Did Queen lose the States, because they 'lost' Freddie?

Freddie wasn't not yet dead, when they released the arguably guilty IWTBF, but let us take a look at the following:

Queen in the seventies (with the exception of their debut album, which failed to spawn any hit single anyway) always had an album-preceeding single by Freddie. Seven Seas Of Rhye / Queen 2 - 1974, Killer Queen / Sheer Heart Attack - 1974, Bohemian Rhapsody / A Night At The Opera - 1975, Somebody To Love / A Day At The Races - 1976, We Are The Champions / News Of The World - 1977, Bicycle Race / Jazz - 1978 (and even the second single Don't Stop Me Now - 1979 after the release of the album) and Crazy Little Thing Called Love / The Game - 1979 (and even the third single Play The Game - 1980). But after that they only had one further Mercury hit in the States with Body Language / Hot Space - 1982, which only was the second single from that album. And after that together with Queen Freddie just had one more major hit with It's A Hard Life / The Works - 1984, which even was just the third single of that album. Then he 'vanished' and Queen never recovered states-side. Just a mysterious coincidence?

No......

"Radio Ga Ga", 16/Billboard, not 'I's A Hard Life'. 'Body Language' was the first "real" single...
Queen recovered U.S.in 1992 for a combination of things: Freddie's passed away, 'Wayne's World', 'Classic Queen' (4/Billboard), 'Greatest hits red'(11/Billboard)....

[QUOTE] [b]another one diets the bust wrote:[/b]

Freddie wasn't not yet dead, when they released the arguably guilty IWTBF, but let us take a look at the following:

Queen in the seventies (with the exception of their debut album, which failed to spawn any hit single anyway) always had an album-preceeding single by Freddie. Seven Seas Of Rhye / Queen 2 - 1974, Killer Queen / Sheer Heart Attack - 1974, Bohemian Rhapsody / A Night At The Opera - 1975, Somebody To Love / A Day At The Races - 1976, We Are The Champions / News Of The World - 1977, Bicycle Race / Jazz - 1978 (and even the second single Don't Stop Me Now - 1979 after the release of the album) and Crazy Little Thing Called Love / The Game - 1979 (and even the third single Play The Game - 1980). But after that they only had one further Mercury hit in the States with Body Language / Hot Space - 1982, which only was the second single from that album. And after that together with Queen Freddie just had one more major hit with It's A Hard Life / The Works - 1984, which even was just the third single of that album. Then he 'vanished' and Queen never recovered states-side. Just a mysterious coincidence?[/QUOTE] Despite the bad reaction to IWTBF, and of course the video was a big factor in losing some territories in the US, it's been documented before that Paul Prenter was responsible for souring the relationship between Queen and the radio stations.

And without the backing of the stations it was virtually impossible to keep a presence in America the like of which Queen were accustomed. I think they could have ridden the tide of negativity had this been so.

Putting the blame on Paul Prenter is a convenient way of looking at it, and I don't deny he was responsible for some damage. But they lost a LOT of fans at the grass roots level (FAR greater damage) because of their August 1984 concert dates in Sun City. You would not want to have been known as a Queen fan (as I was, working in a record shop) when everyone around you was demanding to know why you, too, wouldn't abandon Queen for "being greedy racists" and "arrogantly defying the UN boycott". Every goddamned day one person after the next (some friends, some just random customers) engaging me in debates and or verbal assault, assuming I'd justify Queen's actions... horrible memories. It meant nothing to these people that the South Africans took up IWTBF as a kind of anti-apartheid anthem nor that the shows were "integrated" (that's from memory, I hope I'm correct). Didn't matter. Queen were routinely villified in the press, on MTV, literally everywhere because they violated the UN boycott. Little Steven and company drove nail after nail into their coffin over here ("Ain't gonna play Sun City" was a huge hit and no one ever heard the end of it from him et al), and quickly won the popularity battle. Some believe Queen's demise in the US was exclusively about the changes in Queen's music (even Hot Space was a moderate success on some level here, the tour did well, for example, they charted...)... OK, to a small degree, perhaps the synthetic sound of The Works wasn't universally loved in the US, and perhaps Prenter didn't help getting radio play for it. But it was Sun City that really killed them with politics. I couldn't help take it very personally - I loved Queen! They meant more to me than any other band, ever. I believe that most fans have forgotten (or overlooked) that now (now that the band have done a lot of charity work with Mercury Phoenix Trust and 46664 with Mandela since that time) that the loudest detractors have finally been silenced. All I can say is thank god they played Live Aid, because in some small way they redeemed themselves, as artists and as political entities, that day.

I doubt Sun City had much to do with it.

Hot Space bombed, and the lead singles off the next album were Ga Ga and Break Free - aka not rock. Queen were popular in the US because they were a rock band. Had they come out of the gate with Hammer To Fall, things may have turned out quite a bit differently. But isn't hindsight always 20/20 ?

The video for Break Free sealed the deal. Homophobic 80s America did not get the Coronation Street gag at all.

As for the business end of it - Paul Prenter absolutely was part of the problem.

