Welcome back to “Queen – The Greatest”
– a celebration of 50 of the greatest songs,
performances and achievements
from the Queen story so far.
In this film we celebrate one of
Queen’s best loved songs,
a track that was a major turning point for the band –
Killer Queen.
Following the success in the UK charts
with Seven Seas of Rhye in March 1974,
the band were eager to
go even better with their next single,
and had high hopes for the
Freddie Mercury composition, Killer Queen.
However, the song had been recorded
in unusual circumstances.
Having only just recovered from Hepatitis,
a still clearly unwell Brian May
was struggling in the studio.
A duodenal ulcer was the diagnosis
and he was rushed to hospital,
leaving the rest of the band to carry on without him.
When he was able to return,
the song was already starting to sound unique –
and by the time Brian’s guitars
and Queen’s now distinctive vocal harmonies were added,
something truly special had evolved.
Despite the band’s confidence in the song,
they recognised releasing it
wouldn’t be without its risks…
[Brian May] “I do remember having
a slight reservation about Killer Queen.
I remember thinking,
‘are we kind of selling ourselves as something
which has become very light’”.
“But every slice through that record is a perfect vision.
There’s lots of little things that visit once only,
like the little bell of the cymbal.”
As this rare footage from Swedish TV reveals,
record promoter Eric Hall made sure
the single got to all the radio stations,
and the song raced into the UK Top Ten,
peaking at number 2,
while also reaching number 12 in the USA.
Its success introduced the band
to a whole new wave of fans, and to this day
remains one of their most recognised
and well loved compositions.
[Roger Taylor] “Killer Queen always felt a bit special,
it was very sophisticated.
And it was very Freddie.”
[Freddie Mercury] “As the albums have progressed,
I mean our sort of song writing has progressed
and we’ve sort of ventured into sort of different areas.”
“I like writing different songs, you know.
We don’t like to sort of repeat the same formula.”
[Roger Taylor] “It had a slightly sort of Noel Cowerd,
you know, that kind of element in it.”
Killer Queen would go on to be a significant influence
on the “We Will Rock You” Musical –
providing the name for the Bohemian’s evil nemesis,
played here in the original London cast
by the incomparable Sharon D Clarke.
And then in 2018, 44 years after its initial release,
it was introduced to yet another generation of fans
when covered by Five Seconds of Summer to
mark the release of the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ movie.