BEAUTY QUEEN:
Original Motion Picture Score (1980)

*7" SINGLE*
1980, PRE/Charisma Records, PRE 004

SIDE A- 'Beauty Queen' (2:30)
SIDE B- 'Slow Version' (2:47)

WRITTEN BY RICHARD HARTLEY AND LITTLE NELL

Nell's third and final single is the theme song to the film The Alternative Miss World, a documentary about a British drag pageant of the same name. (The film's title was changed to I Wanna Be A Beauty Queen for it's American home video release.) Nell is in the opening sequence of the film, in which she performs this song. The pictures featured on the front of the picture sleeve are taken from her appearance in the film, and the back of the sleeve features an assortment of some of the contestants of the pageant in the film.

This single was NOT released on A & M Records as her previous 2 singles had been. This single was released in the UK on the PRE label, which is/was part of the Charisma label.

Side A features the up-beat version of the song, which is the version most fans are familiar with, and side B features a very sweet, slowed-down version with Nell singing alone with Richard Hartley's piano accompaniment.

The song was mixed in what some audiophiles refer to as "true stereo" in that on both songs, the vocals are separated from the music. When listening to this disc in stereo, Nell's vocals are on the left side, and the music is on the right.

An interesting note about this disc: On the acutal record, in the inner groove where identification numbers are usually pressed into the vinyl, both sides have the following pressed into the disc: On side A, "A GREAT FILM ANDREW" is pressed, and side B says "BUY SOME FOR LULU." This must be some sort of in-joke or something, and I'm not sure if ALL copies of this disc have this engraved into them. (I personally own 3 copies of this disc, and all three have the same pressings.)

The faster A-side version of this song is featured on Songs From The Vaults which is available in The Rocky Horror Picture Show 15th Anniversary Box Set, although it is in mono (a different mix from the original release) although it sounds as if it were remastered from a copy of the vinyl single.
The slower version found on side B is featured on the very limited edition bootleg CD Dark Refrains .

*****AVAILABILITY*****
This single has been out-of-print for a long time and is difficult to find. On a personal note, I have found that out of all of Nell's releases, this single is usually the easiest to find, but maybe it's just my luck. Other than hunting for the original single, the best thing to do would be to get a cassette copy from a fellow fan/collector.

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