Queen is a British rock band that came to popularity during the mid-1970s, amassing an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day. Their sales figures estimates vary greatly. In 2001 it was stated their sales topped 100 million records worldwide [1] [2][3]; however, according to an official press release two years later, Queen "have accounted for record sales in excess of 150 million across the world" [4]), and the following year, "over 190 million albums" was claimed at their UK Music Hall of Fame induction (2004 [5]). Several sites also claim a worldwide figure of over 300 million records. [6] [7]
Though often panned by critics, especially in the US, in recent years the group's critical stock has increased considerably; they have generally become recognized as pioneers of arena rock, hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, and progressive rock and been cited as influential to the sound of later artists (see "Influence on Modern Music" later in the article), and in 2001 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The band also paved the way for the commercial music video, having promoted their 1975 hit "Bohemian Rhapsody" with a conceptual promo released worldwide, considered by many to be the first true music video.
Their band's crest (pictured) was designed by Freddie Mercury and includes the zodiac signs of all four members surrounding a Phoenix - two lions, to represent two Leos (Roger Taylor and John Deacon), a crab for Cancer representing Brian May, and fairies representing Virgo for Freddie Mercury.
Members
Although Freddie Mercury wrote the majority of the songs on Queen's "Greatest Hits" album, he was not the only important songwriter in the group. On the contrary, all four members of the group wrote major hits:
- Freddie Mercury (1946-1991), vocals, keyboards/piano, guitar ("Killer Queen" , "Bohemian Rhapsody" , "Somebody to Love" , "We Are the Champions" , "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Innuendo" )
- Brian May CBE (1947-), guitars, vocals, keyboards/piano ("Tie Your Mother Down" , "We Will Rock You" , "Fat Bottomed Girls" , "Hammer to Fall" , "Who Wants to Live Forever" , "The Show Must Go On". "'39")
- Roger Taylor (1949-), drums, percussion, vocals, keyboards, guitar ("Radio Ga Ga" , "A Kind of Magic" , "These Are the Days of Our Lives" , "Heaven for Everyone")
- John Deacon (1951-), bass guitar, rhythm guitar, keyboards ("You're My Best Friend" , "Spread Your Wings" , "Another One Bites the Dust" , "I Want to Break Free")
History
1968-1970
Brian May, the lead guitarist, and Roger Taylor, the drummer, were playing in a band called Smile with Tim Staffell. Mercury was Staffell's roommate at Ealing Arts College and followed Smile's music closely; Mercury was a singer in other bands, such as Ibex (aka Wreckage) in 1969 and Sour Milk Sea in 1970. Still, he was very eager to share his ideas so Smile could develop. Staffell left Smile to join another band, formed by an ex-Bee Gee, Humpy Bong, while Mercury stepped in for Staffell, changing the band's name from Smile to Queen in the process. The band had a number of bass players during this period, but it was not until 1971 that they found John Deacon and started to rehearse for the first album, Queen.
1970s
1973
In 1973 Queen released their first album, a self-titled project. It drew little attention, but succeeded in giving the band an FM radio anthem "Keep Yourself Alive." In hindsight, it's considered to be a strong first album.
1974
It wasn't until 1974 that the band gained any mainstream attention or commercial success. The album Queen II, was released, which also sold poorly, but is revered by many of Queen's more devoted fans as one of their best works. The album was highly experimental, so it garnered little mainstream attention and was, like Queen I, a commercial flop, but the band released the song "Seven Seas of Rhye" as a single, which reached number 10 in Britain, giving them their first hit. They toured as support to Mott the Hoople (referred to in the "Now I'm Here" lyric "Down in the city it's just Hoople and me") during this period, when they first began to gain notoriety for their energetic and crowd-involving stage shows.
Later that same year, Sheer Heart Attack was released. The album was huge in the UK and throughout Europe; and went gold in the United States, giving the band their first taste of true commercial success. Considered one of their greatest efforts, Queen made a surprisingly cohesive album with a wide variety of different types of music; British music hall to heavy metal tunes like "Stone Cold Crazy" (which Metallica would later cover and earn a Grammy for) and "Now I'm Here" (a live concert favourite); ballads ("Lily of the Valley"), ragtime ("Bring Back That Leroy Brown"), even Caribbean ("Misfire").
The single "Killer Queen" was a British number 2 hit which got as high as number 11 on the U.S. charts. It combined campy, vaudeville British music hall with Led Zeppelin-like sound and Brian May's virtuosity on the guitar. The album's second single, "Now I'm Here", was a number 11 hit in Britain, a heavier track which they admitted was influenced by the early work of The Who.
1975
If Sheer Heart Attack's blend of eclectic styles and heavy-metal was considered to be gamut-running, their 1975 effort A Night at the Opera was all-encompassing. Considered by many fans and critics alike to be their greatest effort (some call it Queen's Led Zeppelin IV), this is the album that featured the huge worldwide hit, "Bohemian Rhapsody". "Bohemian Rhapsody" was number one in the UK for nine weeks, and another five weeks in 1991 when it was re-released after Mercury's death. It originally reached number 9 in the U.S, and number 2 when re-released in 1992. The song remains one of Britain's top 5 best-selling singles of all time.
