We couldn’t resist her. She saved Moët et Chandon in her fairly cupboard, spoke similar to a baroness and was as playful as a pussycat. Who was this lady? She was the “Killer Queen,” and British record-buyers made her acquaintance when Queen took her into the UK charts on October 26, 1974.
After paying their early dues, Queen had made their British singles chart debut earlier that yr with a quantity that confirmed off their rock prowess, the No.10 hit “Seven Seas Of Rhye.” This follow-up 45, written by Freddie Mercury and produced by the band with Roy Thomas Baker, gave them the right platform for a extra theatrical method.
“Killer Queen” showcased Queen’s traditional tight band efficiency, Mercury’s vocal flamboyance and Brian Might’s nimble guitar runs – even when Freddie would admit in press interviews that he’d by no means really encountered a lady just like the one he was singing about. In November, the observe grew to become a part of their triumphant present on the Rainbow in London.
‘I can dream up all kinds of things’
“‘Killer Queen’ was one song which was really out of the format that I usually write in,” Mercury informed Melody Maker in December 1974. “Usually the music comes first, but the words came to me, and the sophisticated style that I wanted to put across in the song, came first. No, I’d never really met a woman like that. A lot of my songs are fantasy. I can dream up all kinds of things. That’s the kind of world I live in. It’s very sort of flamboyant, and that’s the kind of way I write. I love it.”
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The music, the primary single from the band’s third album Sheer Coronary heart Assault, which adopted a couple of weeks later, was a High 10 hit round a lot of Europe. Early the next yr it will give Queen their first look on the Billboard Sizzling 100, peaking at No.12.
UK audiences liked it, taking “Killer Queen” all the best way to No.2 by mid-November, the place it stayed for 2 weeks. Solely the David Essex bestseller “Gonna Make You A Star” prevented Queen from attaining their first UK No.1. As we all know, that might arrive late the next yr with one thing rhapsodic.
Purchase or stream “Killer Queen” on Sheer Coronary heart Assault.
