Sheer Heart Attack

Lore & Background

The album's first single "Killer Queen" reached number two on the UK singles chart and provided the band with their first top 20 hit in the US, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sheer Heart Attack was the first Queen album to hit the US top 20, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape Chart in 1975. It has been acknowledged for containing "a wealth of outstanding hard rock guitar tracks". Retrospectively, it has been listed by multiple publications as one of the band's best works and has been deemed an essential glam rock album.

Reader's Guide

For newcomers exploring the band's catalog, this album serves as an excellent entry point into their mid-era evolution. The album noticeably shifts away from the progressive rock themes of its predecessors, and has been categorised as hard rock and glam rock. The Daily Vault described it as "an important transition album" because it showcased "what the band would soon become while giving a nod to their hard-rock past." "Killer Queen" was written in a single night, which contrasts with the, as Mercury put it, "ages" it took to write "The March of the Black Queen". "Brighton Rock" was written during the making of Queen II; "Stone Cold Crazy" had its genesis in Mercury's pre-Queen band Wreckage; and Mercury wrote "Flick of the Wrist" during May's illness-induced absence. As it included the first song written by John Deacon that Queen recorded ("Misfire") alongside tracks written by the other members of the band, Sheer Heart Attack was the first of the group's albums to contain at least one song written by each member; "Stone Cold Crazy" was the band's first song for which all four members shared the writing credit. "Now I'm Here" was written by May while hospitalised, and recalls the group's early tour supporting Mott the Hoople. It was recorded during the last week of the sessions for the album, with May playing piano.

Did You Know?

• The album was Trident Studios' first 24-track project; the 24-track machine had been around since 1972 but was not functioning until 1974.
• "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" had 70 vocal tracks and had to be mixed down to work with the 24-track mixer.
• At the very start of "Brighton Rock" you can hear the sound of a Carousel, taken from a sound effects album called "Authentic Sound Effects Volume 1" originally released in 1960.
• "Stone Cold Crazy" has a fast tempo and heavy distortion, presaging speed metal; music magazine Q described it as "thrash metal before the term was invented".
• Brian May's guitar solo in "Brighton Rock" includes a three-minute unaccompanied interlude that makes extensive use of delay; Guitar World ranked it No. 41 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.