The album also featured "You're My Best Friend" (which peaked at 14 on the U.S. charts), a sweet, pure pop gem that was unlike anything Queen had ever done to that point. "I'm In Love With My Car" was a hard-rock tune, written and sung by drummer Roger Taylor, which was used in Jaguar car commercials. "Love of my Life", also on the album, is a stadium anthem at any Queen concert, as is "'39", a Bryan May-penned ballad based on a sci-fi novella May had read in his youth that dealt with the tragedies associated with returning from a voyage at relativistic speeds. The entire album, in fact, featured incredible diversity in music styles (similar to Sheer Heart Attack) and experimentation with stereo sound (cf. The Prophet's Song, an 8-minute epic, the middle section of which is simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound).
The cover to Queen's
A Night at the Opera
The album was a smash in Britain, and went three times platinum in the United States. It was official; Queen had hit the popular music scene.
1976
Back in the studio in 1976 Queen recorded what essentially was a companion album to A Night at the Opera, A Day At The Races, also in keeping with the Marx Brothers' movie theme for the title. The cover was similar to that of A Night at the Opera, a variation on the same Queen Crest. Musically, the album was very much in the vein of A Night at the Opera and although it was by both fans' and critics' standards a strong effort, it was unable to eclipse its predecessor, and as a result has been somewhat underrated. Years later, Brian May would remark that he wished the band had originally released this album simultaneously with A Night At The Opera, as they considered the two to be considerably similar.
The standout tracks were "Somebody to Love" and "Tie Your Mother Down." "Somebody to Love" was an incredible rock ballad, on which Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor multi-tracked their voices to make a 100-voice gospel choir. The song went to number 11 on the U.S. singles chart and number 2 on the U.K. charts. "Tie Your Mother Down" was a typical Queen hard-rocker that produced a very recognizable riff and displayed Queen's trademark sense of humour.
It was during this same year that Queen played one of their most famous gigs, a 1976 concert in Hyde Park. They set an attendance record, with 150,000 people confirmed to be in attendance. (The actual number is thought to be closer to 180,000 - usually stated as between 150,000 and 200,000.) By comparison, the 2005 London Live 8 concert, which featured numerous of the world's highest drawing acts (including The Who, U2, Madonna, Coldplay, Elton John, Robbie Williams and a reunited Pink Floyd) drew about 150,000.
The cover to the 1977 album
News of the World.
1977
1977 saw the release of News of the World, an album that was critically panned at the time but has gained recognition over time as being one of the stand-out hard rock albums of the late-70s as well as being one of the albums most influential in creating stadium rock. This album had more of a sonic punch to it, as well as songs that were tailor-made to be performed (and subsequently have their greatest effect) live. This album produced the anthemic "We Will Rock You" and the famous rock ballad "We Are The Champions" (both of which combined together reached number 4 in the U.S.), as well as the punchy, near-punk sound of "Sheer Heart Attack" (not to be confused with the album of the same name released three years earlier) - and possibly an influence on Queens Of The Stone Age's "Feelgood Hit of the Summer" which features an alarmingly similar guitar riff. "Get Down, Make Love" was a funky, almost electronic sounding tune which would prove to be hugely influential on the industrial movement nearly 15 years later--Nine Inch Nails even covered the song (produced by Al Jourgensen of Ministry, under the pseudonym Hypo Luxa.)
Roger Taylor released his first solo effort this year in the form of a single. The A-side was a cover of a song by The Parliaments ("I Wanna Testify") and the B-side was a song by Taylor called "Turn On The TV".
1978
In 1978 the band released the Jazz album, including the hit singles Fat Bottomed Girls and Bicycle Race, being a double-A-side single. Although successful, the album was targeted by critics for its collection of different styles, jazz not being one of them. Ironically, the well-known magazine Rolling Stone criticized it for being "dull", continuing to say "Queen hasn't the imagination to play jazz— Queen hasn't the imagination, for that matter, to play rock & roll." The album cover was inspired by a painting on the Berlin wall, and none of the material can really be defined as jazz even to the casual listener. Important tracks of the album were "Dead on Time", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Let Me Entertain You" or "Mustapha", a song by Freddie, which had a very Arabesque sound combined with heavy rock guitar.
1979
Fan response was lukewarm to Jazz and for the first time Queen's sales saw a bit of a dip. All band members, especially Mercury, noted frustration and disappointment with the album, and as a result, took a break from the breakneck schedule of one or more albums a year, and focused during the year of 1979 totally on a new album to come out in 1980.
They did, however, release their first-ever live album, in response to the exorbitant amounts of money Queen bootlegs were fetching. The album, entitled Live Killers, went platinum twice in the U.S. They also released the very successful single, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a song done in the style of Elvis Presley; the single made the top 10 in most countries and was the band's first number one single in the U.S.
1980s
The cover to Queen's
The Game.
1980
Queen kicked off the 1980s with the hugely successful album, The Game. The album turned out to be their highest selling (barring greatest hits collections). The album featured the "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" single, as well as the monster hit "Another One Bites The Dust" a track that was released in the summer of 1980. A common myth is that Michael Jackson first suggested that it would make a great single, but this is likely apocryphal[8]. Loosely based Chic's "Good Times", it combined Queen's rock sensibilities with a funky minimalism that resulted in a discofied rock classic. It stayed at number one for four weeks in the United States, and the album went four times platinum States-side. It was also the only song to ever top the Billboard rock, dance, and R&B charts simultaneously. The album also featured two of Queen's greatest ballads; "Play the Game" and the fan-favourite "Save Me," both of which were hits in Britain and well-remembered by rock fans in the States.
The album was the first appearance of a synthesizer on a Queen album. Although some have suggested that it was their 1977 album News Of The World (specifically, the song "Get Down, Make Love") where the instruments first appeared, the effects were created solely by Brian May's famous Red Special guitar.
