Queen is a band, whose popularity has only grown over the years. Their music covers a broad spectrum – rock, pop, blues – which has been such a significant factor in their enduring appeal. They are creatively greater than the sum of the parts – Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon wrote hits individually that were turned into instant classics. Here we examine the band’s collective talents, their individual brilliance, and their legendary music.
The Beginning
The founding members of Queen met in West London during the late 1960s. Guitarist Brian May, being the genius that he is, had built his own guitar with his father in 1963, and formed the group 1984 (named after Orwell’s novel). After leaving the band to focus on his degree in Physics and Infrared Astronomy, May formed another band called Smile and recruited drummer Roger Tayler via an advertisement.
The band soon became acquainted with a student named Freddie Bulsara, who was studying design and was a fan of Smile. Then in 1970 when Smile’s current lead singer Tim Staffell quit, Bulsara eagerly took his place. Bulsara then suggested the group change its name to “Queen.” At the same time, he decided to change his surname to Mercury, inspired by the line “Mother Mercury, look what they’ve done to me” in the song “My Fairy King”.
Queen & Queen II
Queen’s debut album, Queen, was largely completed before they even went searching for a record deal. All they had to do was put down a few more tracks and find a record company A&R man. That’s when up-and-coming producer, Roy Thomas Baker, came into the picture. He instantly liked what he heard and signed the band to EMI.
The follow-up, Queen II, displayed immense maturity and portrayed a band that had plenty to say. The two sides of the original LP were labeled “Side White” and “Side Black” (instead of the conventional sides “A” and “B”). Queen II remains one of the band’s lesser-known albums. Nonetheless, it has retained a cult following since its release and garnered praise from critics, fans, and musicians.
Bohemian Rhapsody
As the band prepared to record their third album, Sheer Heart Attack, they faced a major challenge – recording a crucial, career-defining album while Brian May recovered from a serious bout of hepatitis. They rallied and their work took a new turn – a series of short, sharp shocks to the system, brimming with commerciality. According to Brian May, “I regard Sheer Heart Attack as the most polished album, the most finished product.” The double “A” side single “Killer Queen/Flick of the Wrist” was a big hit.
Queen’s next album, A Night At The Opera, forced audiences and critics to give them the credit they deserved. With this album, they displayed a wider musical perspective, something closer to the diversity of the Beatles, rather than just hard rock. Recorded across four studios, A Night at the Opera included “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a piece of genius no one expected. And as if to blatantly state that there were four writers in this band, Deacon came in with “You’re My Best Friend”, and Taylor sang and wrote the spine-tingling rock hymn, “I’m in Love with My Car”, only two of the many great songs written by the two throughout the years.
Queen was well on their way to becoming one of the biggest rock bands in the world when the time came to start recording their fifth album, which would very much prove to be the sister album of A Night at the Opera, even down to the title, once again neatly nicked from another Marx Brothers movie – A Day at the Races.
The album featured many of the signatures created on its predecessor, including the rollicking rocker “Tie Your Mother Down”, by Brian May. Mercury, again, continued to shine as a contemporary writer, with “Somebody to Love.”
Arena Rock Legends
By this stage, Queen pretty much ruled the rock world (they had headlined a free concert in London’s Hyde Park to 150,000 people). When News Of The World came out, it was immediately well-received. It presented a couple of timeless anthems including “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You”. These songs are still regularly heard at arena sporting events today.
Jazz, Queen’s seventh album in just under six years, was somewhat overshadowed by the legendary launch that accompanied it in New Orleans on Halloween Night, October 31, 1978. But Jazz was another album that featured three tracks – “Bicycle Race”, “Fat-Bottomed Girls” and “Don’t Stop Me Now” – that would go on to become Queen classics.
Queen’s reputation on stage was equal to that in the studio. With all this commotion about their scintillating performances, Queen was under increasing pressure to come up with a live album. Band and management were painfully aware that bootleggers were amply fulfilling that need, and wanted to do something about it.
Queen’s First Live & Greatest Hits Albums
The first live album, Live Killers, was recorded on their European tour between January and March 1979; and was the band’s first double album. It was released in June 1979 and made No.3 on the UK charts and peaked at No.16 in America. Fans who attended any of those wonderful performances in Europe in 1979 will tell you that Live Killers truly captures the sheer power, unparalleled energy, and excitement Queen generated on stage during this time.
Then came The Game. “We wanted to get out of a rut, that laborious routine of recording, touring, promotion, etc.,” said May. They also wanted new experiences, and that was how they landed at Musicland Studios, Munich, and came out with more hits – “Another One Bites the Dust” and the typically anthemic “Save Me”.
The band’s first Greatest Hits compilation album was released in November 1981. It was an instant hit worldwide, reaching the No.1 slot in numerous countries. Its UK sales are in excess of 5.6 million copies, making it the UK’s biggest-selling album of all time. The UK album comprises Queen’s hit singles output from “Seven Seas Of Rhye” in 1974 to “Flash” in 1980, and every other single to make the top 20 over the previous seven years.
A Change in Sound
The band’s tenth album was Hot Space… a Queen album very different in sound, tone, and approach to any other record to date. Queen would adopt a much sparser sound for this album, letting music resonate alongside space.
The first example of this came with the single “Under Pressure”, a collaboration with David Bowie. The music on the album was very different, with Freddie Mercury leading the way into new territories that were very foreign to the history of Queen – disco, pop, R’n’B, funk soul, everything but the signature Queen sound, it seemed, apart, typically, from Brian May’s Put Out the Fire and plaintive Los Palabras de Amor.
