The music of Queen is possibly the most recognised music of any British band in history – obviously The Beatles are the most well-known, their story still fascinates us, but we reckon if you were to ask a random group of people to hum a few songs by any British band, Queen would emerge as the band having the most universally recognised tunes among the masses.
We got to know them around 1980, the first song John remembers hearing was Bicycle Race, though doubtless we both knew Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You and the other biggies. The first album John got (as it came out) was The Works, a massive album a year or so before they reminded the world who was top dog at Live Aid. Possibly eclipsing even that Live Aid triumph, Queen also hold the distinction of being the only band that our father – an empty void when it came to music – once paid the enormous compliment of describing them as “not entirely terrible, I suppose” – high praise indeed.
In each podcast episode we talk through the artist’s history chronologically, picking our favourite tracks and ranking the albums as we go, so check that out if you want to know how we came to our decisions and why we picked the playlist tracks we did.
Our ranking and track picks are a compromise of our two different personal opinions, and of course we have to consider the Jeffrey Rulebook. It is also only a snapshot in time, so don’t take them too seriously! But do please comment below with your picks.
The Queen Jeffrey Podcast playlist is also available here on Deezer.
Our research included Is This The Real Life: The Untold Story of Queen by Mark Blake and Queen: Album by album by Martin Popoff.
Origins
Brian May and Roger Taylor met when Taylor answered an advert to join May’s band Smile in 1968. Alongside May and Taylor were Tim Staffell on bass and vocals, and Chris Smith on keyboards, although he left soon after. Staffell’s friend Farrokh Bulsara (known by his nickname Freddie) became a fan of the band, and when Staffell left, he joined as lead singer. He persuaded them to change the name to Queen, and changed his own surname to Mercury after a line in their song My Fairy King (“Mother Mercury, look what they’ve done to me“) They played with various bass players before John Deacon joined in 1971, forming the classic Queen line-up:
- Brian May – guitars, vocals
- Roger Taylor – drums, vocals
- Freddie Mercury – vocals, keyboards
- John Deacon – bass
1973: Queen
Our ranking: 11th
Their interesting and enjoyable debut didn’t sound like anything else around at the time, a rocky glam pop prog record that smacks you between the eyes with an eccentric theatrical thump! Brian May already has that great meaty guitar sound and even this early in their career Freddie is completely in his stride, no messing about finding his voice, he’s already cocksure and dripping with charisma … but, it’s also a bit ragged and, like its successor, the stronger first half gives way to a weaker second-half that feels a bit like a bunch of filler.
Our picks: Keep Yourself Alive and Great King Rat
1974: Queen II
Our ranking: 12th
An album that picks up where their debut left off, and doesn’t add much more of interest to the mix. It is a bit tighter, fewer raggedy ends, but also has fewer standout tracks. It’s a decent album with enjoyable moments, all those early Queen elements are there: the growly Brian May guitar, Freddie’s wonderful vocals, the tight funky rhythm section of Roger and John, but the stronger first half runs out of steam and the second half meanders and doesn’t really go anywhere until the excellent Seven Seas of Rhye plays us out.
Our picks: White Queen (As it Began) and Seven Seas of Rhye
1974: Sheer Heart Attack
Our ranking: 4th
Their third album is a step change from the first two, Freddie’s writing in particular is changing to a poppier sound (smash hit Killer Queen being the obvious example), and we see John Deacon’s debut as a songwriter, the aptly named Misfire.
It is the first of three “back to basics” rock albums they produce over their career, and it would prove to be the first step on the road to success and them becoming global megastars … but, in our opinion, the other two in the trilogy (The Works and News of the World) are stronger albums overall.
Our picks: Killer Queen and Now I’m here
1975: A Night at the Opera
Our ranking: 2nd
The album most commonly regarded as Queen’s magnus opus, is, in our opinion, a very good well-balanced and well-paced album, made magnificent by the sing-a-long wonder that is Bohemian Rhapsody.
It does contain missteps, such as tagging the pointless God Save the Queen on the end, just after the album has concluded brilliantly with Bohemian Rhapsody, and three jazzy numbers is perhaps too many, and when we say “perhaps”, we mean “definitely”.
Our picks: Bohemian Rhapsody and Love of My Life
1976: A Day at the Races
Our ranking: 10th
The follow-up to the smash hit A Night at the Opera feels like a mere shadow compared to its magnificent predecessor. Both elpees are named after Marx Brothers film, but where the “night” theme on A Night at the Opera gave it an aura of substance, the “day” version feels much less profound, and is mostly a bunch of cleverly-made-but-mediocre songs (with the exception of the standout picks below) cobbled together. Definitely worth a few spins, but Queen have done much better.
Our picks: Tie Your Mother Down and Somebody to Love
1977: News of the World
Our ranking: Top!
The most rounded of Queen’s albums, bringing together all the great points of a band at the height of their powers, strutting with confidence across the pop music landscape with bangers like We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions, and lovely songs of freedom and hope like John Deacon’s gorgeous Spread Your Wings.
Peak Queen.
Our picks: We Will Rock You and Spread Your Wings
1978: Jazz
Our ranking: 7th
Another one that we disagreed about, John liked this, arguing it had a nice consistent sound with a fair few top notch bangers among the tracks, especially the fun All That Jazz coda-style ending, Gordon was less convinced, thinking the songs felt more like novelties (Brian’s Fat Bottomed Girls and Freddie’s Bicycle Race) rather than serious rockers … so this position in the ranking in a bit of a muddy compromise, Gordon would rank it way lower, John a nudge or two higher.
