“The album is very varied. We took it to extreme I suppose. We are very interested in studio techniques and wanted to use what was available.” Freddie Mercury

Queen's third studio album was recorded between July and September 1974 at four different studios in England and Wales and was produced by Queen and Roy Thomas Baker, with once again Mike Stone as engineer.

Somewhat of a departure from the first two albums, Sheer Heart Attack had much more of a group feel about it, a coherence not possible to achieve previously because of the erratic way in which its predecessors were recorded. The first album, for example, was famously recorded in 'downtime' with the band permitted to use Trident Studios only when no one else was using it. This album by contrast was recorded without those distractions in more calm and orthodox conditions and ultimately gave rise to a strong and greatly diverse piece of work containing several of the band's best-loved classics. This was much more of an accomplishment than might be apparent, given that Brian was absent from many sessions due to contracting Hepatitis while on tour in America in May and only being available to record his guitar and vocal parts relatively late in the proceedings. It was far from ideal but none of this is evident in the final work, and more than forty years on the album remains a firm favourite among Queen devotees. It has consistently been voted in the top 5 favourite albums in fan polls.

Sheer Heart Attack is a more pop-orientated work than its two predecessors, and indeed Killer Queen was the song that provided the band with the international hit and acclaim that Seven Seas Of Rhye never quite achieved. Brian would later observe, “For some strange reason we seemed to get a rather different feel on Sheer Heart Attack because of the way we were forced to record it (referring to his illness) and even allowing for all the problems we had, none of us were really displeased with the final result. “Roger, “It's my favourite. It holds together very well. It's much more concise. It's very varied and dynamic. The different sounds were pleasing.”

Killer Queen is the best-known song on the album, for which Freddie would later be awarded his first Ivor Novello award, and also featured is Stone Cold Crazy, the first Queen song credited to all four band members, and one of the very first songs the band experimented with in the earliest rehearsals and shows. Brian’s Now I’m Here is present too, which would be issued as a single, as too is John’s first composition for Queen, Misfire. Roger’s hard-paced Sheer Heart Attack, although intended for this album was never finished in time and so appeared much later - on News Of The World in 1977

Like Queen II, the front cover image was photographed by Queen's good friend Mick Rock - the man of whom it was said, 'captured the 70s'. To achieve the unique look we see on the cover, the band members were smeared in Vaseline and then sprayed with water to achieve a very particular and some might say 'odd' look. Nevertheless, it had the desired effect, as the Sheer Heart Attack cover is both (cardiac) arresting and memorable.

Sheer Heart Attack was released on November 8th 1974 and reached No 2 in the UK, achieving Gold status. It would be the first Queen album to reach the Top 20 in the USA, achieving a very impressive No.12 position and also earning Gold status.

Click here to buy Sheer Heart Attack in the Official QueenOnline Store.