Queen is a British band formed in 1970. Its founders - Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor - made the musical formation one of the most famous in the world. What are the greatest-known songs from Queen? What is the discography of a popular band from London like? What awards has the musical formation received and why do people love them so much? Check out the history of the creation and the best Queen songs.
There have never been any drastic line-up changes in the band Queen. Only the bassist (John Deacon) joined the group at the latest - before him, the bass guitar was played by Barry Michell and Mike Grose. However, it was after Deacon's arrival that Queen's musical career began to develop. The permanent composition of the team includes:
- Freddie Mercury - vocals, guitar and keyboards. Freddie died in 1991. It was he who came up with the name of the band and set its musical path - opting for a rock atmosphere. Freddie wrote songs such as "We Are The Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody"
- Brian May - guitar, vocals and keyboards. He was the one who created such texts as "We Will Rock You", "Who Wants To Live Forever" and "The Show Must Go On".
- Roger Taylor - drums, vocals, guitar, keyboards and percussion. The band's drummer wrote famous Queen songs such as "A Kind Of Magic" and "Radio Ga Ga".
- John Deacon - bass guitar and keyboards. He is the youngest member of the band that Queen first played with in mid-1971. Deacon is the creator of several famous Queen texts, incl. "I Want To Break Free", "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Friends Wil Be Friends". He withdrew from the music industry in 1995.
Even after Freddie Mercury died, Queen continued to be in the same line-up - only Deacon separated a few years after Mercury's death. They toured with Paul Rodgers, even though he was not one of the members of the band. After the termination of cooperation with Rodgers, Queen decided to act as Queen + Adam Lambert - touring with a famous American singer whom Brian May met during the American Idol program.
Early on, Brian May formed the band Smile, to which he engaged a bassist and drummer - the latter being Roger Taylor. The school band Smile, unfortunately, did not have the power to get through even when they released their first single. Soon after, the bassist left the band, and Brian and Roger accepted Freddie Mercury into the band - they all knew each other from the same university. The boys decided that they would be called Queen from now on (it was Freddie's idea to find the name catchy). The band was officially formed in 1970. A year later, John Deacon joined the group.
The band played for the first time in 1971 (June), then performing the song "Stone Cold Crazy". He started his first studio recordings of Queen in 1972. Unfortunately, no label took any interest in the band's demo songs, considering them to be bland. The studio employees, however, asked the bosses to give the boys a chance to spread their wings. Although they could only use the studio occasionally and not for long compared to other bands, Queen recorded all the material for the first album. The date of their debut single "Keep Yourself Alive" is 1973. It was released on the first album of a band called Queen. The second album of the musical formation was Queen II (1974). The musicians managed to record the second album much easier, because they could use the studio at any time. At that time, "Seven Seas of Rhye" became the promotional single. Later, the band began to give numerous concerts - playing not only in Great Britain, but also abroad.
The breakthrough, however, came with the release of the single "Killer Queen", which comes from the band's third album (Sheer Heart Attack, 1974). Mercury reportedly wrote this piece in one evening. Suddenly the band became more and more famous thanks to this single. At first, the atmosphere of the band was strictly rock, but later the artists switched to music acceptable to the majority of society - to reach a larger audience. A year later, John Red became the manager of the team. with Elton John. In 1975, Queen's fourth album, A Night at the Opera, was released. The single "Bohemian Rhapsody" on it is considered to be Freddie Mercury's greatest work. It stayed at number 1 on the charts for a long time. It was for this song that the band's first music video was made.
Queen's fifth album was released in 1976 (A Day at the Races). The single of the album turned out to be "Somebody to Love". It was amazing that crowds began to come to the band's next concerts - that same year, over 150,000 people gathered during the Queen concert in London's Hyde Park. A year later, the band released the album News of the Word. The most famous songs from this album were "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions". Soon after its release, further successes of the band took place. In the United States, Queen was certified double platinum for his new album. Since then, both pieces have become an inseparable part of every concert of the music group. To this day, "We Are The Champions" and "We Will Rock You" are played at great sporting events. It's also hard to find a person who doesn't know these two songs.
