We have collated some of our favourite facts about iconic band Queen, plus 5 things you may not already know about Freddie Mercury:
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Queen originally started off life as “Smile” in 1970 and the members consisted of Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon (who joined in 1971). It was then Freddie who came up with the band name “Queen”. Freddie quoted “It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I feel that the name Queen actually fitted that time. It lent itself to a lot of things, like the theatre, and it was grand. It was very pompous, with all kinds of connotations. It meant so much. It wasn’t just one precise label. I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it.”
In 1975, Queen created the famous album ‘A Night at the Opera’ which included the popular masterpiece ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ This amazing song was positioned at number 1 for 9 weeks and is the band’s best-selling single of all time. Freddie Mercury started writing the hit when he was an art student, in 1968. For many years he had just established the opening line before finishing the track.
The music videos for the famous Queen songs "We Will Rock You" and "Spread Your Wings" were both filmed in Roger Taylor’s back garden
In 1985, Queen headlined at Rock in Rio, which at the time was the biggest festival to be held anywhere in the world. They also performed a show-stealing and renowned performance at Live Aid from Wembley Stadium.
The band had not planned to release the track “Another one bites the dust”, but Michael Jackson persuaded them to do so.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Queen hold the record for the longest-running fan club of any band.
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In relation to lead man Freddie Mercury, here are 5 facts you may not already know about the star:
1) Freddie designed the logo of Queen himself; he had studied a degree in art and graphics. The band’s logo consists of the band's star signs; 2 Leos, one Virgo and one Cancer for Roger, John, Freddie and Brian respectively.
2) A team of scientists in 2016 decided to study Freddie Mercury’s voice. They identified Mercury’s vocal cords moved at a faster rate than the average person’s vocal cords. They noted, “While a typical vibrato will fluctuate between 5.4 Hz and 6.9 Hz, Mercury’s was 7.04 Hz,”.
3) Freddie Mercury was a brilliant boxer. “I loathed cricket and long-distance running; I was completely useless at both. But I could sprint, I was good at hockey, and I was just brilliant in the boxing ring,” he revealed.
4) Freddie loved to play the popular word game Scrabble. Freddie commented he was “pleased” with his vocals on the 1991 album Innuendo, adding, “‘Innuendo’ is a word he often played in Scrabble.
5) He was nearly in a group with Elton John and Rod Stewart. “Rod Stewart, Elton John and I were going to form a band, once upon a time, called Hair, Nose And Teeth” he stated. But unfortunately, it never happened.
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Queen have sold in total an estimated 300 million records and in 2001, Queen was welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their popular Biographical film “Bohemian Rhapsody” was, at its release, the highest grossing musical biographical of all time.
These are just a few of our favourite facts, why not let us know what yours are! The new official 2022 calendars for Queen and for Freddie Mercury are now available to pre-order from Danilo.com now at Queen – Danilo Promotions
