There was something clearly different, and special, when Queen‘s debut album emerged in 1973.
At its heart, the group was another four-piece hard rock band from England, brimming with muscle and energy. But those operatic harmonies, bolstered by Roy Thomas Baker’s lustrous production, and a unique sense of dynamics set Queen apart from the get-go, and things only grew from there.
Over the course of 14 albums (before frontman Freddie Mercury‘s death in 1991), Queen became the champion and the visible definition of pomp rock in all its glory and delight. The group never stopped rocking hard, but its ambitions up to and even past the zenith of “Bohemian Rhapsody” were beautifully crafted and unapologetically bombastic. Even Queen’s quiet sounded big, and its big was designed to shake the Earth — and continues to thanks to the enduring stomp of “We Will Rock You.”
Forty-five years on, Queen’s kind of magic endures via a variety of forms — reissues, stage musicals, movies and TV shows and at just about every sports event in the world, not to mention Brian May and Roger Taylor’s touring situation with Adam Lambert. May once asked, in song, “Who wants to live forever?” and his group has created music that most certainly will.
It’s not an easy task, but here are our picks for the 20 best Queen songs
