Started: 1971
City and Country of Origin: England
Music Training:
Awards:
Top Recordings: "Bohemian Rhapsody," "We Are the Champions," "Somebody to Love," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "Another One Bites the Dust"
Queen Biography: Queen grew out of the psychedelic rock group Smile. After the departure of Smile's lead singer Tim Staffell, in 1971, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor teamed up with the former lead singer of Wreckage, Freddy Mercury, to form Queen. They were shortly joined by bassist John Deacon. After they had completed college their first effort, in 1973, was the self titled album Queen which received little fanfare. They seemed to be just another heavy metal band. Before the release of their second album the group played "Seven Seas of Rhye" at Top of the Pops. The performance was a huge success and the single broke the top ten. This set the stage for Queen II which reached the fifth spot on the album charts. They immediately followed up with and American tour opening for Mott the Hoople. Before the end of 1974 Queen released its third album Sheer Heart Attack including the track "Killer Queen." This set the stage for the group to release its masterpiece A Night at the Opera. At the time of its release it was believed to be the most expensive recording effort to date. The album included what would become their signature song "Bohemian Rhapsody." The single spent 9 weeks at the top of the British charts breaking the record at that time. Both the album and the single experienced similar success in America. They followed up with the hit single "Somebody to Love" before releasing their next album A Day at the Races which included the hit single "We Are the Champions"/"We Will Rock You." The following year they released Jazz which had similar success and included the single "Fat Bottomed Girls"/"Bicycle Race." Their first effort in the '80s The Game proved to be their first American number 1 hit album. It included a rockabilly number "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and the disco styled "Another One Bites the Dust." By now tastes were changing and time was running out for Queen. Their following efforts inluding the soundtrack for the movie Flash Gordon were not well received. By 1991 the group had seriously curtailed its engagement calendar leading to concerns about the health of lead singer Freddy Mercury. In 1992 Mercury died from AIDS.

Music by the Decade:

Sounds of the Fifties

Sounds of the Sixties

Sounds of the Seventies

Sounds of the Eighties

Sounds of the Nineties