Queen in the 70s

***"Seven Seas of Rhye"*** was primarily written by Freddie Mercury, with Brian May contributing the second middle-eight.

Initially "Seven Seas of Rhye" was simply an "instrumental musical sketch closing their first album". An expanded rendition, planned for inclusion on the album Queen II, was publicly premiered when Queen was offered a sudden chance to appear on Top of the Pops in February 1974, and was rushed to vinyl two days later. It became their first chart entry after gaining airtime on BBC Radio 1. Its success persuaded Freddie Mercury to take up Queen as his full-time career.

The version on Queen II ends with a cross fade, instruments blending into the band singing "I Do Like To be Beside the Seaside", accompanied by a stylophone played by Roy Thomas Baker, which was a sole exception to their "no synths" statement.

* Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano
* Brian May - electric guitar, backing vocals
* Roger Taylor - drums, gong, percussion
* John Deacon - bass guitar

Listen to "Seven Seas of Rhye" on Spotify

#### November 8, 1974: *Sheer Heart Attack*

* UK #2, Platinum; US #12, Gold

Digressing from the progressive themes featured on their first two albums, ***"Sheer Heart Attack"*** featured more conventional rock tracks and marked a step towards the "classic" Queen sound. It launched Queen to mainstream popularity in the UK and throughout the world.

The album has been acknowledged for containing "a wealth of outstanding hard rock guitar tracks". Retrospectively, it has been listed by multiple publications as one of the band's best works and has been deemed an essential glam rock album.

* Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, organ
* Brian May – electric guitar, backing vocals, piano, lead vocals ("She Makes Me"), acoustic guitar, banjolele
* Roger Taylor – drums, backing vocals, percussion, lead vocals ("Tenement Funster")
* John Deacon – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, double bass

Listen to *Sheer Heart Attack* on Deezer.

### 1975

#### October 31, 1975: "Bohemian Rhapsody"

* UK #1, 4x Platinum; US #9, Gold (physical), 4x Platinum (digital)

***"Bohemian Rhapsody"*** was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera. It is a six-minute suite, consisting of several sections without a chorus: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. The song is a more accessible take on the 1970s progressive rock genre. It was reportedly the most expensive single ever made at the time of its release, though the exact cost of production cannot be determined.

* Freddie Mercury – lead and backing vocals, piano, operatic vocals (middle register)
* Brian May – electric guitar, operatic vocals (low register)
* Roger Taylor – drums, timpani, gong, operatic vocals (high register)
* John Deacon – bass guitar

The song enjoyed renewed popularity in 1992 due to its inclusion in the soundtrack to the film *Wayne's World*. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released as a double A-side cassette single with "The Show Must Go On" in January 1992 to commemorate the death of Freddie Mercury, with proceeds going to the Magic Johnson Foundation for AIDS research. Following the release of the film and soundtrack album in February, "Bohemian Rhapsody" re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart after 16 years, reaching number two.

#### November 21, 1975: *A Night at the Opera*

* UK #1, Platinum; US #4, 3x Platinum

***"A Night at the Opera"*** was the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release. It takes its title from the Marx Brothers film of the same name, which the band watched one night at the studio complex when recording. A Night at the Opera incorporates a wide range of styles, including ballads, songs in a music hall style, hard rock tracks and progressive rock influences.

The album also produced the band's most successful single in the UK, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became their first UK number one and one of the best-selling singles in both the UK and the world.

* Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, backing vocals, piano
* Brian May – electric guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, lead vocals ("39", "Good Company"), koto, harp, ukulele
* Roger Taylor – drums, backing vocals, percussion, lead vocals ("I'm in Love with My Car"), electric guitar
* John Deacon – bass guitar, electric piano, double bass

Listen to *A Night at the Opera* on Deezer.

### 1976

#### November 12, 1976: "Somebody to Love"

* UK #2; US #13

***"Somebody to Love"*** offers listeners something similar to that of Queen's earlier hit "Bohemian Rhapsody" with its complex harmonies and guitar solos; however instead of mimicking an English choir, the band turned to a gospel choir.

Written by Mercury at the piano, "Somebody to Love" is a soul-searching piece that questions God's role in a life without love. Through voice layering techniques, Queen was able to create the soulful sound of a 100-voice choir, with only the voices of Mercury, May and Taylor.

Mercury's fascination and admiration for Aretha Franklin was a major influence for the creation of this song.

* Freddie Mercury - lead vocals, piano
* Brian May - guitar, backing vocals
* Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals
* John Deacon - bass

#### December 10, 1976: *A Day at the Races*

* UK #1, Gold; US #5, Platinum

*A Day at the Races* was the Queen's first completely self-produced album, and the first not to feature producer Roy Thomas Baker. It serves as a companion album to the band's previous album, *A Night at the Opera*, both taking their names from Marx Brothers films, as well as sharing similar packaging and eclectic musical themes.

