Queen “Queen” 1973. I’m spinning Queen’s debut LP today in honor of what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 73rd birthday (b. Farrokh Bulsara, September 5th, 1946, d. 1991). The album peaked at #47 in the UK (and then a bit higher at #24 in ‘75) and #47 in the US. Queen’s first single was the opening track “Keep Yourself Alive,” released just before the album and at the time failed to chart in both the UK and the US, their only single that didn’t chart in the UK. Retrospectively, it is now considered to be one of the greatest guitar songs of all-time (Rolling Stone) and is given a memorable scene in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody as Mercury’s first onstage performance. The other single from Queen that the band released was “Liar,” though only in the US. Other notable tracks are “Doing All Right” (mainly because I like it! but also because it’s one of the few Queen songs that Brian May plays piano – Mercury took over most of the piano recordings and performances after Queen’s recording), “My Fairy King” (the line “Mother Mercury, look what they’ve done to me” is the inspiration for Freddie’s stage moniker) and the instrumental “Seven Seas of Rhye” (a teaser track: the final version appeared on Queen II and became Queen’s first hit single, going to #10 in the UK).