Queen is revisiting one of the most defining eras of their career with The Greatest Special, a new video series celebrating the reissue of A Night At The Opera on crystal-clear vinyl and marking the 50th anniversary of Bohemian Rhapsody.
The series, which runs throughout November, features exclusive interviews with Brian May and Roger Taylor, who reflect on the creative journey that led to the band’s 1975 breakthrough. Both musicians discuss how their early recording experiences shaped the ambitious and experimental sound of A Night At The Opera, which proved to be a pivotal moment in Queen’s evolution.
Having already explored the songs that paved the way for Bohemian Rhapsody and A Night At The Opera in previous Queen The Greatest episodes, May and Taylor now describe how the technical lessons learned from the group’s first three albums gave them the confidence to push their artistic limits on the fourth.
For Queen, the studio itself became another instrument. Early on, they had little control over their work, especially when recording their 1973 debut at Trident Studios. But as their popularity grew, so did their creative freedom, culminating in the unrestrained experimentation that defined A Night At The Opera.
Reflecting on that evolution, Taylor said: “Really, I think Queen II was the first time we were allowed a certain amount of freedom in the studio, whereas with the first album we weren’t, so basically it sounds better and more like the way we wanted it to sound. I don’t think it’s perfect by a long way, but we were building our confidence in the studio. It had a lot more light and shade.”
May agreed, describing Queen II as a major step forward for the band. “I’ve always been a big advocate of that album because I think it was a giant step,” he explained. “We’re going from a band that is hardly allowed in the studio — except a few hours in dead time — to a band that actually has studio time. We can indulge ourselves. We can experiment, and we make a giant leap with painting pictures on the canvas of the tapes on Queen II. I love that album.”
Taylor noted that the band pulled back slightly on the production of their third album, Sheer Heart Attack, which arrived in November 1974. “In general, that was a hard-hitting, more simplified album,” he said. “And, in my opinion, that was to its credit. The songs were good, they weren’t too long, weren’t over-elaborate. It was more stuff we could actually play live without getting too much into studio trickery.”
May countered that the group’s instinct for complexity and grandeur quickly resurfaced when it came time to record A Night At The Opera. “We go complex again,” he recalled. “You know, let’s pursue our dreams a bit further. We’ve done Sheer Heart Attack; it’s done quite well. But, really, our heart is in chiseling out these unusual places. In those days, it was fun, because it’s like getting a new car and seeing what you can do with it. It’s the four of us — with Mike Stone, the engineer, and Roy Baker, our producer — and we’re all learning how to use the studio. Pushing things ever further.”
Despite their growing fame, Queen were still struggling financially in 1975, and May admitted that the pressure was immense. “I think we would have just disappeared under the ocean,” he said, had the album failed. But A Night At The Opera became a massive success, reaching No. 1 in the U.K. and cementing their legacy as one of rock’s most ambitious bands.
“For any song we took on, no matter who amongst the four of us had brought it in, it was an exhilarating process,” May reflected. “Challenging, sometimes difficult, sometimes argumentative — but really rewarding, because what you got in the end was something so shiny, rounded, adventurous and dangerous. It became Queen stuff — and Queen stuff was a million times greater than anything that any one of the four of us could come up with on their own.”
The new Queen The Greatest video series will continue rolling out weekly throughout November, honoring both the enduring brilliance of A Night At The Opera and the 50-year legacy of Bohemian Rhapsody.
