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Queen
File:Queen crest.png
Background information
Years active1970 – present
MembersBrian May
Freddie Mercury (died 1991)
Roger Taylor
John Deacon (retired 1999)

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. In England, their popularity remains second only to the Beatles, as voted by 600,000 Britons in a poll.[1] On separate occassions, their songs "Bohemian Rhapsody"[2] and "We Are the Champions"[3] have been voted the world's favorite song.

Though often panned by critics, especially in the US, in recent years the group's critical stock has increased considerably; they have become recognized as pioneers of arena rock, hard rock,[4] glam rock, heavy metal, and progressive rock[5] and been cited as influential to the sound of later artists (see "Influence on Modern Music" later in the article); 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, which, as mentioned at their 2004 induction to the UK Music Hall of Fame, is "credited with jump-starting the video era".[6]

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

File:Queen3.jpg
Queen, 1990; Left to right: John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor
  • Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) - Mercury is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of the group, though he was also a skilled piano player and a songwriter. He wrote the majority of the songs found on Queen's Greatest Hits. As a singer, he is considered by some to be the best vocalist in rock history.[7]
  • Brian May CBE (born 1947) - May was the lead guitarist of the group. While often providing harmonizing and backing vocals, he occassionally sang lead (in songs such as '39 and Good Company). Along with Roger Taylor, May was a member of Smile, the band that eventually grew into Queen. As a boy, Brian May built the Red Special, a guitar he continues to use to this day.
  • Roger Taylor (born 1949) - Taylor was the percussionist of Queen. Like May, he provided backing vocals; unlike May, he regularly sang lead on his own songs. In addition to the drums, Taylor would often play lead or rhythm guitar on his own songs.
  • John Deacon (born 1951) - Deacon was the bass player with the group and is the only member never to sing vocals on a studio album. He was also the last member to join the band, being recruited in 1971. He wrote the fewest number of songs of any individual member, and has not participated in the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour.

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 known as The Cross 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.[8]

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 (as in the song "Seaside Rendezvous") 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 (when performing live, he often introduced "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by stating "I only know three chords", such as in the Live at Wembley '86 concert); however, he would write on guitar frequently, especially in the early days, such as the famous riff from "Ogre Battle," and the rock part in "Bohemian Rhapsody". In an interview, Brian May stated that "when Freddie used to pick up a guitar he'd have a great frenetic energy. It was kind of like a very nervy animal playing the guitar. He was a very impatient person and was very impatient with his own technique. He didn't have a great technical ability on the guitar but had it in his head. And you could feel this stuff bursting to get out. He right hand would move incredibly fast. He wrote a lot of good stuff for the guitar. A lot of it was stuff which I would not have thought of, because it would be in weird keys. He had this penchant for playing in E flat and A flat and F."[9] 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; 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.[10]

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, as in "Sweet Lady" or "Teo Torriatte". Due to the uniqueness of his guitar, the Red Special, which he built himself, May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song "Procession", the opening track of Queen II; in "Get Down Make Love", he was able to create sound effects with his guitar that were so unusual that many thought a synthesizer was being used. He added some special instruments here and there, but most of them were via studio tricks; for instance, 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.[11]

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

In 1973, Queen released their first album, a self-titled project. It drew little attention, as the lead single Keep Yourself Alive sold poorly. It wasn't until 1974 that the band gained any mainstream attention or commercial success, when the album Queen II was released. It reached number 5 on the British album charts, while the lead single of the album, Seven Seas of Rhye, 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; from 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), to ballads ("Lily of the Valley"), ragtime ("Bring Back That Leroy Brown"), and even Caribbean ("Misfire").

The single "Killer Queen" was a British number 2 hit which reached 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.

File:Nightopera.jpg
The cover to Queen's A Night at the Opera

In 1975, A Night at the Opera was recorded and released. At the time, it was the most expensive album ever produced.[12] Considered by many fans and critics alike to be their greatest effort, 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 1992 when it was re-released after its appearance in Wayne's World. 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 and went on to become a worldwide Top 10 hit.

The entire album featured incredible diversity in music styles (similar to Sheer Heart Attack) and experimentation with stereo sound (for example, in The Prophet's Song, an 8-minute epic, the middle section is simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound). The album was a smash in Britain, and went three times platinum in the United States.

