Queen Is Back On The Billboard Charts With A ‘New' Album
Queen may not be producing new music these days, but the band is still very much active — and commercially successful. While it has been years since the legendary rock outfit released a proper studio album, the group continues to thrive on the charts thanks to one of the most celebrated and valuable catalogs in music history. The band frequently reappears on various rankings with special editions, reissues, and commemorative releases, and this week, Queen once again earns a new win with a drop filled with music from the vault.
Despite the fact that the musicians are not crafting new original tunes or albums any longer, Queen still manages to make a splash whenever it offers fans something they haven't heard before — or at least not in an official capacity. This frame, the group returns with De Lane Lea Demos, a new EP that immediately finds space on two Billboard tallies. The short collection arrives at No. 24 on the Vinyl Albums list and No. 31 on the Top Album Sales chart, becoming a bestseller immediately.
In its first few days of availability, De Lane Lea Demos sold 4,800 copies in the U.S. That number is according to Luminate, the company that collects sales and streaming data for Billboard's charts.
This was a particularly busy frame for new music, with plenty of beloved acts dropping albums and EPs. While Queen's latest effort doesn't claim one of the top starts of the week, the fact that the rockers are still landing new wins at all is remarkable. On the Top Album Sales chart, De Lane Lea Demos ranks as the sixteenth-highest debut out of 28 newcomers.
Surprisingly, De Lane Lea Demos is just Queen's fifth title to land on the Vinyl Albums chart. Given the group's towering commercial success and the resurgence of vinyl as a viable and bestselling format in recent years, that's a fairly small number. On the Top Album Sales ranking, Queen has now appeared with 20 different projects throughout its long career.
Queen issued De Lane Lea Demos in celebration of Record Store Day, a semi-annual event that often sees exclusive and limited-edition vinyl releases come from major artists. Only 5,000 copies of the 12-inch vinyl were pressed, and almost all of them sold out within a matter of days.
The five-song set is made up of Queen's earliest demo recordings, laid down between late 1971 and early 1972. The musicians taped the songs at the famed De Lane Lea Studios in London — a name that the EP borrows.
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Forbes
12 minutes ago
- Forbes
Stephen Bishop On Why He Chose To Make ‘THIMK' His Final Album
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'It was time for me to kick back and release a special album for my fans.' THIMK — whose title was inspired by a pin that Bishop came across sometime in the 1980s with that strange name on it — is a truly all-star affair that features appearances from many musical luminaries. Among them are Sting; Eric Clapton; Art Garfunkel; Michael McDonald; Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell of America; Graham Nash; Kenny Loggins; Christopher Cross; Jimmy Webb; Nathan East; Leland Sklar; Greg Phillinganes; and Steve Gadd. 'I loved it,' Bishop says of the number of famous people performing on THIMK. 'What can I say? It's incredible. They answered my phone calls…. I've held these friendships for a long time." He says that most of the songs on THIMK, which consists of previously unfinished material and reinterpretations of songs from his past albums, were chosen by his wife and manager, Liz Kamlet. It was also her idea for Bishop to record the personal message on THIMK, which also features Webb performing an instrumental piano version of 'On and On.' 'I wanted to do it for my fans,' Bishop says about the track 'A Message From Stephen.' 'Hardly anybody ever does that. It was a little different. But I came up with the right things to say.' The rootsy 'Now That I've Hit the Big Time,' the first single off THIMK featuring Clapton and Sting, is a tribute to Bishop's mom originally written in the 1970s. 'Sting did a great background vocal, and Eric played great guitar. [Eric and I have] been friends for 50 years now; we wrote a song together called 'Holy Mother.' [My mother] used to come visit me up in Hollywood from San Diego. And I wanted to do a song that talked about her and how she was.' 'She'll Always be My Girl' is a track that Bishop first developed in the 1980s, but never came to fruition until the pandemic. 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Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
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2 hours ago
- Bloomberg
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