Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970.

They originally
consisted of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John
Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were
influenced byprogressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually
ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further
styles, such as arena rock and pop rock, into their music.
Before joining Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor had been playing together in a band
named Smile with bassist Tim Staffell. Freddie Mercury (then known by his birth name
of Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara) was a fan of Smile, and encouraged them to experiment
with more elaborate stage and recording techniques after Staffell's departure in 1970.
Mercury himself joined the band shortly thereafter, changed the name of the band to
"Queen", and adopted his familiar stage name. John Deacon was recruited prior to
recording their eponymous debut album in 1973. Queen enjoyed success in the UK
with their debut and its follow-up, Queen II in 1974, but it was the release of Sheer
Heart Attack later in 1974 and A Night at the Opera in 1975 that gained the band
international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at
number one in the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks; it charted at number one in
several other territories, and gave the band their first top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot
100. Their 1977 album, News of the World, contained two of rock's most recognisable
anthems, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".
By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world,
with "Another One Bites the Dust" their best selling single, and their performance at
1985's Live Aid is regarded as one of the greatest in rock history. In 1991, Mercury died
ofbronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since then,
May and Taylor have occasionally performed together, including collaborations with
Paul Rodgers (200409) and with Adam Lambert (since 2011). In November 2014,
Queen released a new album, Queen Forever, featuring vocals from the late Freddie
Mercury.
The band have released a total of 18 number one albums, 18 number one singles, and
10 number one DVDs. Estimates of their record sales generally range from 150 million
to 300 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. They
received the Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award from the British
Phonographic Industry in 1990, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 2001.
Early days, 196874

In 1968, guitarist Brian May, a student at London's Imperial College, and bassist Tim
Staffell decided to form a band. May placed an advertisement on the college notice
board for a "Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type" drummer; Roger Taylor, a young dental
student, auditioned and got the job. The group called themselves Smile.[3]
While attending Ealing Art College, Tim Staffell became friends with Farrokh Bulsara, a
fellow student who had assumed the English name of Freddie. Bulsara felt that he and
the band had the same tastes and soon became a keen fan of Smile. In late 1970, after
Staffell left to join the band Humpy Bong, the remaining Smile members, encouraged
by Bulsara, changed their name to "Queen" and continued working together. [4] When
asked about the name, Bulsara explained, "I thought up the name Queen. It's just a
name, but it's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid. It's a strong name, very
universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of
interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one facet of
it."[4]
The band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the
band's chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and
began to rehearse for their first album. They recorded four of their own songs, "Liar",
"Keep Yourself Alive", "The Night Comes Down" and "Jesus", for a demo tape; no
record companies were interested.[5] It was also around this time Freddie changed his
surname to "Mercury", inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to
me" in the song "My Fairy King". [6] On 2 July 1971, Queen played their first show in the
classic line-up of Mercury, May, Deacon and Taylor at a Surrey college outside London.
[7]

Having attended art college, Mercury also designed Queen's logo, called the Queen
crest, shortly before the release of the band's first album. [8] The logo combines
the zodiacsigns of all four members: two lions for Leo (Deacon and Taylor), a crab
for Cancer (May), and two fairies for Virgo (Mercury).[8] The lions embrace a stylised
letter Q, the crab rests atop the letter with flames rising directly above it, and the fairies
are each sheltering below a lion.[8] There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole
logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix. The whole symbol bears a passing
resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, particularly with the lion
supporters.[8] The original logo, as found on the reverse-side of the first album cover,
was a simple line drawing but more intricate colour versions were used on later
sleeves.[8][9]
Roy Thomas Bakerproduced Queen's first four albums and Jazz
In 1972, Queen entered discussions with Trident Studios after being spotted at De La
Lane Studios by John Anthony and after discussions were offered a management deal
by Norman Sheffield under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of Trident to manage the

band and enable them to use the facilities at Trident to record new material whilst the
management search for a record label to sign Queen. This suited both parties at the
time as Trident were expanding into management and Queen under the deal were able
to make use of the hi-tech recording facilities shared by bands at the time such as the
Beatles and Elton John to produce new material. However Trident found it difficult to
find a label for a band bearing a name with such connotation during the early 1970s.[10]
In July 1973, Queen finally under a Trident/EMI deal released their eponymous debut
album, an effort influenced by the heavy metal andprogressive rock of the day.[11] The
album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone said "their debut
album is superb",[12] and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above average debut".[13] It
drew little mainstream attention, and the lead single "Keep Yourself Alive", a Brian May
composition, sold poorly. Retrospectively, "Keep Yourself Alive" is cited as the highlight
of the album, and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked it 31st in the "100 Greatest Guitar
Songs of All Time", describing it as "an entire album's worth of riffs crammed into a
single song".[14] The album was certified gold in the UK and the US.[15][16]
The group's second LP, Queen II, was released in 1974, and features rock
photographer Mick Rock's iconic image of the band on the cover.[17]This image would
be used as the basis for the 1975 "Bohemian Rhapsody" music video production. [17]
[18]

The album reached number five on the British album chart and became the first

Queen album to chart in the UK. [15] The Freddie Mercury-written lead single "Seven
Seas of Rhye" reached number ten in the UK, giving the band their first hit. [15] The
album is the first real testament to the band's distinctive layered sound, and features
long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics, and musical virtuosity. [19]
[20]

Aside from its only single, the album also included the song "The March of the Black

Queen", a six-minute epic which lacks a chorus. The Daily Vault described the number
as "menacing".[21] Critical reaction was mixed; theWinnipeg Free Press, while praising
the band's debut album, described Queen II as a "over-produced monstrosity".
[22]

Allmusic has described the album as a favourite among the band's hardcore fans,

[23]

and it is the first of three Queen albums to feature in the book 1001 Albums You

Must Hear Before You Die.[24]