Queen first appear on the hard rock scene in 1973 with their debut album, Queen. The band has enjoyed varying levels of success and popularity during their career, but after their lead singer Freddie Mercury had died of AIDS related pneumonia in November of 1991, their popularity and respect surged even until today.  Queen are mostly known for their Greatest Hits albums which contain their biggest singles.  Very recently, the 1992 release Queen's Greatest Hits I & II was the biggest selling album on ITunes.  Queen are for the most part associated with the songs that we hear on the radio every day, the songs that we hear in Sports Stadiums around the world and even in TV commercials.  Queen is one of those bands that cannot be defined by their biggest selling singles, much in the way The Beatles are so much more than the singles they released.  Queen are so much cooler than their 'greatest hits' and I wanted to provide a guide for anyone interested in Queen but do not know where to start.  These are the CDs that are essential from a life long Queen fan. 

Queen's News of the World album was released in the autumn of 1977 and is home to two of their most well-known songs We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions.  These two songs are heard in sports stadiums around the world, yet the album has so much more to offer.  The punk rock influenced Sheer Heart Attack, the emotional rocker Spread Your Wings, the sleazy Get Down Make Love, the epic rock track It's Late, the bluesy My Melancholy Blues or Sleeping on the Sidewalk.  Queen are known for the many layers of vocals and guitars, but here on News, Queen can be heard at their most stripped down set ever.  My Review of News of The World

Queen's 1975 release A Night at the Opera is the album that launched Queen into the superstar stratosphere.  This album is home to the mainstream single You're My Best Friend, and the only rock opera track ever Bohemian Rhapsody.  In America, Bohemian Rhapsody was a hit back in 1975 like everywhere else in the world because of it's uniqueness and especially due to the promo video they created for it where Queen recereated the cover of their second album Queen II .  Bohemian Rhapsody had also became an even bigger hit 17 years later in 1992 when featured in the Wayne's World movie.  Queen were again cool in America after eight years.  This forced American classic rock stations to pay more attention to Queen, and since they are now featured daily in the rotation of many radio stations here in America, their popularity has only risen.   A Night at the Opera also had some awesome over the top hard rock/heavy metal moments that are not so well-known.  Songs like Death On Two Legs, Sweet Lady and I'm In Love With My Car are staples in the heavier variety of Queen's back catalog, and the amazing eight minute epic The Prophet's Song is possibly the heaviest song Queen had every recorded, but the greatest aspect of this song is the a cappella middle section performed by Freddie Mercury, it has to be experienced to be believed.  My Review for A Night At The Opera

 Queen's last studio album that was released while Freddie Mercury was still alaive and with us was Innuendo, released at the beginning of 1991.  This was Queen's first release on a brand new label, Hollywood Records - a Walt Disney Company.  For me, this is just a little added bonus for Queen to be forever affiliated with the Walt Disney company.  Innuendo is Queen's true return to a brand of hard rock that Queen fans from way back to the 70s can enjoy and boast about.  On this disc, just about all of the good songs can be found on their greatest hits albums.  Songs like Headlong, I Can't Live With You, The Show Must Go On, These Are The Days of Our Lives, I'm Going Slightly Mad and the amazing title song Innuendo are all found on their compilation albums, but the hidden gems like Don't Try So Hard, All God's People and Ride the Wild Wind should not be missed. My Innuendo Review

 This is Queen's third release, Sheer Heart Attack from late 1974.  The hit single from this album, Killer Queen had performed notably in the hit parade around the world and gave the band some major notoriety, and the band started topping the bill on their world tour.  This is possible the most versatile album Queen had released.  There are of course some major heavy rock song like Brighton Rock that feature Brian May on guitar, Flick of the Wrist shows Queen at their most venomous, Stone Cold Crazy, a song that received some recognition when Metallica covered the song in 1991.  There is also the theatrical In The Lap of the Gods, and even some ragtime with Bring Back That Leroy Brown.  Queen is the only band in history where each band member had written a number one song.  Sheer Heart Attack is the first album where bassist John Deacon earned himself a songwriting credit.  He shows the mainstream Pop direction his music will take from here on in with the song Misfire.  He of course will go on to write the number one single Another One Bites the Dust six years later. My Review for Sheer Heart Attack

 Queen's seventh album, Jazz, was released in late 1978.  The two singles off this album are Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls.  Queen still rock it out on their last studio album of the 1970s, but there is a slight hint of where the band is headed in the 80s.  Queen, up until Jazz, have released some awesome music, yet very odd and definitely anti-radio.  Now this effort put forth from Queen has the majority of the songs sounding a bit more mainstream and accessible.  Queen assimilates?  Not quite, but Jazz is still a lot of fun.  Songs like Let Me Entertain You, Dreamers Ball, In Only 7 Days, Fun It and Leaving Home Ain't Easy will surley show you a brief yet different side to the band, but still an essential one.  My review for Queen Jazz

 At first, I didn't like Queen's 1984 release, The Works, but it eventually grew on me.  The hit singles are Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free and to some extent Hammer To Fall.  There is some real strong material on this album that will not be found on the many Queen compilations out there.  A song like Machines (or 'Back to Humans') is as good as most Queen songs.  The gentle Is This the World We Created is a beautiful acoustic ballad, Keep Passing the Open Windows, a song from Freddie showcase the writing talents of the whole band.   It's A Hard Life is probably my favorite along with John Deacon's magical I Want To Break Free.  Admittedly, some 70s bands that made it through to the 80s sort of lost their way and identity.  A ridculous song like Tear It Up proves that point here.  Queen, perhaps realizing this had only released six albums (if you count the Flash Gordon soundtrack) in the 80s, and they weren't all that good..(::cough:: Hot Space ::clears throat::). My Review for The Works

I hope this Queen Guide helps you decide.  Thanks for reading. 

Michael Scapp