For so many people across the world, no other band has managed to steal their hearts and minds like Queen.
For me, Queen played a huge part as the theme tune for my childhood as my father was a super fan like so many, but how many people actually know that much about the band outside the usual chart-topping hits?
Well, that’s what we’re here to share today! Here is a list of 30 fascinating facts about the iconic band, Queen.
The Queen logo consists of the bands’ star signs; 2 Leos, one Virgo, and one Cancer for Roger, John, Freddie, and Brian respectively. It was designed by Freddie.
Roger Taylor wrote four tracks for the band, they were the 1984 “Radio Ga Ga,” 1986 “A Kind of Magic,” 1989 “The Invisible Man,” and the 1991 track “These are the Days of our Lives.”
May’s guitar is handmade from scratch out of a two-century-old mantelpiece by himself and his father.
The iconic David Bowie section on the smash hit “Under Pressure” almost never happened as this wasn’t actually planned. Bowie was simply in the studio at the time and decided to get involved.
Freddie Mercury was completely confident in his performance, his singing, and playing abilities but he wasn’t actually confident in his piano skills and feared playing “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
The 1984 hit “Thank God It’s Christmas” was released in 1984 and was never part of any Queen album of the time.
After most of their career with EMI records, Queen decided to leave them and sign with Universal Music in 2010.
Queen managed to have a total of 26 years in the U.K. Album charts, which is more than any other artist to date.
Roger Taylor’s backyard played a huge part in the “We Will Rock You” music video, as well as the 1977 hit “Spread Your Wings.” Both of the videos were actually filmed there.
Queen wrote the soundtrack to the 1980 film “Flash Gordon,” which included the single “Flash.”
Freddie Mercury moved to Middlesex, U.K. in 1964 due to the family’s safety being under threat in Zanzibar with the revolution of the time.
Although arguably not as a big a market for Queen, in the U.S. by 2004, they had already sold a staggering 34.5 million albums.
In 2001, alongside the likes of Michael Jackson and Aerosmith, Queen was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
In 1981, Queen set a new Argentine record in Buenos Aires for the most people at a single concert with a whopping 300,000 fans at their gig.
Paul Rogers joined Queen as a lead singer replacement in 2005 in the “Queen + Paul Rodgers” tour.
Disney actually animated the section within “These are the Days Of Our Lives”… Okay, maybe not completely. The artists for this music video were the same ones who worked for the Walt Disney Company as animators.
Set up in 1973, the International Queen Fan Club is officially recognized by Guinness World Record, as being the longest-running Rock group fan club.
Freddie Mercury chose to have paintings made of his cats. He also loved to call them whilst on tour to chat.
The 1975 album “A Night at the Opera” and the 1976 album “A Day at the Races” have a widely unknown link, both these album names are based on Marx Brothers’ silent films from 1935 and 1937.
Queen are one of the only groups/people beside the Queen to appear on a postage stamp, in 1999 the Royal Mail decided to release stamps that included Freddie Mercury on stage.
In 2002 Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was voted “The UK’s favorite hit of all time” in a poll carried out by Guinness World Records.
In October 2002, the ceremony for Queen’s Hollywood Walk Of Fame Star took place. The star can be found at 6358 Hollywood Boulevard.
Although depicted in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie did not know he had HIV before Live Aid. He discovered this between 1986-87 although this is under some contention as to the exact date.
In 2006 the “Queen Greatest Hits” album became the best-selling album of all time in the U.K. as proven by a study by the Official UK Charts Company, beating the likes of The Beatles and Oasis.
A trademark for Queen’s performances was the baseless microphone stand that Freddie used as a vital prop as he flailed around the stage. This invention was actually a complete accident; it came as the result of a microphone bottom falling off early on in their career.
Queen won numerous Ivor Novello awards for a range of accolades including their 1974 hit “Killer Queen,” the 1975 worldwide hit “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and their overall outstanding contribution to music.
John Deacon was actually the last in a long line of bassists Queen tried, including Douglas Bogie. He joined in 1971 and is obviously the most famous and longest bassist they have had.
In 1974, Brian May was diagnosed with hepatitis after falling in the first month of Queen’s U.S. tour.
Roger Taylor almost never joined the famous Queen; he was offered the chance to join Genesis but refused.
Queen originally started off life as Smile, comprising of Brian, Roger and bassist Tom Staffel who later had no part of Queen.
So there we have it, from “Bohemian Rhapsody” to “We are the Champions,” Queen really are a Kind of Magic!
Word play aside, there is something so moving, so powerful and so exciting about the music they produced.
Please share your facts about Queen below in the comments!
