Queen
Queen consists of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. They got together at the beginning of the 1970's.They made in excess of 14 albums, including Greatest Hits and Live albums. In 1973 and 1974 their first two albums, "Queen" and "Queen II" were released with "Sheer Heart Attack" being released at the end of 1974.
Although having hits on both sides of The Atlantic, it was to be, "A Night At The Opera" and the release of "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was going to make Queen musical legends. At nearly 6 minutes long, "Bohemian Rhapsody" should have been too long for radio air play, but It became one of the greatest singles of all time, staying at the number 1 spot in the UK charts for a staggering 9 weeks.
In 1976, "A Day At The Races" was released, with the song "Somebody To Love" sang in a gospel style ensemble, reaching number 2 in the UK charts. It was to be the 1980's that saw a change of musical direction for the group. "The Game" produced the hit single " Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites The Dust". Up until now, every record released by Queen had a note saying "No Synthesizers", indicating that all the music was created without the aid of any synthesizers, but this new album changed all that.
In the same year as "The Game" the film "Flash Gordon" was released, with the film's entire soundtrack composed and performed by Queen. The single,"Flash" managing to reach number 10 in the UK charts.
"The Works" was released in 1984 and saw the band cross dressing in a parody to the English soap opera Coronation Street in the video "I Want To Break Free". It reached number 3 in the UK charts. "Radio Ga Ga" reached number 2, and became a favourite during the bands live performances mainly due to the audience participating in the clapping sequence taken from the video.
On July 13th 1985, Queen performed in front of a world wide audience for The Live Aid Concert performed at Wembley Stadium, London. It was said by the world press that Queen stole the show with their performance.
Queen produced another highly successful, if unofficial film soundtrack in 1986 for the film Highlander, with the album entitled "It's A King of Magic". Unofficial because no soundtrack from the film was actually released. Queen had six out of nine of their songs appear in the film giving them the presumed soundtrack prestige. The Magic Tour was to be Queen's final tour with lead singer Freddie Mercury.
After seeing opera diva Montserrat Caballé in, "Un Ballo In Maschera" , an opera by Verde, he knew he wanted to record a duet with her. In 1987 "Barcelona" was released reaching number 8 in the UK charts, and number 2 in 1992 after being used for the 1992 Olympics. Unfortunately the planned duet for the Olympics never happened.
In 1987 Freddie was diagnosed with HIV, but they still managed to make a further 2 albums, "The Miracle" and "Innuendo". On November 24th 1991 Freddie Mercury died from bronchial pneumonia as a result of having AIDS.
On April 20th, 1992 a tribute concert in Freddie's memory was held at Wembley Stadium, with many famous rock stars taking part in it. George Michael sang "Somebody Love" which was later released in 1993, reaching No. 1 in the UK charts. But the best tribute to Freddie was the album Made In Heaven, released on November 6th, 1995 by the three remaining members of Queen. On it you can hear the last songs that Freddie composed and recorded.