Benoît Clerc - Queen All the Songs

Queen has never been one of those rock bands with a small but devoted following. The band is beloved by millions, first finding its footing in the small concert halls of London in the 1970s and then going on to play in stadiums with enough seating for 100,000 spectators. While Queen has enjoyed a massive fan following, they were never particularly celebrated by the music press, and the four members of the band didnt really adhere to the preconceived notions of how rock stars should behave. No hotel rooms were destroyed, and there was no ubiquitous drug use within the group. Far from rock n roll caricatures, the members of Queen forged a reputation as hard workers who loved to spend their time recording in the studio and performing onstage. The group recorded an astonishing fifteen albums, often driving themselves (and their producers and technicians) to exhaustion.

Although carried by a lead singer known for his legendary charisma and stage presence, Queen was a collective made up of four personalities with boundless creativity: Brian May on guitar, John Deacon on bass, Roger Taylor on drums, and Freddie Mercury on vocals. Each member of the group participated in the writing of Queens unforgettable catalog of songs, and all four men played an equally important role in shaping Queens lasting musical legacy.

Since the release of their first album in 1973, the group has sold more than 300 million albums worldwide. The sheer number of hits can make you dizzy: I Want to Break Free, Another One Bites the Dust, Radio Ga Ga, Killer Queen, We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, Dont Stop Me Now, The Show Must Go On, and of course the groups masterpiece, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Generations of fans have followed the band, and the teenagers who flocked to the group in the early 1970s have passed their love of Queen on to their children, and to their childrens children. Thanks to the phenomenal success of Bryan Singers 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, young music lovers around the world have rediscovered the timeless songs written by the four brothers in arms. As further proof that time has done nothing to dampen Queens legacy, the original music video for BoRap (as fans call it) now has over a billion views on YouTube.

Queen All the Songs celebrates the work of May, Mercury, Deacon, and Taylor, analyzing each song recorded by the quartet with love for the process and respect for the group. Some demos that the group recorded are not referenced in this book (including Feelings and Silver Salmon) in order to focus on the titles that the musicians themselves deemed worthy of refining, recording, and presenting to the public as part of an album.

This book focuses on the adventures of the four men who made Queen into a legendary band. Special attention is paid to the writing and recording process of the groups classic songs and albums, with sidebars offering deep dives into the lives and loves of each of the four original band members. For this reason, Queen All the Songs offers smaller overviews on the groups side projects, including The Cosmos Rocks (the only studio album released by Queen + Paul Rogers), and the groups latest collaborations with Adam Lambert. Though these new recordings have introduced Queen to an entirely new generation of fans, they were created after Freddies passing and are therefore given shorter analysis.

No study of Queens repertoire, no matter how thorough, could be long enough and complete enough to fully bear witness to the major accomplishments achieved by these four gifted musicians. Instead, the book you have in your hands intends to shed light on the hidden stories behind the creation of these classic songs, offering behind-the-scenes secrets that can now be revealed.