1980 also saw them do the innovative and critically-acclaimed soundtrack for the movie Flash Gordon. The album sold poorly, but served as a showcase for Queen in a different light.
1981
1981 saw Queen become the first rock band to play in South America stadiums. They broke the attendance world record for a single concert and venue, at the Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo Brazil, 131,000 people the first night and 251,000 over 2 dates. Including five shows in Argentina, Queen played to an audience of 479,000 on their South American tour.
During the year they collaborated with another artist, David Bowie, on the single "Under Pressure". The collaboration itself was a spontaneous affair, when Bowie happened to drop by the studio where Queen were recording. While the band were immediately pleased with the results, it wasn't until years later that Bowie began to actually appreciate the song and play it during his concerts. The single reached number one in Britain and remains a fan-favourite of both Queen and Bowie legionnaires. The memorable bass riff showed up for Vanilla Ice's 1990 hit, "Ice Ice Baby", prompting a successful lawsuit over the use of the sample. At the time, Vanilla Ice claimed that the two basslines were different when in fact, save for one note, they are identical. Under Pressure was recently re-recorded together by The Used and My Chemical Romance for the Hurricane Katrina Relief.
The group also released a widely successful greatest hits album, their first, which showcased their rock highlights during the first phase of their career. In this year, Roger Taylor became the first member of the band to release his own solo album, entitled "Fun In Space".
1982-1983
Inspired by the overwhelming international success of "Another One Bites The Dust", the band decided that they should focus their next album on disco/funk. The result was the 1982 album Hot Space, which, fairly or not, tends to be regarded by critics and die-hard, loyal fans alike as being one of their worst. The album was especially disappointing to the hard-rock faithful that had followed Queen from their early years.
In hindsight, it seems that most of the negative reaction has proven to be slightly exaggerated as the album still contained many traditional Queen songs such as the heavy Brian May-esque rock of "Put Out The Fire", the poppy "Calling All Girls" and the gorgeous Latin ballad "Las Palabras de Amor (The Words Of Love)" (which was a UK Top 20 single). Furthermore, the album included "Under Pressure,". Die-hard fans were reassured during live concerts in 1982, and the band demonstrated that they had not lost their hard rock edge, and even the songs from "Hot Space," had a heavier, rock-feel when performed live. A live highlight of these years was their concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl, which was filmed and subsequently released on DVD.
After working solidly for over ten years, either touring or recording new material, Queen decided that they would not perform any live shows in 1983. During this time they recorded the album "The Works" and several members of the band explored side projects and solo work which constantly led to rumours that the band were going to split, rumours that would persist throughout the rest of their career. Brian May released a mini-album entitled "Star Fleet Project" on which he collaborated with Eddie Van Halen.
1984
In 1984, Queen successfully bridged the gap between hard rock and pop with the album The Works, which included the incredibly successful glitzy rock anthem "Radio Ga Ga," the gorgeous pop of "I Want to Break Free" (a song later to be used both as an anthem of the democracy movement in Brazil and later in commercials for the Coca-Cola C2 soda), and the heavy, hard-rock live favourites "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up." Despite these hit singles and live barn-burners, the album failed to fare well in the US, contributing to tensions within the band.
The remarkable music video for "I Want to Break Free" parodied Coronation Street, a British soap opera, and was popular there, but as it showed the band in drag, was thought to work against them elsewhere, where viewers did not get the joke. Mercury was booed when he performed the song at the Rock in Rio concert wearing stockings and suspenders as in the video, because he was seen to be mocking the song (which, unknown to him, the people had adopted as a political anthem). Many claimed that the video hurt the band's sales in the United States in subsequent years. The surprisingly poor sales of "The Works" in the US led to the members of Queen branching off onto solo projects during this period.
Late in 1984, Queen embarked on a set of dates in Bophuthatswana, South Africa at the arena at Sun City[9]. Upon returning to England, Queen was the subject of outrage after having played Sun City during the height of apartheid in that country. Although Queen maintained that they were just playing music for people who wanted to hear it, and stressed that the concerts were played before integrated audiences, this possibly contributed to the poor sales of The Works around the world.
1985
1985 started with two mega-shows at the Rock in Rio festival. At 2am on January 12th, they opened the festival playing in front of 325,000 people, breaking their previous world record. The band was not in super form but made a solid presentation. They also played on January 19th for a capacity-crowd of 325,000 fans to close the festival.
Then came the benefit concert Live Aid, at which Queen were invited to perform. In the eyes of critics and fans alike, the group stole the show at the worldwide extravaganza, performing some of their greatest hits and wowing audiences with their energy and superb musicianship and showmanship. While many of the acts seemed to be slightly diminished by the size of the event and technical difficulties, Queen rose to the challenge and elevated their game to a whole new level. At one point during Radio Ga Ga, Freddie got the capacity crowd at Wembley Stadium to clap in time with him and the song.
Revitalised by the response to Live Aid and the resulting increase in record sales, Queen ended 1985 by releasing the single "One Vision", an uptempo guitar-based song credited, unusually for this period, to the four members of the band. It was used in the film Iron Eagle.
1985 also saw the release of Mercury's only true solo album to be released during his lifetime, Mr. Bad Guy.
1986
In early 1986 Queen recorded the album A Kind of Magic, containing several songs written for the Russell Mulcahy film Highlander of the same year, as well as a few inspired by (but not used in) the film. This album was very successful, producing a string of hits including the title track "A Kind of Magic", "Who Wants to Live Forever?" and "Friends Will Be Friends".
