be Barcelona in 1988 with Montserrat Caballé, but this performance was lip-synced. Recorded as a solo project, it was recorded at Abbey Road in October 1985, about six months after Mr. Bad Guy was released. The producers expected that if Mercury was not satisfied with the final song, they would let him record with the rest of Queen, but Mercury found the final version satisfactory. "In My Defence" was first released on the Time LP in 1986. Other versions include '(Ron Nevison Mix)' - released on The Freddie Mercury Album and instrumental version (with vocals for the last line) released also on The Solo Collection. The Ron Nevison mix is very similar to the original, but has different bass and drums, while some string parts were added and others were removed. The 2000 Remix is a remastered version of the Ron Nevison mix and has the same instrumentation mixed differently. .