Killer Queen: When Queen rocked Top Of The Pops and changed music forever

18 November 2024, 12:11

Some performances are just instantly iconic.

But I doubt that one budding rock band from London fully realised their journey to music greats would start quite so spectacularly, after appearing on the UK's premiere music show in 1974.

When Queen appeared on Top Of The Pops for the fourth time, they would change the course of rock music history.

The band had been plying their trade for several years until they achieved any meaningful recognition, however.

Queen scored their debut chart in 1974 with 'Seven Seas Of Rhye' from their second album, Queen II, which enabled singer Freddie Mercury to quit his job at London's Kensington Market.

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The single reached the top ten, and secured Queen three performances on Top Of The Pops off the back of it.

Drummer Roger Taylor was livid with how their debut televised performance panned out however, who felt it hindered their trajectory more than helped.

"There was a strike on at the BBC so we recorded it in the weather studio," he later recalled. "It was rubbish, no one actually played, just some ageing disc jockeys. And the drums were plastic, so they made this 'dook' noise when you hit them."

It was their third album, Sheer Heart Attack, which would launch the band towards international success though, with its louche lead single 'Killer Queen'.

Queen's first two albums were largely influenced by heavy and progressive rock, but on Sheer Heart Attack, they changed tack.

Freddie, Brian May, Roger, and John Deacon were keen to loosen up a bit more, as indicated in their laidback, whimsical new sound.

'Killer Queen' is very much the sound of Freddie leaning into himself as an individual, which helped the band carve out a unique space amongst the rockers of the era.

Appearing on Top Of The Pops on 11th October 1974, Mercury made an instant impression with his black painted fingernails, coyote fur jacket, and sultry performance.

Re-recorded especially for the show, the performance showcased Mercury's singular flamboyance alongside May's fluid and intricate guitar work.

It also etched the band into the hearts and minds of music fans, young and old, glued to their television screens at home.

Queen - Killer Queen (Top Of The Pops, 1974)

Where their previous albums were derided for being neither heavy enough to compete with Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, nor glam enough to outdo David Bowie or Marc Bolan's extraterrestrial allure, Freddie found his own footing on 'Killer Queen'.

"It's about a high class call girl," he revealed in NME the year of the song's release.

"I'm trying to say that classy people can be whores as well. That's what the song is about, though I'd prefer people to put their interpretation upon it - to read into it what they like."

He elaborated in an interview with Melody Maker soon after, saying: "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.”

Nodding to the (frequently misquoted) phrase, "'Let them eat cake' she says, just like Marie Antoinette," the prostitute in question was living a life of luxury and absolutely loving it in spite of people's perception of her, going against the grain of what was the done thing.

In many ways it was also eluded to Freddie's ostentatious public persona, and that appearances can always be deceiving.

With the help of their Top Of The Pops performance however, 'Killer Queen' eventually made its way to number two in the UK charts in November of 1974.

It was only held off the top spot by David Essex's 'Gonna Make You A Star', which prevented them from achieving what would have been their first UK number one single.

By then however, the British public had already fallen head over heels for Queen.

As we now know, they returned the year after to claim a chart-topping single with the timeless classic 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

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Brian May later reflected on 'Killer Queen', and how it changed the band's fortunes from being "slagged off by everyone".

"'Killer Queen' was the turning point. It was the song that best summed up our kind of music, and a big hit, and we desperately needed it as a mark of something successful happening for us."

"I was always very happy with this song. And of course, I like the solo, with that three-part section, where each part has its own voice... It's vintage Queen."