Later that year, Queen went on a sold-out final tour, known as The Magic Tour, in support of A Kind Of Magic, whose highlight was at Wembley Stadium in London and resulted in the triumphant live double album, Queen Live At Wembley Stadium, which for many fans and critics has become Queen's ultimate live document, released both on CD and as a live concert film on VHS and later DVD. Freddie teased the capacity crowd of 75,000 that Queen might be breaking up, joking that he wanted to leave but the others wouldn't let him. Eventually he told the crowd that it was just a silly rumour, and that Queen would be together until "we fucking well die, I'm sure!" much to their delight.
On this tour, Queen performed for the last time together. They could not book Wembley for a third night because it was already booked, but they managed to get Knebworth Park. It sold out within 2 hours, and over 125,000 fans -- though up to 175,000 are estimated to have been present -- packed the park to get a glimpse of Queen one last time live, although no one knew of course that would be the case. Queen had, to date, sold over 80 million albums worldwide.
The Magic Tour was the biggest tour Queen had ever played. A total of more than 1 million people saw the show, with 400,000 for the UK alone, which was the record at the time.
1989
After working in various solo projects during 1988 (including Mercury´s collaboration with Montserrat Caballé, "Barcelona") the band released The Miracle in 1989. The album continued the direction of A Kind of Magic with a polished pop-rock sound and spawned the European hits "I Want it All," "Breakthru," "The Invisible Man," and "The Miracle". Queen announced that there would be no tour for this album, with Mercury declaring that he was the sole reason. He stated that he simply wanted to break the typical cycle of album/tour. Speculation returned of a possible breakup of the band in the near future, or more ominously, that Mercury might be suffering from health problems.
The Miracle also began a change in direction of Queen's songwriting philosophy. Since the band's beginning, nearly all songs had been written by and credited to a single member, with each of the other members often adding minimal creative input, and instead helping the original writer to realize their vision for the song. This lead to frequent competition between members for the limited space on albums, with each member being protective of his own songs. Starting with The Miracle, the band's songwriting began to become more collaborative, and although many songs could be said to have been spawned largely from one member or another, they vowed to credit the final product only to Queen as a group.
1990s
In 1991, rumours started spreading in the tabloid press and elsewhere that Freddie Mercury was suffering from AIDS. Although they were true, Mercury flatly denied these rumours. However, the band decided to make an album free of conflict and differences. That album became Innuendo. Although his health began to deteriorate, Mercury was courageous in handling his contributions. Highlights of the album were the epic title track, reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir"; the hard-rocking, rollicking powerhouse "Headlong"; and the anthems "The Show Must Go On" and "These Are The Days Of Our Lives".
On November 23, 1991, in a prepared statement made on his deathbed, Freddie Mercury finally acknowledged he had AIDS. Within 24 hours of the announcement, Mercury was dead at the age of 45. His funeral services were private, held in accordance with the Zoroastrian religious faith of his family.
On April 20, 1992, the public shared in the mourning of Mercury's passing at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held at London's Wembley Stadium in Mercury's honour. Musicians such as Annie Lennox, Guns N' Roses, Extreme, Roger Daltrey, Def Leppard, Elton John, George Michael, David Bowie, Metallica, and Liza Minnelli (along with the three surviving members of Queen) performed most of Queen's major hits. It became perhaps the most successful live concert in history, generating over one billion TV viewers worldwide.
Queen never actually disbanded, although their last album of original material (not including compilations) was released in 1995, titled Made In Heaven, put out four years after Freddie Mercury's death, and constructed from Freddie's final recording sessions in 1991 (of which the last session was said to have been only 10 days before his death), plus material leftover from their previous studio albums as well as re-worked material from Mercury's solo album Mr. Bad Guy and a track originally featured on the first album of Taylor's side-project, The Cross. May and Taylor have often been involved in projects related to raising money for AIDS research and promoting its support. John Deacon generally keeps a very low profile, only re-appearing to quash the notion of Queen re-forming. May and Taylor do participate in the making of "Queen + ..." projects with various guest musicians, something which Deacon is said to generally support, although he is alleged to have expressed criticism towards the projects with Five ("We Will Rock You", 2000) and Robbie Williams ("We Are The Champions", 2001).
Dragon Attack was an obscure 1997 tribute album titled after one of Queen's earlier recordings. Put together by Billy Sherwood, it featured musicians including Yngwie Malmsteen, Lemmy Kilmister, Glenn Hughes, Carmine Appice and John Petrucci and was one of a number of "tribute albums" featuring performers of modest notoriety released late in the decade.
In 1997, Queen released their final effort to date featuring all 3 remaining members, a single entitled "No One But You". A ballad written by May about Mercury, it was issued in support of and featured on a career-spanning compilation of heavier Queen tracks called Queen Rocks.
2000s
At the end of 2004, it was announced that Queen would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers (founder and former lead singer of Free, Bad Company, and The Firm) who would be singing in Freddie Mercury's place, as frontman, but would not be in the band as Brian May had announced to the Queen fan club, that Paul Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury. The officially retired Deacon would not be participating; Danny Miranda of Blue Öyster Cult replaces him on bass. Other members of the tour included keyboardist Spike Edney who has played guitar and keyboards in Queen live shows since the early '80s and additional guitarist Jamie Moses who has worked with Brian May on solo efforts since the early '90s.
