Queen are a British rock band that formed in London in 1970. The band members were Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals), and John Deacon (bass guitar).
Queen performed their first public gig at London's Imperial College on July 18, 1970.
On January 5, 1973 Queen taped their first radio session for BBC Radio 1, performing four songs including debut single "Keep Yourself Alive."
150,000 people attended Queen's 1976 free gig at Hyde Park. At the time it was the biggest concert in British history.
Freddie Mercury died in 1991. Six years later, John Deacon retired to spend more time with his family.
Since then, Brian May and Roger Taylor have performed under the name of Queen with Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert as vocalists on several tours.
The Bohemian Rhapsody movie that tells Queen's story up to their 1985 Live Aid performance is the most successful biopic of all time.
Rami Malek watched the YouTube video of Freddie Mercury’s Live Aid performance over 1500 times in preparation for playing the queen frontman in the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.
Roger Taylor has the same 4 octave vocal range as Freddie Mercury.
Freddie Mercury was born an Indian Parsi with the birth name Farrokh Bulsara.
Mercury was born on September 5, 1946 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and grew up there and in India until his mid-teens, before moving with his family to Middlesex, England.
Zanzibar's tourism industry thrives because of Queen fans that visit the island to see Freddie Mercury's birthplace.
Farrokh Bulsara changed his name to Freddie Mercury after the lyrics "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" in "My Fairy King".
The Queen logo, called the Queen crest, was designed by Freddie Mercury himself, who held a degree in graphic design. The logo combines the zodiac signs of the four band members.
The Queen frontman disliked being addressed as anything other than Freddie. However, he insisted that his passport name was given as Frederick Mercury.
Freddie Mercury's distinctive smile was caused by the presence of four extra teeth in his upper jaw – but the singer refused to have corrective surgery because he was worried it would adversely affect his voice.
Freddie Mercury had the most unique singing voice by having his vibrato at 7.04 Hz while the typical vibrato would fluctuate between 5.4 and 6.9 Hz.
Although Freddie Mercury was known for his large vocal range, he was actually a baritone. He didn't believe that his fans would recognize his voice unless he sang as a tenor.
Just before Live Aid, Freddie Mercury was told by his doctor not to do the show because of some vocal trouble. He ignored it, and went on to deliver a 20 minutes show that, according to a BBC poll, was the greatest live performance of all time.
Freddie Mercury loved cats and had as many as ten at one point. He even had an album and a song dedicated to his cats ("Mr. Bad Guy"). He also wrote a song about his favorite cat, Delilah.
Freddie Mercury died of an AIDS-related illness on November 24, 1991.
Not long before his death, Freddie Mercury, confined to his bed, got to see an advance copy of the Wayne's World scene with Wayne and Garth headbanging to "Bohemian Rhapsody". He loved it and approved of the song's use in the film. The movie, in part, helped launch Queen's comeback in the USA.
Freddie Mercury spent his last months recording as many vocals as he could for the rest of Queen to finish after his death.
After Mercury and his family moved to the Queen singer and Brian May lived 100 yards from each other but never met until 1970.
Before joining Queen, Brian May studied Astrophysics at Imperial College in Middlesex. He finally completed his dissertation in 2007.
Brian May's father helped him build his famous guitar, using wood from a 200-year-old fireplace mantel. However he was upset when Brian abandoned his PhD program to join Queen.
Brian May went on to write "We Will Rock You", "I Want It All"—and eventually A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, the thesis he finished 37 years later.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" stayed at number one in the UK for nine weeks and popularized the music video.
The high opera note in "Bohemian Rhapsody" was not sung by Freddie Mercury, but drummer Roger Taylor
The music video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" took four hours to film. The band arrived to the studio at 7.30 in the morning and by 11.30 they were finished and were relaxing in a local pub. The entire thing cost $2025. Meanwhile the head-banging scene in Wayne's World took ten hours to film.
Despite the video showing all Queen members singing, the five-part harmony at the start of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was all performed by Freddie Mercury.
After Queen's success with "Bohemian Rhapsody", sacks of fan mail poured in from behind the Iron Curtain, addressed to "Queen, London". It was mistakenly delivered to Buckingham Palace.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" only reached #9 on the US charts when the song was first released in 1976, but reached #2 in 1992 after Wayne's World came out
The "Stomp-stomp-clap" in Queen's "We Will Rock You" was not part of the original song; it was added to match what the crowd did at shows.
Freddie Mercury wrote "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in ten minutes, despite knowing only a few guitar chords.
Queen is the only group in the world where every member has written more than one number one single, meaning that the whole band is in the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
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| Queen publicity shot 1976 |
Queen performed their first public gig at London's Imperial College on July 18, 1970.
On January 5, 1973 Queen taped their first radio session for BBC Radio 1, performing four songs including debut single "Keep Yourself Alive."
150,000 people attended Queen's 1976 free gig at Hyde Park. At the time it was the biggest concert in British history.
Freddie Mercury died in 1991. Six years later, John Deacon retired to spend more time with his family.
Since then, Brian May and Roger Taylor have performed under the name of Queen with Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert as vocalists on several tours.
