"Pain Is So Close to Pleasure" is a song by Queen

Queen (band)

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

, released only in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and the USA as the second single from their 1986 album A Kind of Magic

A Kind of Magic

A Kind of Magic is a 1986 album by British rock band Queen. It was the band's twelfth studio album and their first to be recorded digitally, and is based on the soundtrack to the film Highlander, the first in a series directed by Russell Mulcahy....

.

The song began as a riff idea by Brian May

Brian May

Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...

. Then John Deacon

John Deacon

John Richard Deacon is a retired English multi-instrumentalist and song writer, best known as the bassist for the rock band Queen. Of the four members of the band, he was the last to join and also the youngest, being only 19 years old when he was recruited by the other members of the band...

 and Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...

 turned that into a song, with Deacon playing rhythm guitar. The single reached #26 on the Dutch charts. The title also appears as a line in "One Year of Love

One Year of Love

"One Year of Love" is a song by Queen from their 1986 album A Kind of Magic and also the film Highlander. Written by bassist John Deacon, it was released as a single in France and Spain. Like his other composition, "You're My Best Friend", this song has some of Deacon's most notable instrumental...

". As with most Mercury songs, it has prominent keyboards and, like most Deacon songs, it has a prominent bass line. It is also one of the only songs in which Mercury sings all the vocals in falsetto

Falsetto

Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...

.

The version which appears on the single is a remix, rearranging much of the backing track from the original elements. The 12" single features an extended version of this remix, rather than an extended version of the track as it appears on the album.