In 2004, ThreeOneG Records (The Locust, Some Girls) released "Dynamite With a Laserbeam: Queen as Heard Through the Meatgrinder of ThreeOneG", a tribute album by noise/progressive hardcore/metal heavyweights.
On August 9, 2005, a tribute album of the band, entitled Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen was released and included song covers performed by Breaking Benjamin, Sum 41, Los Lobos, Joss Stone, Jason Mraz, Gavin DeGraw, The Flaming Lips, Eleven, Josh Homme and Rooney, among others.
On September 19, 2005, a live double CD album was released, Return of the Champions, featuring Paul Rodgers. It was recorded live in May, 2005 during the Queen plus Paul Rodgers tour at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England.
For the 30th aniversary of the album A Night at the Opera 21 November 2005, a newly restored two-disc version was released which, in addition to the CD album, contained a DVD with new videos for every song, except Bohemian Rhapsody and You're My Best Friend.
In March 2006, Queen+Paul Rodgers set out to tour the US and Canada. This tour, apart from the two US dates from the first Queen+Paul Rodgers tour, marks Queen's first full-on USA tour since Hot Space in 1982. Bassist John Deacon remained in retirement and did not tour with May, Taylor, and Rodgers. Queen+Paul Rodgers debuted their first new song as a collaboration called "Take Love" whilst on the US tour.
Historical success
In 2005, with the release of their live album with Paul Rodgers, Queen moved into third place of the acts with the most aggregate time spent on the British record charts, outranking The Beatles. (This list does not make allowances for the fact the charts were a smaller list in the 1960s.)
Current rankings:
- Elvis Presley (2,574 weeks)
- Cliff Richard (1,982)
- Queen (1,755)
- The Beatles (1,749)
Influence on modern music
Queen is remembered for its never-seen-before theatrics, showmanship, camp and bombast so much that critics have since classified the band as a major player in the evolution of rock music. Queen is noted in particular for its musical eclecticism and ground-breaking live shows. Queen is credited by artists as diverse as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Metallica, Extreme, Dream Theater, Steve Vai, Trent Reznor, Robbie Williams, George Michael, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Muse, The Darkness, Franz Ferdinand, Jetliner and Joan Osborne as having a major influence on their sounds.
Queen's theme music for Flash Gordon later became the inspiration of the theme music for The Big O, a popular Anime series.
Japanese all-girl supergroup Morning Musume released as the B-side of their 2004 single "Ai Araba IT’S ALL RIGHT" a song entitled "Dekiru Onna" ("Able Girl"), the vocal and instrumental arrangement of which is a dead ringer for "Killer Queen"-era Queen.
The Digital Realm
Under the supervision of Brian May and Roger Taylor, numerous restoration projects have been underway involving Queen's lengthy audio and video catalogue. DVD releases of their famous 1986 Wembley concert (titled Live At Wembley Stadium) and 1982 Milton Keynes concert, and two Greatest Video Hits (Volumes 1 and 2, spanning the '70s and '80s) have seen the band's music remixed into 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound. So far, two of Queen's most acclaimed albums, A Night At The Opera and The Game, have been fully remixed into DTS Surround on DVD-Audio albums. Known for their densely layered arrangements and backing, this medium seems tailor-made for Queen's music. Brian May has said he would like to see the entire Queen catalogue reproduced in this format, as it is closer to what the band envisaged for their work years ago.
In 1998 Queen (in conjunction with Electronic Arts) released a computer game Queen: The Eye to commercial and critical failure. The music itself - Queen tracks from their vast catalogue, in many cases remixed into new instrumental versions - was by and large well received, but the game experience was hampered by poor gameplay. Adding to the problem was an extremely long development time, resulting in graphic elements that already seemed outdated by the time of release.
The Queen camp continues to work on future concert releases, at least one more video collection (Volume 3) and the rest of album catalogue in the DVD-Audio format. True to form, Taylor and May are in constant communication with fans, collectors and industry experts to find out where demand lies for future releases and where the industry and new technology is headed.
Queen Live
Queen's live performances were truly ground-breaking, employing massive lighting rigs, pyrotechnics, and other special effects to make their shows into engaging theatrical events. Along with their contemporaries KISS and David Bowie, they changed live concerts forever from the staid, stodgy events that had prevailed since the time of the Beatles, where performers would merely stand around and play their instruments. The energy with which they performed, the excitement, enthusiasm and pure adrenaline Freddie Mercury brought with his vocal performance, was so natural and so genuine that the audience almost always joined in and sang. Mercury immersed himself in the crowd's adulation and thrived off their excitement, a trait for which many, including Kurt Cobain (in his suicide note), have expressed admiration. Beginning with "News Of The World" in 1977, Queen began to write songs with the specific purpose of involving the crowd, like "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions," and tailored some songs, like "Radio GaGa" to involve claps. This resulted in a stunning moment at Live Aid at which almost 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium clapped their hands over their head in unison to "Radio Ga Ga."
Queen embarked upon many popular tours, with memorable shows (including the historic Live Aid concert) held at Wembley Stadium in England, and at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, although only the group's final tour, in support of the album "A Kind of Magic", ever actually made any money.
The Wembley concert, part of a UK tour in 1986, attracted 150,000 people over two nights. A memorable and prophetic moment occurred when Freddie Mercury told the audience: "There's been a lot of rumours lately about a certain band called Queen... the rumours are that we're gonna split up. What do you think?" Audience: "No!" Freddie: "Forget those rumours, we're gonna stay together 'till we fucking well die, I'm sure!".