But it's ultimately the songs that did them in.

@gonnausemyprisoners...usually it is pushing the sellings if you are labelt as a "controversial" Artist. ( I`am not judging if it`s for the good or the bad )

Not going to tour the states wasn`t helpful as well.

There were mainly two sources that say Freddie was at least "aware" about his health status in 84`- Mary Austin and David Wigg. Well "if" he was aware, then maybe it was one of the reasons why he drop his interests about the US.

in America asshole from the big letter is Obama. it is not Putin wants Ukraine was destroyed, it's plan "B" of Obama.

The quote you hear from Jim Beech is that Freddie would not tour America again unless they had a major hit and basically that hit never happened. According to Brian that hit was going to be Radio GaGa, by all accounts it was heading Top5 until the Capitol Records PR Guys downed tools and went on strike so pulling all the promo for the song so it stalled at No 16. Whether Freddie would've toured the US if GaGa was a huge hit is still open to debate but the lack of a major tour is a big reason the band lost America. I still find it strange how people still say Queen were never big in America 42,000,000 album sales would say otherwise!!!

[QUOTE] [b]slightlymad1970 wrote:[/b]

The quote you hear from Jim Beech is that Freddie would not tour America again unless they had a major hit and basically that hit never happened. According to Brian that hit was going to be Radio GaGa, by all accounts it was heading Top5 until the Capitol Records PR Guys downed tools and went on strike so pulling all the promo for the song so it stalled at No 16. Whether Freddie would've toured the US if GaGa was a huge hit is still open to debate but the lack of a major tour is a big reason the band lost America. I still find it strange how people still say Queen were never big in America 42,000,000 album sales would say otherwise!!![/QUOTE] hi slightlymad1970 that's an interesting bit of info about the sales in America, where is the source for that I'd like to read that . That's a huge about of sales.

Forgive me if im wrong,but the way I see it is,: Queen had the states, lost it,(for whatever reason) and then got it again, since Freddies death.(high profile on American idol, r & r hall of fame, waynes world resurge, blah blah blah)

It's agreeable, the US might not have liked the poppy sounds of Radio Ga Ga or A Kind Of Magic, but to come back to Freddie, Body Language was his last major hit in Northern merica. Let's not take into account, what happened after his death. But even then, Queen's success only lasted for a few months. Only the re-releases of Bohemian Rhapsody (# 3 on the US Bllboard charts, # 1 on the US Cash Box charts and # 18 on the Canadian RPM charts) and Somebody To Love - sung by George Michael though, but close to the original - (# 13 on the Canadian RPM charts) charted in NA, besides the Classic Queen (# 4 on the US Billboard charts) and Greatest Hits [red] (# 11 on the US Billboard charts). I still would have counted Radio Ga Ga as a US hit, It's A Hard Life at least did quite well in Europe. But after that Freddie never charted that high with Queen again, solo he did quite a few times. That's only in Europe of course and again does not count the re-releases/covers of Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody To Love or Don't Stop Me Now. NA not liking Queen's more poppy approach since The Works onwards might explain, why the Bicycle Race single was not such a big hit in the US and even was billed as its B- or double-A side Fat-Bottomed Girls in Canada. But would Queen have really recovered if they toured NA? The Magic album was a disaster over there, with having been their only studio album between Queen II (1974) and Made In Heaven (1995) not to even reach the US Top40. The only other Freddie-penned Queen singles thereafter were mediocre hits at best (The Miracle # 21 UK, I'm Going Slightly Mad # 22 UK, not even to speak of Princes of the Universe, which didn't chart in NA at all). Besides, stopping touring didn't keep them from still scoring hits all over Europe.

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

I doubt Sun City had much to do with it.

Hot Space bombed, and the lead singles off the next album were Ga Ga and Break Free - aka not rock. Queen were popular in the US because they were a rock band. Had they come out of the gate with Hammer To Fall, things may have turned out quite a bit differently. But isn't hindsight always 20/20 ?The video for Break Free sealed the deal. Homophobic 80s America did not get the Coronation Street gag at all.
As for the business end of it - Paul Prenter absolutely was part of the problem
But it's ultimately the songs that did them in
[/QUOTE]

Agreed. I think AOBTD and later the Hot Space album drove mucch of their US audience away. At the time of the Hot Space tour BM said that they were having problems selling venues out that in the past had sold easily.

The Sun City gigs were in 85, long after the US market had been lost.

What doesn't seem to be well documented is that a 1984 US tour was cancelled. BM in march of that year did an interview on Rockline Radio. I think it was in LA but I'm not sure. I had a tape of it but it has been long lost. During that program BM took questions by phone. One of which was a woman asking when they would tour next and would the show be as big as in the past. BM's revealing answer was that this time round the show is bigger with more of a back to the heavier songs feel. He also said we will be around your way in June or july! Those dates fit in with the long gap between the release of the works and the first European dates at the end of august and September.

A quick PS correction to the above. sun city was in 84 but after the European dates, but not in august. It was still after the US market had suffered.