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. 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 did not sell quite as well.

The major hit on the album was Somebody to Love, a gospel-inspired song in 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.

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.) [13] 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.

File:News o world.jpg
The cover to the 1977 album News of the World.

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 many songs that were tailor-made to be performed (and subsequently have their greatest effect) live, including "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., and both of which would become enduring, international sports anthems.

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".

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".[14] 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" and "Mustapha", a song by Freddie, which had a very Arabesque sound combined with heavy rock guitar.

Fan response was lukewarm to Jazz and for the first time Queen's sales saw a bit of a dip; News of the World has gone quadruple platinum, while Jazz had gone merely platinum. 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. Entitled Live Killers, it 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

File:Queen-The Game-Frontal.jpg
The cover to Queen's The Game.

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.[15] 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 included two popular ballads, Play the Game and Save Me, the latter of which became a fan favorite and concert staple.

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 release the soundtrack they had recorded for Flash Gordon. The album sold poorly, but served as a showcase for Queen in a different light.

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.[16] Including five shows in Argentina, Queen played to an audience of 479,000 on their South American tour.[citation needed]

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 was extremely successful, reaching #1 in Britain. 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".

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 tends to be regarded by some die-hard fans as being one of their worst. The album was especially disappointing to the hard-rock faithful that had followed Queen from their early years, as none of the eleven songs were particularly hard rock-oriented.

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.

File:Works.jpg
The cover to The Works.

In 1984, Queen successfully bridged the gap between hard rock and pop with the album The Works, which included the very successful singles "Radio Ga Ga," "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 favorites "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up." Despite these hit singles, the album failed to fare well in the US.

The 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. Many claimed that the video hurt the band's sales in the United States in subsequent years.

Late in 1984, Queen embarked on a set of dates in Bophuthatswana, South Africa at the arena at Sun City.[17] 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.

1985 started with two performances 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.[18] 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.[19]

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 solo album Mr. Bad Guy.

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", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "Who Wants to Live Forever?".

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 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.

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[20] fans packed the park to get a glimpse of Queen one last time live, although no one knew of course that would be the case. Ultimately, 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.

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," "Scandal," 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. Starting with The Miracle, the band's songwriting began to become more collaborative, and although many songs could be said to have been written largely by one member or another, they vowed to credit the final product only to Queen as a group.

1990s

File:QueenInn.jpg
The cover to Queen's Innuendo

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, 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 was an extremely successful concert that was viewed by tens of millions 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. It was 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; in addition, 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, were included. May and Taylor have often been involved in projects related to raising money for AIDS research and promoting its support. John Deacon's last involvement with the band was in 1997, when he recorded the track "No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)" with the other two members. It was the last original song recorded by Queen.

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). It has been stated several times, including on Brian May's own website, that 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 replaced him on bass. Other members of the tour included keyboardist Spike Edney, who 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.

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 + Paul Rodgers tour at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England.

For the 30th aniversary of the album A Night at the Opera, 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 the group. Queen + Paul Rodgers debuted their first new song as a collaboration called "Take Love" whilst on the US tour.

Historical success

In 2005, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it was revealed that Queen albums had spent more time on the UK album charts than any other band.[21]

Current Rankings:

  1. Queen (1,322 Weeks)
  2. The Beatles (1,293 Weeks)
  3. Elvis Presley (1,280 Weeks)
  4. U2 (1,150 Weeks)


Also 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.)[22]

Current rankings:

  1. Elvis Presley (2,574 weeks)
  2. Cliff Richard (1,982)
  3. Queen (1,755)
  4. The Beatles (1,749)


Their total sales figures estimates vary greatly. In 2001 it was stated their sales topped 100 million records worldwide [23][24][25]; however, according to an official press release two years later, Queen "have accounted for record sales in excess of 150 million across the world" [26]. The following year, "over 190 million albums" was claimed at their UK Music Hall of Fame induction[27]. Several sites also claim a worldwide figure of over 300 million records.[28][29]. Their total U.S. sales are reported to be above 32 million as of 2006.

