Queen remain one of the most cherished groups of the 20th century because of their sonic versatility and, of course, Freddie Mercury’s dynamic and imposing live presence. In the early 1970s, the band thrived off the progressive and glam-rock trends to create artistically and compositionally challenging music. This era reached a climax with 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera, which brought Queen unprecedented international acclaim.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which appeared in 1975’s A Night at the Opera, saw a convergence of the prog-rock Queen and the radio-friendly Queen yet to come. Whilst compositionally and thematically complex, the multi-faceted epic held number one on the UK charts for nine weeks and reached a respectable number nine on the US Billboard chart.
Moving into the late 1970s, Queen countered the burgeoning punk movement with a pop-rock sound that opted for catchy basslines and guitar solos overlain with anthemic verse. This new sound was introduced in 1977 with News of the World’s double A-side single ‘We Are the Champions’ / ‘We Will Rock You’.
Queen further polished this anthemic sound for radio consumption with 1978’s Jazz, which brought ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ and the space-bound smash hit ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. This musical development was as much a response to the simple effectiveness of the punk movement as it was a reflection of Mercury’s personal life.
As Queen began to opt for the glitz of danceable radio-friendly pop-rock tunes, Mercury’s hedonistic party life was beginning to spin wildly out of control. In an interview with Absolute Radio in 2011, Queen guitarist Brian May discussed how, for him, the Jazz era and its soaring hit single, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, always symbolised a warning rather than a celebration of the party-hard lifestyle.
“I thought it was a lot of fun, but I did have an undercurrent feeling of, ‘aren’t we talking about danger here,’ because we were worried about Freddie at this point,” May said. “That feeling lingers, but it’s become almost the most successful Queen track as regards to what people play in their car or at their weddings. It’s become a massive, massive track and an anthem to people who want to be hedonistic. It was kind of a stroke of genius from Freddie.”
Listen to the classic Queen track below.