At the Knebworth concert held with some 150,000 in attendance on August 9th that same year, Freddie makes the following statement:
"...and earlier on, there were rumours of us splitting up, but I mean, fuck 'em! I mean, really, look at this! (cheers). I mean, how can you split up when you have an audience like this, I mean, really! We're not that stupid!"
Ironically, the band were to hardly meet for another 3 years, during which time Freddie Mercury did some solo work and Roger Taylor did some work with The Cross.
According to Jim Hutton's book, Mercury and Me, Freddie Mercury was diagnosed HIV positive the following year (1987), which probably explains why they went quiet after such a successful tour. (Jim Hutton was Mercury's final partner, together from the mid-80s until his death.)
Members of the band as instrumentalists
It's well known that in the basic line-up, Deacon played bass, Taylor played drums, Mercury played piano and May played guitar. But, like their heroes The Beatles, Queen members explored different kinds of instrumental functions throughout their career.
Roger Taylor was more than competent with a guitar; in fact in the late 1980s he formed a parallel band in which he was solely the rhythm guitarist. Occasionally he played bass for his own songs with Queen (e.g. "Sheer Heart Attack"), and he knew some notes at the keyboard, although mostly he used synths for atmospheric effects. Still, he reportedly composed many songs at the piano because he didn't know how to play it well, and therefore he came up with nonstandard ideas when he played. He admitted that he didn't even know the names of some of the chords in "Radio Ga Ga".
Freddie Mercury was a pianist with the ability to cover many different styles and performances. Mostly he used grand pianos, but throughout the years he occasionally played upright jangle and electric piano. He was an experienced synth player and programmer as well: the orchestral interludes of "Was It All Worth It" were completely composed, arranged and played by him on a Korg M1 keyboard, as well as the string sections of "Bijou". Mercury was often self-deprecating about his guitar skills, introducing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by "I only know three chords" jokes. However, he would write on guitar occasionally, especially in the early days, such as the famous riff from "Ogre Battle," and the rock part in the world number one "Bohemian Rhapsody". It's unknown if he could play bass or drums to any extent, but it's been confirmed that he came up with very elaborate parts for them on various songs. In fact he composed the bass-line of Roger's "A Kind Of Magic", and programmed many rhythm parts in his first solo album, Mr. Bad Guy.
John Deacon played guitar in addition to bass, taking over rhythm parts in many albums, as well as several acoustic performances. Reportedly he could keep basic drum patterns and, even if he never mastered his keyboard abilities, he would occasionally play synths on his own compositions and often composed at the piano, playing an electric one on his top ten hit "You're My Best Friend", He can also be seen playing the grand piano in the video to "Spread Your Wings." He took over double-bass roles sometimes; reportedly Brian May had told him to play it on "'39" as a joke, but some days later John appeared at the studio with the instrument and he had already learnt how to play it.
Brian May played piano and ukulele in addition to guitar. He played rhythm instruments less than the other Queen members, but occasionally he did some bass or drum parts in his solo albums, and within the band he composed some parts for bass and drums, like in "Sweet Lady" or "Teo Torriatte". He added some special instruments here and there, but most of them were via studio tricks; for example, to nail the harp parts of "Love Of My Life", he played each chord separately in a different take, then the producer merged them to form the entire part. "The Prophet's Song" is probably his finest work, with an acoustic arrangement which features a (toy) koto given to him by a fan. This can be heard in the intro and the wonderful outro of this eight minute and twenty seconds long epic.
Queen in film
Queen contributed music directly to the movies Flash Gordon and Highlander (the original film directed by Russell Mulcahy). Several other films featured their songs, including Iron Eagle, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon, Wayne's World, Small Soldiers, Super Size Me, A Knight's Tale, The Girl Next Door, Revenge of the Nerds, and Shaun of the Dead. A cover of Somebody to Love by Anne Hathaway was recorded for the 2004 film Ella Enchanted. In 2001, a version of "The Show Must Go On" was performed by Jim Broadbent and Nicole Kidman in the movie musical Moulin Rouge!. The song "Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released after appearing in Wayne's World, and subsequently made number 2 on the US billboard chart. A year earlier it went to number 1 in the UK for a second time, the first time this had happened in that chart's history.
In 2006, a short movie titled "Journey of the Dead" was released on various websites, including ifilm.com and youtube.com. The movie is about Steve Perry (former lead singer of the rock band Journey) saving a couple from an attack by rock star drummer zombies, and then fighting Freddie Mercury in order to save the world from a plot to unleash hell on earth. Freddie is depicted as a Dr. Doom style villain in the the B-movie/classic rock tribute/comedy, and became popular among Journey fans and classic rock fans as well. It can be seen here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=XnFwBhaAcWo
Documentary
In the BBC series Classic Albums one episode is about the A Night at the Opera album. In this documentary it is revealed that the song Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...) is dedicated to a man in the music industry, who is blamed for the band being in debt despite the relative success of the third album and the hit Killer Queen. According to the show, Freddie Mercury wanted this song to be a morbid rocker, due to the hatred he had towards this man. The band were very uncertain from the word go about this song, due to possible legal action, but Mercury insisted, and today has become a favourite of Queen's world-wide audience.