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.[citation needed]

Queen often recorded in many different genres, recording in genres as varied as psychadelic rock (in songs like The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke and Jesus), hard rock (We Will Rock You and Hammer to Fall among many others), funk and disco (Another One Bites the Dust and Staying Power), heavy metal (Stone Cold Crazy, Brighton Rock), and even ragtime (Bring Back That Leroy Brown and Seaside Rendezvous).

Much like their music, the collection of bands influenced by Queen is quite diverse. Bands that cite Queen as an influence include Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, Steve Vai, George Michael, Metallica, The Flaming Lips, Ween, Guns N' Roses, Chris Cornell, Trent Reznor, Extreme, Dream Theater, Nirvana, Jellyfish, The Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Robbie Williams, Ben Folds Five, Foo Fighters, Joan Osborne, Muse, The Darkness, Franz Ferdinand and Jetliner among others.

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. 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." They are considered to be one of the greatest live bands ever. [30] Queen are also widely credited to be one of the first to use the big screen (or Jumbotron) at live concert events.

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 possibly 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.)

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 film, and subsequently made number 2 on the US billboard chart.

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 former manager and Trident Studios co-owner Norman Sheffield, who is blamed for the band being in debt despite the relative success of the third album and the hit Killer Queen. Queen never felt Sheffield gave them the promotional or financial support, and ties were cut before the "Opera" recording sessions began.

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.[citation needed]

The launch of the musical coincided with Queen Elizabeth II'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

Main article: Queen 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 (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 (gold), #6 US (platinum), #5 Japan
  • The Game (1980) #1 UK (gold), #1 US (4x platinum), #5 Japan
  • Flash Gordon (1980) #10 UK (gold), #23 US, #12 Japan, #1 Austria
  • Hot Space (1982) #4 UK (gold), #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 (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 (4x 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 (5x platinum)
  • 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 1.8 million
  • Jewels II (Japan only: January 26, 2005) #9 Japan

Tribute albums

  • Dragon Attack - A Tribute to Queen (1997)
  • Tributo A Queen: Los Grandes del Rock en Español (1997) - in Spanish
  • Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen (August 9, 2005)
  • Dynamite With A Laserbeam: Queen As Heard Through The Meat Grinder Of Three One G. (2005)

Singles

The band have had a total of 6 number ones in the UK and 2 in the US.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Mercury.co.uk. "Music of the Millenium poll result". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  2. ^ CNN Entertainment. "Queen in Rhapsody over hit award". {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Hispanic Business. "'We are the Champions' By Legendary Rock Band Queen Voted World's Favorite Song in the Walkman(TM) Phones 100 Global Poll". {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ VH1. "100 greatest artists of hard rock". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Rhapsody.com. "Top Art & Progressive Rock Artists". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Channel 4 - Music. "UK Music Hall of Fame".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ DigitalDreamDoor. "100 Greatest Male Rock Vocalists". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Roger Taylor. "Queen Legends".
  9. ^ Queen - The Royal Legend. "Guitar World, October 1998". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Brian May. "Queen Legends".
  11. ^ Brian May. "Queen Legends".
  12. ^ Acoustic Sounds. "A Night at the Opera".
  13. ^ Queenzone. "Biography 1976". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone Magazine. "Review of "Jazz"".
  15. ^ Queen - The Royal Legend. "The Game facts". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ QueenConcerts.com. "Concert details".
  17. ^ HotShotDigital. "Freddie Mercury Biography". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ QueenConcerts.com. "Rock in Rio concert".
  19. ^ BBC News. "Queen win greatest live gig pool". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ Sing 365. "Queen Biography".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ New Wind Press. "'Queen' named most successful UK music act".
  22. ^ scotsman.com. "Queen closer to King as UK chart-toppers".
  23. ^ PlanetOut News. "Hall of Fame Inducts Queen". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Richar Orchard, Queenzone. "Queen made rock legends". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ BBC Entertainment. "Queen roll into Hall of Fame". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ BrianMay.com. "Press Conference". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ Channel 4 - Music. "Hall of Fame". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  28. ^ Erich Adolfo Moncada Cota, OhmyNews. "Queen Proves There's Life After Freddie". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ BrianMay.com. "Queen News January 2006". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ DigitalDreamDoor. "100 Greatest Live Artists". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accesdate= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

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