Not surprisingly, Hot Space was met with confusion by many Queen fans when it was eventually released on May 21 but still reached number 4 in the UK charts, although, in both the UK and USA, it was awarded Gold status, a drop from the platinum discs the band were used to.
As Queen convened to record the next album, John Deacon said in a radio interview: “We were disappointed with Hot Space too, so we really did talk about how we were going to attack the next album. With The Works, we decided to go towards the things people actually associate with Queen.”
Back to the Roots
The Works title was derived from the fact that Queen felt that everything was working for them again, and a comment from Roger Taylor: “Let’s give them the works!” And indeed they did! Recorded with Mack at the Record Plant and Musicland between August 1983 and January 1984, the album had a wide range of diverse tracks and marked a return to Queen’s rock roots, led by Taylor’s own pop classic, “Radio Ga Ga”.
Having reached a new high with their mind-blowing performance at Live Aid on July 13, 1985, Queen was indeed ready to rock. In January 1986, Queen was mapping out their future after what was a truly invigorating 1985. The band’s major drive through the year would be a project-cum-album, starting with the Highlander movie soundtrack which would evolve into what would be the new album, A Kind of Magic.
Six of the nine tracks appeared in the movie Highlander, but they were longer and alternative versions. Tracks such as “A Kind of Magic”, “Who Wants to Live Forever”, “One Vision” and “Friends Will Be Friends” marked this as a true return to form.
Live Magic
Live Magic, Queen’s second live album, was recorded at Wembley Stadium and Knebworth Park in England, and in Budapest Hungary, during the Magic Tour of Europe, in July and August 1986. The album’s 1979 predecessor Live Killers had been a double album, but this time the band wanted only a single disc and thus the necessity to abbreviate certain performances. Some fans were unimpressed by the shortened edits and would have preferred a double-disc set to represent better what many of them considered to be some of the best concerts Queen had ever played.
With the working title of The Invisible Man, the band went to work on the next studio album. Most importantly to fans, this was a typically creative Queen album, with rock music at its core; and it spawned five singles including “The Miracle”, which would become the album’s new title just three weeks before its release.
End of the Road
Queen had been aware of Freddie Mercury’s illness for some time, but a decision had been made within “the band family” that this dreadful news would not be confirmed. He was insistent on this: “I don’t want people buying Queen music out of sympathy.”
Innuendo certainly had the creative spark apparent in all of Queen’s best music. It would also be the last album recorded during Mercury’s lifetime. The album had a variation and the brilliance of the clash of talents that occurred when the band was at the height of its success. Singles included “I’m Going Slightly Mad” and “Headlong”.
The band’s second Greatest Hits compilation album was released in the UK on 28 October 1991. Like the first Greatest Hits album issued a decade before, this one was another instant hit reaching the No. 1 position in the UK for 5 weeks and in numerous other countries around the world.
On the evening of 24 November 1991, about 24 hours after issuing the statement, Mercury died at the age of 45 at his home in Kensington. The cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.
The Aftermath: Made In Heaven
With a wealth of live footage, Queen’s third concert album, Live at Wembley ‘86, was recorded at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 12th, 1986 – on the second of two nights – during the mighty Magic Tour of Europe. Released in May 1992, this was the first Queen album released after Mercury’s death. It reached No. 2 in the charts. Unlike the earlier live album, this set comprised the entire show.
All of Queen was aware that there was unfinished recording business with regard to Freddie Mercury. He had insisted on working until his final days. Tracks had been recorded and when he died they were left in the studio. It wasn’t until the Spring of 1994 that Queen felt comfortable enough to work on that material. Made In Heaven was the title chosen by the Queen Fan Club. It turned out to be a perfectly valid Queen album, with thrilling cuts such as “It’s a Beautiful Day” and “You Don’t Fool Me”.
Queen Rocks
After compilations of their hit singles, Queen took a harder look at their status as an “albums’ band” in the traditional sense. They had many popular tracks that did not fit the single mode, and so Queen Rocks was released in 1997, a selection of songs from Queen’s heavier side. It also contained one new track, “No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young)”. It was the last original studio recording from the 1990s featuring Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon (and the first Queen recording without Freddie Mercury).
And still, there was room for more Greatest Hits albums, which would be released in subsequent years.
Originally released in November 2000, the 3 CD Platinum Collection set includes all three volumes of the original Greatest Hits albums. This special package was made to combine Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II, and Greatest Hits III in a triple CD case in one unique package with a 48-page booklet and an outer slipcase.
And there was still no shortage of Queen live performances. Queen on Fire: Live at the Bowl was recorded at a show in Milton Keynes, England, on June 5, 1982, during the Hot Space tour.
Continuing On
Queen also did something they said they would never do, go back on the road without Freddie Mercury and, more significantly, record without Mercury. But even Freddie might have agreed with their choice of singer: Paul Rodgers, from Free, who was a significant influence on Queen. May and Taylor had played with him at their induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame and heard him singing “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”. They tested the temperature with a few gigs under the name Queen+Paul Rodgers, and this blossomed into a world tour.
Later they teamed up with an American Idol contestant to form Queen + Adam Lambert, The group performed a variety of shows from 2009 to 2015, notably Queen + Adam Lambert Rock Big Ben Live.
This is what has helped define Queen’s unique place in rock history: a legacy that is ever-evolving and finding new audiences from all age groups. Who wants to live forever? We know that Queen will.