Our picks: Don’t Stop Me Now and Bicycle Race
1980: The Game
Our ranking: 9th
A short album recorded as the band were looking for some new direction and new ideas – John Deacon’s excellent Another One Bites the Dust paving the way for them to try the funkier disco sound they then maxed out on Hot Space.
Gordon is more of a fan than John is, it is a perfectly decent album, and pretty consistent throughout, but compared to some of their other stuff it lacks the wow factor.
Our picks: Play the Game and Another One Bites the Dust
1980: Flash Gordon
Our ranking: 15th
It was never meant to be an album because it’s a soundtrack to the movie of the same name, and judged in that regard it does its job very well, however, this is an album ranking podcast, and so – judging it as an album – this forgettable mishmash of mood music with the odd Queen-like jam, is not worth worrying too much about.
Our picks: Vultan’s Theme (Attack of the Hawk Men) and The Hero
1982: Hot Space
Our ranking: 8th
A much better album than is often given credit for, Hot Space has a lot of well-written decent songs on it, it’s just that the production is dreadful, piling everything bad about the 1980s onto one record, whilst simultaneously removing most of the good things about Queen: the brilliant musicianship of the four instrumentalists … thus we are left with Freddie singing over some dated electronic sounds, until Under Pressure comes along at the end, a song that sounds nothing at all like the rest of the album. It is, we decided, the most tagged-on-the-end-of-an-album song of all time (surpassing dEUS tagging Nothing Really Ends awkwardly to the end of Pocket Revolution).
That said, the songs are actually very decent, and if the band chose to re-record it with proper instruments (unlikely given Brian and Roger didn’t like this more disco-funky-soulful musical direction – and Brian has since called it a mistake, at least in terms of timing, this album could trouble the top of the Queen tree.
Our picks: Under Pressure and Dancer
Apart from being a better album than most people say, we also think the cover is one of the stronger ones in their catalogue – it didn’t quite make top spot, but an honourable mention nonetheless:
1984: The Works
Our ranking: 3rd
After the relative flop of Hot Space, the band roar back and decide to give them the works, hence The Works, a fairly basic rock album in that it lacks Queen’s earlier bombast, but when you’ve got an album so jam-packed with cracking songs, many of which became Queen classics, it’s perfectly acceptable not to just repeat past successes.
Out picks: Hammer to Fall and I Want to Break Free
1986: A Kind of Magic
Our ranking: 13th
This album feels like an attempt to repeat the enormous success of 1984’s The Works, with a few less-good tracks from the Highlander soundtrack stuck on the end. With all four members back in the studio working together, we might have hoped for something a bit better.
That said, placed this low in the ranking feels a little unfair, it’s just that pretty much all the songs have similar and better versions on The Works. It definitely has its good points (One Vision plus our two picks below), but is otherwise a bit forgettable and nowhere near the standard of their other stuff.
Our picks: A Kind of Magic and Who Wants to Live Forever
1989: The Miracle
Our ranking: 6th
Gordon liked this one more than John did, so it’s one we have a less-settled opinion on. John thought it was good, but a little too straightforward and lacking much in the way of standout magnificence, but Gordon thought it was an excellent all-rounder, punching back hard after the lacklustre A Kind of Magic. It is mainly an album of rockers, the high points aren’t particularly high, but it is consistent and charming, albeit a tad lacking in Queen’s eccentric shtick.
Our picks: Kashoggi’s Ship and I Want it All
1991: Innuendo
Our ranking: 5th
The emotional final album from Freddie is a very good album indeed. The songs are strong, with some heart-rending moments like These Are The Days of Our Lives, a Roger Taylor track that Freddie made so wonderfully poignant. It’s a late-stage Queen album, so it doesn’t have the same rocky theatrics of their earlier stuff, but what we lose in eccentric pomp we gain in depth and substance – definitely worth spending some serious quality time with.
Our picks: These Are the Days of Our Lives and The Show Must Go On
We quite like a lot of Queen album artwork, but don’t really love any of it, but probably the best of the bunch is this one, harking back to A Night at the Opera:
Freddie Mercury’s death
In November 1991 Freddie Mercury died of bronchial pneumonia, an AIDS-related illness.
He was never formally replaced in the band, although they went on to perform with various other singers for one-off songs (including George Michael and Elton John) at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, and cobble together some unfinished material with Mercury’s vocal tracks to create …
1995: Made in Heaven
Our ranking: 14th
An album of offcuts and previously-rejected bits and bobs, cleverly weaved together into a surprisingly decent album. It ranks so low mainly because, being an album of offcuts, it lacks much coherence, and is necessarily made up of weaker songs. In typical Queen fashion, a few of the songs feel rushed and formulaic, throwaway stinkers that might have been better remaining on the cutting room floor, but unlike most of Queen’s other output, there aren’t really any standout tracks or moments of genius either.
One for the dedicated fans only, we’d say.
Our picks: Heaven for Everyone and Let me Live
Deacon’s departure
John Deacon had never been comfortable playing as Queen without Freddie, regarding him as irreplaceable. He played with May and Taylor in Paris in 1997 – the only other post-Mercury concert they played – but retired immediately after.
Brian May and Roger Taylor continued as Queen with different lead singers, initially Paul Rodgers, and more recently with Adam Lambert.
The Jeffrey Music ranking of Queen albums:
- News of the World (1977)
- A Night at the Opera (1975)
- The Works (1984)
- Sheer Heart Attack (1974)
- Innuendo (1991)
- The Miracle (1989)
- Jazz (1978)
- Hot Space (1982)
- The Game (1980)
- A Day at the Races (1976)
- Queen (1973)
- Queen II (1974)
- A Kind of Magic (1986)
- Made in Heaven (1995)
- Flash Gordon (1980)
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