Queen's Earliest Recordings Are Now A Bestselling Album

Forbes

22-04-2025

Queen's De Lane Lea Demos debuts inside the top 20 on three U.K. charts, thanks to a limited Record ... More Store Day release featuring the band's earliest recordings. TOPSHOT - A file picture taken on September 18, 1984 showing Rock star Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the rock group "Queen", during a concert at the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy (POPB). (Photo by JEAN-CLAUDE COUTAUSSE / AFP) (Photo by JEAN-CLAUDE COUTAUSSE/AFP via Getty Images)
Queen is already one of the most successful acts in the history of the British music industry, and somehow, the band keeps adding to its list of bestsellers without releasing any wholly original material for a long, long time. The group appears on the rankings in the United Kingdom every week — sometimes with just one or two placements, and at other times, with several titles showing up all at once. This week, Queen returns with one more new win in the nation, thanks to yet another clever release from the vault that fans rushed to grab.
De Lane Lea Demos arrives this week as a brand new hit for Queen in the U.K. The special set appears on three different tallies, and it opens inside the top 20 on all of them.
The 12-inch vinyl collection launches highest on the Official Vinyl Albums chart, where it starts at No. 17. It also arrives at No. 19 on both the Official Albums Sales and Official Physical Albums charts.
The archival release compiles five of Queen's earliest recordings, all laid down at the appropriately-named De Lane Lea Studios in late 1971 and early 1972. The five-track EP was released on vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day 2025, which helps explain its sudden success. Side A includes 'Keep Yourself Alive,' 'The Night Comes Down,' and 'Great King Rat,' while 'Jesus' and 'Liar' round out the B-side.
Queen's followers are some of the most loyal in the business. The band doesn't need to release new music to generate interest, just a well-timed offering from the archives is enough to get people buying. In the case of De Lane Lea Demos, the limited-edition nature of the release and the band's enduring appeal helped it sell enough to place on multiple U.K. rankings.
With De Lane Lea Demos, Queen earns its thirty-ninth placement on the Official Physical Albums chart. The new release gives the group its twenty-second appearance on the Official Albums Sales, and just one more on the Official Vinyl Albums ranking. A few more successes – which are surely coming in the next few years – will give Queen two dozen wins on both of those purchase-only rosters.
Interestingly, while De Lane Lea Demos debuts on three charts, it doesn't overlap with some of Queen's more familiar titles. Neither Greatest Hits nor The Platinum Collection appear on the same rosters this frame. That's not to say those projects weren't popular, though. Greatest Hits sold enough to make the main ranking of most-consumed albums in the U.K., as well as both the Official Albums Streaming and Official Album Downloads charts. The Platinum Collection, meanwhile, is only present on the downloads-specific roster.