Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining the following year. Queen rose to prominence during the 1970s and are Britain's most successful band of the past three decades.
The band are noted for their musical diversity, multi-layered arrangements, vocal harmonies and incorporation of audience participation into their live performances. Their 1985 Live Aid performance was voted the best live rock performance of all time in an industry poll.
Queen had moderate success in the early 1970s, with the albums Queen and Queen II, but it was with the release of Sheer Heart Attack in 1974 and A Night at the Opera the following year that the band gained international success. Since 1975, eighteen of the band's albums have reached number one on numerous charts around the world. Since 1973, they have released fifteen studio albums, five live albums, and numerous compilation albums. They have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide, view.asp?article_class=6&no=270701&rel_no=1" target="_blank">Queen Proves There's Life After Freddie, 2006-01-25, retrieved 2007-02-15. with 32.5 million sold in the _United States alone, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists.
Following Mercury's death in 1991 and Deacon's retirement later in the decade, May and Taylor have performed infrequently under the Queen label. Since 2005, they have been collaborating with Paul Rodgers, under the moniker Queen + Paul Rodgers.
