Freddie Mercury

He was born Farrokh Bulsara, in Stone Town, Zanzibar, in 1946, a long way from the stages he would end up commanding. The world knows him as the frontman of Queen, the voice and the showmanship at the center of one of the biggest bands there has ever been. But Freddie also kept a second career running alongside it, his own, with his own name on the sleeve and nobody else’s songs to share the spotlight.

The solo work is smaller than Queen’s and stranger for it. Mr. Bad Guy, in 1985, was his first full record away from the band: synth-driven, pop, unapologetically his. Then in 1988 came Barcelona, made with the Spanish opera soprano Montserrat Caballe, a collision of rock voice and operatic one that almost nobody saw coming and few would have dared attempt. In between sat singles that let him chase whatever caught his ear.

He died in 1991. The solo catalogue stayed compact, which is part of what makes it worth your time: there is no filler to wade through, no long stretch of lesser years. Every entry is a deliberate step away from the day job, and away from what was expected of him.