Queen in musical theatre
In 2002, a musical or "rock theatrical" based on the songs of Queen, entitled We Will Rock You, opened at the Dominion Theatre on London's West End. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Brian May and Roger Taylor. It has since been staged in Barcelona, Spain; Melbourne,Sydney and Brisbane, Australia; Cologne, Germany; and Las Vegas, United States. The musical is now due to end its Dominion run 7th October 2006, with the joint producers of the show, Phil McIntyre Entertainment and Queen Productions, opting for a touring production of We Will Rock You throughout the UK. We Will Rock You became the longest running musical ever to run at this prime London theatre, overtaking the previous record holder the Grease musical.
The launch of the musical coincided with the Queen's Golden Jubilee. As part of the Jubilee celebrations Brian May performed a guitar solo of God Save the Queen, as featured on Queen's A Night at the Opera, from the roof of Buckingham Palace. The recording of this performance was used as video for the same song on the jubilee version of A Night at the Opera
Discography
Studio albums
- Queen (1973) #24 UK (gold), #83 US (gold), #52 Japan
- Queen II (1974) #5 UK (gold), #49 US (gold)
- Sheer Heart Attack (1974) #2 UK (Platinum), #11 US (gold), #23 Japan
- A Night at the Opera (1975) #1 UK (Platinum), #4 US (3x platinum), #9 Japan, #1 Netherlands
- A Day at the Races (1976) #1 UK (Platinum), #5 US (2x Platinum), #1 Japan, #1 Netherlands
- News of the World (1977) #4 UK (Platinum), #3 US (4x Platinum), #3 Japan, #1 Netherlands
- Jazz (1978) #2 UK (Platinum), #6 US (2x platinum), #5 Japan
- The Game (1980) #1 UK (Platinum), #1 US (4x platinum), #5 Japan
- Flash Gordon (1980) #10 UK, #23 US, #12 Japan, #1 Austria
- Hot Space (1982) #4 UK (Platinum), #22 US (gold), #6 Japan, #1 Austria
- The Works (1984) #2 UK (platinum), #23 US (gold), #7 Japan, #1 Netherlands
- A Kind of Magic (1986) #1 UK (2x platinum), #46 US (gold in 2005), #25 Japan
- The Miracle (1989) #1 UK (2x Platinum), #24 US (gold), #20 Japan, #1 Austria, #1 Germany, #1 Netherlands, #1 Switzerland
- Innuendo (1991) #1 UK (platinum), #30 US (gold), #13 Japan, #1 Germany, #1 Netherlands, #1 Switzerland
- Made in Heaven (1995) #1 UK (5x Platinum), #58 US (gold), #10 Japan, #1 Austria, #1 Germany, #1 Italy, #1 Netherlands, #1 Switzerland. Sold in excess of 10 million by 1997.
The band have had 11 of their 15 albums at number 1.
Live albums
Compilations
- Greatest Hits (EMI, Elektra: 1981; Hollywood Records: 1992 (US reissue); Parlophone: 1994) #1 UK (13x Platinum), #14 US (7x platinum), #9 Japan, #1 Austria, #1 Netherlands. Sales to date in excess of 26 million copies worldwide (incl. the 1992 re-release).
- The Best Of Queen (198?) (A variation of Queen's "Greatest Hits" from Poland and Korea)
- The Complete Works (1985) - all albums from 1973-1985 plus bonus material
- Queen at the Beeb (1989) #67 UK; Queen at the BBC (US/Hollywood: 1995)
- Greatest Hits II (1991) #1 in UK (8x platinum), Argentina (Diamond award), Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Germany (4x Platinum), Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, #80 Japan; sales to date in excess of 15 million copies worldwide
- Classic Queen (US and Canada) only: 1992) #4 US (3x platinum)Canada (5xPlatinum)
- Greatest Hits I & II - Two CD Set (1994) #37 UK
- Queen Rocks (1997) #7 UK, #10 Japan
- The Crown Jewels (1998)
- Greatest Hits III (1999) #5 UK, #25 Japan, #2 Austria, #4 Switzerland
- The Platinum Collection: Greatest Hits I, II & III - Three CD Set (2000) #2 UK (3x Platinum), #48 US (Gold). Sales in excess of 3 million albums (9 million single units) within Europe.
- Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You Edition (US only: 2004) #42 US
- Jewels (Japan only: January 28, 2004) #1 Japan sales in excess of 1.5 million
- Jewels II (Japan only: January 26, 2005) #9 Japan
Tribute albums
Singles
- "Keep Yourself Alive/Son And Daughter" (1973) - didn't chart UK, #89 US (Cashbox)
- "Seven Seas Of Rhye/See What A Fool I've Been" (1974) #10 UK
- "Killer Queen/Flick Of The Wrist" (1974) #2 UK (silver), #12 US
- "Now I'm Here/Lily Of The Valley" (1975) #11 UK
- "Bohemian Rhapsody/I'm In Love With My Car" (1975) #1 UK (3x platinum), #9 US (gold)
- "You're My Best Friend/'39" (1976) #7 UK, #16 US
- "Somebody to Love/White Man" (1976) #2 UK, #13 US
- "Tie Your Mother Down/You And I" (1977) #31 UK, #49 US
- "Long Away/You and I" (1977)
- "Queen's First EP: Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy/Death On Two Legs/Tenement Funster/White Queen" (1977) #17 UK
- "We Are the Champions/We Will Rock You" (1977) #2 UK (gold), #4 US (2x platinum)
- "Spread Your Wings/Sheer Heart Attack" (1978) #34 UK
- "It's Late/Sheer Heart Attack" (1978) #72 US
- "Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls" (1978) #11 UK (gold), #24 US
- "Don't Stop Me Now/In Only Seven Days" (1979) #9 UK (gold), #86 US
- "Jealousy/Fun It" (1979)
- "Love Of My Life (live)/Now I'm Here (live)" (1979) #63 UK
- "We Will Rock You (live)/Let Me Entertain You (live)" (1979)
- "Crazy Little Thing Called Love/We Will Rock You (live)" (1979) #2 UK (gold), #1 US (platinum)
- "Save Me/Let Me Entertain You (live)" (1980) #11 UK
- "Play The Game/A Human Body" (1980) #14 UK, #42 US
- "Another One Bites The Dust/Dragon Attack" (1980) #7 UK, #1 US (sold over 4,5 million copies, 4x platinum)
- "Need Your Loving Tonight/Rock It" (1980) #44 US
- "Flash/Football Fight" (1980) #10 UK, #42 US, #1 Austria
- "Under Pressure (with David Bowie)/Soul Brother" (1981) #1 UK (silver), #29 US
- "Body Language/Life is Real" (1982) #25 UK, #11 US
- "Las Palabras De Amor/Cool Cat" (1982) #17 UK
- "Calling All Girls/Put Out the Fire" (1982) #60 US
- "Back Chat/Staying Power" (1982) #40 UK
- "Radio Ga Ga/I Go Crazy" (1984) #2 UK (silver), #16 US
- "I Want To Break Free/Machines (or Back to Humans)" (1984) #3 UK (silver), #45 US, #1 Austria
- "It's A Hard Life/Is This The World We Created?" (1984) #6 UK, #72 US
- "Hammer To Fall/Tear It Up" (1984) #13 UK
- "Thank God It's Christmas/Man on the Prowl/Keep Passing the Open Windows" (1984) #21 UK
- "One Vision/Blurred Vision" (1985) #7 UK, #61 US
- "Princes of the Universe/A Dozen Red Roses For My Darling"
- "A Kind Of Magic/A Dozen Red Roses For My Darling (Europe)/Gimme the Prize (US)" (1986) #3 UK, #42 US
- "Friends Will Be Friends/Seven Seas of Rhye (1986) #14 UK
- "Who Wants To Live Forever/Killer Queen" (1986) #24 UK
- "Pain Is So Close To Pleasure/Don't Lose Your Head" (1986)
- "I Want It All/Hang on In There" (1989) #3 UK (silver), #50 US, #3 US Rock Chart
- "Breakthru/Stealin'" (1989) #7 UK
- "The Invisible Man/Hijack My Heart" (1989) #12 UK
- "Scandal/My Life Has Been Saved" (1989) #25 UK
- "The Miracle/Stone Cold Crazy (live)" (1989) #21 UK
- "Innuendo/Bijou" (1991) #1 UK (gold)
- "I'm Going Slightly Mad/The Hitman" (1991) #22 UK
- "Headlong/All God's People" (1991) #14 UK
- "The Show Must Go On/Keep Yourself Alive" (1991) #16 UK
- "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"These Are The Days Of Our Lives" (1991) #1 UK
- "The Show Must Go On"/"Bohemian Rhapsody" (1992) #2 US (platinum)
- "Five Live" (EP) (with George Michael and Lisa Stansfield, 1993) #1 UK
- "Heaven For Everyone/It's A Beautiful Day" (1995) #2 UK (silver)
- "A Winter's Tale/Thank God It's Christmas/Rock In Rio Blues" (1995) #6 UK
- "Too Much Love Will Kill You/We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" (1996) #15 UK
- "Let Me Live/Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls" (1996) #9 UK
- "You Don't Fool Me - The Remixes" (1996) #17 UK
- "No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)" (1998) #13 UK
- "Another One Bites The Dust" (with Wyclef Jean featuring Pras and Free, 1998) #5 UK
- "Under Pressure (Rah Mix)" (with David Bowie, 1999) #14 UK
- "We Will Rock You" (with 5ive, 2000) #1 UK
- "Flash" (with Vanguard, 2003) #15 UK
- "Reaching Out (live) / Tie Your Mother Down (live) / Fat Bottomed Girls (live)" (Queen + Paul Rodgers, 2005)
The band have had a total of 6 number ones in the UK and 2 in the US.
See also
External links
- Official Queen Web site
- Official Brian May Web site
- Queen & Freddie Mercury's CD Singles Discography
- Official International Queen Fan Club
- Queen + Paul Rogers official site
- Queen Concerts '70-'05 - Information about Queen's concerts
- Queen: The Videos - information and images of all promotional clips
- Queen Web Guide
- Queen Picture Hall - album and single covers
- Queenzone - one of the biggest Queen sites incl. forum
- Queen Lyrics - searchable index of all of Queen's lyrics
- Ultimate Queen - complete guide to Queen, with details of song versions, lyrics, discography, videos, concerts and the musical
- Denis O'Regan - official Queen photographer
- Phoenix - Queen Radio - free Internet Radio Station, playing only Queen, its members' solo projects and collaborations, and anything else "Queen-related".
- Shanes Queen Site - fansite with large amount of information
- Portuguese Queen Fan Club
- QueenRocks.ru - The Russian Queen Fan Club - Russian site (incl. downloads)
- 7 seas of Queen - fansite with lyrics, karaoke files, chords, tabs, videoclips, sheet music
- Queen - Live recordings - about existing live recordings on audio and video, BBC recordings , radio and TV broadcastings, unknow recordings
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_%28band%29 under GFDL
