66 - Queen

Are you ready? Are you ready for this? Are you hangin' on the edge of your seat?

Hope you enjoyed the first third of the top 100 artists blogs. I have a couple of blogs coming in the next week that don't have to do with music... so that'll be fun (one's a baseball preview, the other is something I've been meaning to do for awhile that I think you'll enjoy). Anyway back to this post.

At number 66 is legendary rock band Queen. They have put together timeless songs that I occassionally play on long car rides while my chauffer doesn't know who they are. Go figure.

Wiki - Queen are a British rock band that formed in 1970. The band originally consisted of lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor. Queen have been described as giving the greatest live performance ever, producing the greatest single in history, and being the best British band of all time. They have released 15 studio albums, five live albums and numerous compilation albums. In 2009, the band's record label EMI reported their worldwide album sales as over 300 million, as did the BBC and other independent sources.

Queen enjoyed success in the UK during the early 1970s but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975) that gained the band international success, both critically and commercially. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK charts for nine weeks. Their success continued through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In 1987, Mercury was diagnosed HIV positive but continued to make music with the band until his death in 1991 of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS. Deacon's retirement followed in 1997. Since then, May and Taylor have infrequently performed together at special events and programmes. Queen were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Between 2004 and 2009 the duo collaborated with Paul Rodgers under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers.

Discography -

Queen (1973)
Queen II (1974)
Sheer Heart Attack (1974)
A Night at the Opera (1975)
A Day at the Races (1976)
News of the World (1977)
Jazz (1978)
The Game (1980)
Hot Space (1982)
The Works (1984)
A Kind of Magic (1986)
The Miracle (1989)
Innuendo (1991)
Made in Heaven (1995)

Best Songs -

Bohemian Rhapsody
We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions
Killer Queen
Another One Bites the Dust
Bicycle Race
Fat Bottomed Girls
Don't Stop Me Now
Tie Your Mother Down
I Want to Break Free
Keep Yourself Alive
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
You're My Best Friend
Under Pressure (w/ David Bowie)

Queen are very accesible for a rock band, but they still can bring the thunder. Freddie Mercury had one of the best voices in rock history. Queen made everything they did big, which is why their songs are enjoyable to sing along with. Brian May's guitar work is often overshadowed by Mercury's stage presence, but May is undoubtedly one of the top 10 guitarists of all time.

And now, listen to some QUEEN


next up: another legendary band with a deceased lead singer