Queen

Today I was at a big family gathering and one of my cousins who I've seen sporadically throughout my life asked me "are you still a Queen fan?".

I was somewhat surprised to be asked give I was a Queen fan for a year or so 25 years ago. This was followed by a few years of hating Queen and then I guess I've been indifferent ever since then.

My first memories of Queen are being a space in my Smash Hits sticker album when I was a kid. At the time I'd taken a liking to what I'd call "shouting songs". Shortly afterwards they released "I Want It All" which fit my criteria of a shouting song, but there were a couple of things I found strange. First of all I never expected Queen to be a male band and secondly, "shouting songs" were normally done by scruffy blokes with long hair, Freddie Mercury was wearing a shirt and tie and had short hair. I did however think it was a good song.

I was told that Queen had lots of Top 40 hits but wasn't told how many. This was the same sort of time that Cliff Richard released his 100th single so I was expecting a similar figure. Then when "The Miracle" was on the Chart Show it said in the blurb that it was Queens 35th single, rather short of the number I was expecting. I also learned that Queen did songs I already knew such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Are the Champions" and "A Kind Of Magic".

I kind of forgot about Queen during 1990 as they didn't have any Top 40 hits that year, but they were back in 1991 with "Innuendo" which I quite liked. I was somewhat disappointed with the follow up "I'm Going Slightly Mad" as the title suggested to me it would be shouty but it wasn't.

I would have called myself a casual listener at this point, but when Freddie Mercury died at the end of the year I became a fan. It was not long after this that I owned the 2 Greatest Hits albums so knew the vast majority of singles. I assumed that because they were clearly a very popular band they had lots of number ones, they had two in 1991 alone.

Looking at the 70s hit singles book we had I was somewhat surprised that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was their only number one of the 70s. When I got my first British Hit Singles book shortly after, the first thing I looked at was Queens singles discography and found their only number one of the 80s was "Under Pressure". So they had the same number of chart toppers in 1991 as they had in their career to date prior to that.

This is where it is somewhat baffling where exactly Queens popularity lies, this is not a criticism. Its fair to say they are not an album band, their albums are not that well known and their Greatest Hits albums are by far their most popular, yet take "Bohemian Rhapsody" out of the equation and their singles weren't hugely successful. It's probably fair to say the David Bowie factor helped "Under Pressure" get to number one, and "Innuendo" plummeted out of the charts quickly after it's solitary week at number one and was possibly one of the easiest moments in chart history to score a number one, it was the same month "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" by Iron Maiden reached number one which was the lowest selling number one to date.

They're not a bad band though, they have several songs that I still think are quite good, but I do definitely think they are overhyped. Yes they were all songwriters and yes they didn't just stick to one sound, but that doesn't make them the best band in the world ever.

I've always been one to question what exactly bands with legendary status contributed to music. I always questioned the Beatles when I was younger as they always seemed to be just another 60s band. I can now see how much popular music changed when they first came around and how they evolved their sound throughout their existence to remain relevant. With Queen though I really cannot see what their contribution was other than have a few sing-along songs that most people know. I certainly don't see what the fuss is about "Bohemian Rhapsody", there were plenty of prog rock bands around that time who were making long songs which were trying to push the boundaries.

Still, I can think of many popular bands/artists who are much worse than Queen but can also think of many that are much better. I guess that's why now I'm indifferent.