In 1978, Queen released the album Jazz, which had a strong rock sound. Some were very disgusted with the fact that the name of the album has nothing to do with the music on it. The album was awarded gold status anyway. Meanwhile, Queen stopped wearing their glam rock clothes, changing them to jeans and leather jackets. In 1980, the band's next album, The Game, was released. Queen used synthesizers for the first time. The most famous song was "Another One Bites The Dust" - it quickly became number 1 on the world charts. In the video for "Play the Game" from the same album, Freddie appeared for the first time with a mustache that became his trademark. In the same year, the band also released a music album for the movie Flash Gordon, with the same title.
In 1982, Queen released another album, Hot Space. It's a funky album that was unfortunately not well received by the band's fans. After the tour promoting this album, the guys from the band decided to rest a bit. Quarrels between Queen members began to arise. They had to take a break from each other so as not to lead to a complete breakdown of the musical formation. Everyone felt that they could then make the biggest mistake of their lives. So everyone focused on solo projects, gathering strength for the next joint album.
The Works album was created in 1984 and turned out to be a bull's eye. The biggest hits from the album are "I Want To Break Free" and "Radio Ga Ga". Despite the return to rock climates, the band continued to use synthesizers. The The Works album tour was the longest ever played by Queen. Two years later they recorded the album A Kind Of Magic, the most important of which are "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Friends Will be Friends" and "A Kind of Magic". The tour promoting this album was even longer than The Works Tour - it lasted as long as 8 weeks. It was also the band's last tour. After returning from it, the musicians decided to take a break again, working on solo projects.
In 1989, the band recorded the album The Miracle. One of the biggest hits of this album was "I Want It All". Freddie Mercury felt less and less (he was suffering from AIDS), so Queen decided not to traditionally promote the album in the form of a concert tour. Freddie decided to withdraw from public life, which was immediately noticed by the media. Until the end of his days, Mercury recorded with the band and worked on the next songs, even though his health left a lot to be desired. In early 1991, Queen released another album, Innuendo. Perhaps the most famous track from the album was "The Show Must Go On". On November 23 of the same year, Mercury publicly admitted being sick. He died just a day after the official statement was made.
After the death of Freddie Mercury, the single "Bohemian Rhapsody / These Are the Days of Our Lives" was released. The profit for its sale in the form of about 1 million pounds was donated to the fight against AIDS - a disease with which the lead singer of the band Queen lost. In 1995, the band released their last album, Made in Heaven. It included recordings that Queen was still working on in full line-up.
Queen musicians worked on their solo careers. They collaborated with various artists, creating their own hits. On March 19, 2001, Roger Raylor and Brian May represented Queen at the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York. In 2004, Queen reactivated under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers, in which Rodgers was the lead singer (he also emphasized that he would not be like a second Mercury and did not want to compare with him). The band ended its activity in 2009. In 2011, Queen reactivated again, this time with the talented American singer Adam Lambert, forming the band Queen + Adam Lambert. The band performs to this day.
In addition to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the band also received other honorable awards:
- 2002 - a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood
- 2004 - The song "Bohemian Rhapsody" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
- 2006 - Team award grand at the first VH1 Rock Honors ceremony
Bibliography:
- Peter Hince: Queen. Unknown history, SQN Publishing House, Warsaw 2019
- Brian May, Roger Taylor, Harry Doherty: Skarby Queen, SQN Publishing House, Warsaw 2019
- Richards Matt, Langthorne Mark: Somebody to love. The life, death, and legacy of Freddie Mercury, Zysk i S-ka Publishing House, Warsaw 2019
- Mark Blake: Queen. Królewska Historia, SQN Publishing House, Warsaw 2018
- Cacas Alfonso: Freddie Mercury. Biography, Young Book Publishing House, Warsaw 2019
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