The Bohemian Rhapsody movie that tells Queen's story up to their 1985 Live Aid performance is the most successful biopic of all time.
Rami Malek watched the YouTube video of Freddie Mercury’s Live Aid performance over 1500 times in preparation for playing the queen frontman in the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.
Roger Taylor has the same 4 octave vocal range as Freddie Mercury.
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| Queen + Adam Lambert concert at the TD Garden, Boston in July 2014 |
FREDDIE MERCURY
Freddie Mercury was born an Indian Parsi with the birth name Farrokh Bulsara.
Mercury was born on September 5, 1946 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and grew up there and in India until his mid-teens, before moving with his family to Middlesex, England.
Zanzibar's tourism industry thrives because of Queen fans that visit the island to see Freddie Mercury's birthplace.
Farrokh Bulsara changed his name to Freddie Mercury after the lyrics "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" in "My Fairy King".
The Queen logo, called the Queen crest, was designed by Freddie Mercury himself, who held a degree in graphic design. The logo combines the zodiac signs of the four band members.
The Queen frontman disliked being addressed as anything other than Freddie. However, he insisted that his passport name was given as Frederick Mercury.
Freddie Mercury's distinctive smile was caused by the presence of four extra teeth in his upper jaw – but the singer refused to have corrective surgery because he was worried it would adversely affect his voice.
Freddie Mercury had the most unique singing voice by having his vibrato at 7.04 Hz while the typical vibrato would fluctuate between 5.4 and 6.9 Hz.
Although Freddie Mercury was known for his large vocal range, he was actually a baritone. He didn't believe that his fans would recognize his voice unless he sang as a tenor.
 |
| Freddie Mercury in 1977 |
Just before Live Aid, Freddie Mercury was told by his doctor not to do the show because of some vocal trouble. He ignored it, and went on to deliver a 20 minutes show that, according to a BBC poll, was the greatest live performance of all time.
Freddie Mercury loved cats and had as many as ten at one point. He even had an album and a song dedicated to his cats ("Mr. Bad Guy"). He also wrote a song about his favorite cat, Delilah.
Freddie Mercury died of an AIDS-related illness on November 24, 1991.
Not long before his death, Freddie Mercury, confined to his bed, got to see an advance copy of the Wayne's World scene with Wayne and Garth headbanging to "Bohemian Rhapsody". He loved it and approved of the song's use in the film. The movie, in part, helped launch Queen's comeback in the USA.
Freddie Mercury spent his last months recording as many vocals as he could for the rest of Queen to finish after his death.
BRIAN MAY
After Mercury and his family moved to the Queen singer and Brian May lived 100 yards from each other but never met until 1970.
Before joining Queen, Brian May studied Astrophysics at Imperial College in Middlesex. He finally completed his dissertation in 2007.
Brian May's father helped him build his famous guitar, using wood from a 200-year-old fireplace mantel. However he was upset when Brian abandoned his PhD program to join Queen.
 |
| May performing in Frankfurt in 2005. By Thomas Steffan Wikipedia |
Brian May went on to write "We Will Rock You", "I Want It All"—and eventually A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, the thesis he finished 37 years later.
SONGS
"Bohemian Rhapsody" stayed at number one in the UK for nine weeks and popularized the music video.
The high opera note in "Bohemian Rhapsody" was not sung by Freddie Mercury, but drummer Roger Taylor
The music video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" took four hours to film. The band arrived to the studio at 7.30 in the morning and by 11.30 they were finished and were relaxing in a local pub. The entire thing cost $2025. Meanwhile the head-banging scene in Wayne's World took ten hours to film.
Despite the video showing all Queen members singing, the five-part harmony at the start of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was all performed by Freddie Mercury.
After Queen's success with "Bohemian Rhapsody", sacks of fan mail poured in from behind the Iron Curtain, addressed to "Queen, London". It was mistakenly delivered to Buckingham Palace.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" only reached #9 on the US charts when the song was first released in 1976, but reached #2 in 1992 after Wayne's World came out
The "Stomp-stomp-clap" in Queen's "We Will Rock You" was not part of the original song; it was added to match what the crowd did at shows.
Freddie Mercury wrote "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in ten minutes, despite knowing only a few guitar chords.
Queen is the only group in the world where every member has written more than one number one single, meaning that the whole band is in the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
FUN QUEEN FACTS
The Official International Queen Fan Club was founded in February 1974 when Queen released their debut album. It's still running and Guinness World Records recognize it as the ‘longest-running rock group fan club’.
April 17 is celebrated as "Queen Day" in Japan, to mark the day that the band first arrived in the country back in 1975. Queen has always been very popular in Japan, and their music has been a huge influence on Japanese rock bands. In fact, Queen is one of the best-selling foreign bands in Japan, with over 20 million records sold.
On Queen Day, Japanese fans celebrate the band's music and legacy in a variety of ways. Some fans attend concerts or watch movies and documentaries about the band. Others dress up as their favorite Queen members or host parties with Queen-themed food and drinks. Still others simply listen to Queen's music and reminisce about their favorite songs.
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