Listen to *A Day at the Races* on Deezer.

* Freddie Mercury – lead vocals (all but "Long Away" and "Drowse"), backing vocals (all but "Drowse"), piano ("You Take My Breath Away", "The Millionaire Waltz, "You and I", "Somebody To Love" and "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy")
* Brian May – electric guitar, backing vocals (All but "You Take My Breath Away" and "Drowse"), lead vocals ("Long Away"), keyboards ("Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)")
* Roger Taylor – drums (all but "You Take My Breath Away"), backing vocals (all but "You Take My Breath Away"), percussion ("Tie Your Mother Down", "You Take My Breath Away", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)"), lead vocals ("Drowse"), acoustic guitar ("Drowse")
* John Deacon – bass (all tracks), acoustic guitar ("You and I")
* Mike Stone - additional vocals ("Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy")

### 1977

#### October 7, 1977: "We are the Champions"

* UK #2, Gold; US #4, Platinum

***"We Are the Champions"*** is a song written by lead singer Freddie Mercury and is one of Queen's most popular songs, and one of rock's most recognisable anthems.

The song was a worldwide success, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009.

   "We Are the Champions" has become an anthem for victories at sporting events, including as official theme song for 1994 FIFA World Cup, and has been often used or referenced in popular culture.

* Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano
* Brian May - electric guitar, backing vocals
* Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals
* John Deacon - bass guitar

#### October 28, 1977: *News of the World*

* UK #4, Gold; US #3, 4x Platinum

***News of the World*** is Queen's best selling studio album to date.

Having received some criticism that their first completely self-produced project, A Day at the Races, was a "boring" album, Queen decided to shift their musical focus towards the mainstream but remain as the producers of the next album. They scaled down their complex arrangements and focused on a "rootsier" sound (as Brian May put it). However the staple of the Queen sound, multi-tracked harmonies and guitar orchestrations, still exist on this album, albeit a bit more subtly. News of the World shows Queen's songwriting less dominated by May and Freddie Mercury, with Roger Taylor and John Deacon composing two songs each.

The album's cover was a painting by American sci-fi artist Frank Kelly Freas. Taylor had an issue of Astounding Science Fiction (October 1953) whose cover art depicted a giant intelligent robot holding the dead body of a man. The caption read: "Please... fix it, Daddy?" to illustrate the story "The Gulf Between" by Tom Godwin. The painting inspired the band to contact Freas, who agreed to alter the painting for their album cover, by replacing the single dead man with the four "dead" band members (Taylor and Deacon falling to the ground with Taylor only visible on the back cover). The inner cover (gatefold) has the robot extending its hand to snatch up the petrified fleeing audience in the shattered auditorium where the corpses were removed. Freas said he was a classical music fan and did not know Queen, and only listened to the band after doing the cover "because I thought I might just hate them, and it would ruin my ideas", but eventually liked their music.

* Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, cowbell
* Brian May – electric guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals ("All Dead, All Dead", "Sleeping on the Sidewalk"), acoustic guitar, maracas
* Roger Taylor – drums, backing vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, lead vocals ("Fight from the Inside")
* John Deacon – bass guitar, acoustic guitar

Listen to *News of the World* on Deezer.

### 1978

#### February 10, 1978: "Spread Your Wings"

* UK #34

***"Spread Your Wings"*** is a ballad from the 1977 album *News of the World*, written by bassist John Deacon.

* Freddie Mercury - lead vocals, piano
* Brian May - electric guitar
* Roger Taylor - drums
* John Deacon - bass guitar, acoustic guitar

#### November 10, 1978: *Jazz*

* UK #2, Gold; US #6, Platinum

With artwork suggested by Roger Taylor, who previously saw a similar design painted on the Berlin Wall, ***Jazz***'s varying musical styles were alternately praised and criticised.

A bicycle race with nude women was held to promote the album and the "Fat Bottomed Girls"/"Bicycle Race" single. A poster of the start of the race was included with copies of the LP. The American release did not include the poster, but did include an order form for it. A smaller portion of the poster image also used as an alternate single cover for "Bicycle Race."

* Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, backing vocals, piano
* Brian May – electric guitar, backing vocals acoustic guitar, lead vocals ("Leaving Home Ain't Easy")
* Roger Taylor – drums, backing vocals, percussion, lead vocals ("Fun It", "More of That Jazz"), electric guitar, bass
* John Deacon – bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar

Listen to *Jazz* on Deezer.