Top 10 Queen Albums

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Our Top 10 Queen Albums list looks at the finest records released during the band’s spectacular career. Queen’s self-titled debut album appeared in 1973, followed by Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack in 1974. The album that turned Queen into a household name arrived in 1975 with A Night at the Opera. One year later, the band followed it with the cleverly titled A Day at the Races.

In the middle of the 1970s, Queen was on a remarkable run. Five great albums appeared between 1973 and 1976. The band continued that run in 1977 with News of the World. Queen released one more studio album in the 1970s, Jazz, which contained major songs including “Bicycle Race,” “Fat Bottomed Girls,” and “Don’t Stop Me Now.” By the end of the decade, Queen was one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

There were not many rock and roll bands more popular than Queen. They belonged in the same league as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Rolling Stones. Queen began the 1980s with another enormous hit, “Another One Bites the Dust,” from the album The Game.

In 1980, Queen also recorded the soundtrack to the film Flash Gordon. Although it is officially counted as a Queen studio album, it functions primarily as a soundtrack. In 1982, Queen jumped the shark. The tremendous success of the disco-flavored “Another One Bites the Dust” led the group toward an entire album dominated by dance music. As a major Queen fan at the time, I was incredibly disappointed with the direction the band took on Hot Space. I was not alone. Thankfully, Queen’s deepest experiment with dance music lasted for only one album.

Queen returned in 1984 with The Works. The band’s 1980s material did not compare with the extraordinary run of the 1970s, but Queen was still releasing good albums. The final three Queen studio albums recorded during Freddie Mercury’s lifetime were A Kind of Magic in 1986, The Miracle in 1989, and Innuendo in 1991.

Innuendo was the final studio album released while Freddie Mercury was alive. After his death in November 1991, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon completed recordings Mercury had left behind. Those performances became Made in Heaven, released in 1995. In total, Queen released fifteen official studio albums between 1973 and 1995 when the Flash Gordon soundtrack is included.

We all have our favorites, but these ten are what we believe are Queen’s best albums.

# 10 – Innuendo

Our Top 10 Queen Albums list opens with the final album the band released before Freddie Mercury died. Innuendo was released in February 1991.

It is a difficult album to write about because Mercury died only nine months after its release. That same year, the rock landscape was changing rapidly as bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam were beginning to dominate.

It is still sad to think back on the end of Queen as we knew the band while growing up in the 1970s. Most Queen fans were happy with Innuendo because it was more substantial than several of the band’s late-1980s releases. The title track, “The Show Must Go On,” “These Are the Days of Our Lives,” and “I’m Going Slightly Mad” gave the album enormous emotional weight.

# 9 – The Works

We all breathed a sigh of relief when Queen released The Works. No one wanted another Hot Space-style disco album.

While The Works may not compare with the Queen albums of the 1970s, it remains an enjoyable record for Queen fans.

Standout tracks include “Radio Ga Ga,” “I Want to Break Free,” and the excellent “Hammer to Fall,” which may very well be the last truly great hard-rocking Queen song ever released. The Works was released in 1984.

# 8 – The Game

The Game was a game-changer for Queen. Sorry, I could not resist. The question is whether it was a great game-changer.

The band celebrated two enormous United States number-one singles from the record. “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” both reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

The Game was a good Queen album, but it sounded very different from its predecessors. The songs were generally more direct and less elaborate, although the band’s use of the Chic-inspired groove on “Another One Bites the Dust” represented a new form of experimentation.

They were Queen, and they could do whatever they wanted. Perhaps our biggest pet peeve with the album was the packaging.

The previous four Queen albums had been beautiful gatefold releases filled with artwork, photographs, and, in some countries, posters. The vinyl version of The Game arrived in a thin gray cardboard jacket with no extras. It felt cheap, and the packaging was probably more disappointing to fans than the label realized.

# 7 – Jazz

Queen released so many great albums during the 1970s that one excellent record may have become lost in the catalog. That album is the 1978 release Jazz.

With the album’s release, Queen issued the memorable double A-side single “Bicycle Race” and “Fat Bottomed Girls.” Other standout tracks include “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Mustapha,” “Jealousy,” and “Let Me Entertain You.”

# 6 – Queen

When we think of our favorite Queen albums, the band’s first three records instantly come to mind. Many fans did not discover the excellent debut until Sheer Heart Attack began receiving significant airplay.

An even larger group of future fans did not find the first album until the success of A Night at the Opera. Nonetheless, Queen’s 1973 debut remains one of the band’s best. Favorite tracks include “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Great King Rat,” and, of course, “Liar.”

# 5 – A Day at the Races

How does a band follow an album such as A Night at the Opera? It is simple: release one called A Day at the Races.

It may be the most brilliantly titled follow-up album in classic rock history. More importantly, it is an outstanding rock and roll album that proved the band could not be stopped.

Queen often opened its albums with great tracks, and “Tie Your Mother Down” is one of the best opening songs in the entire catalog. “Somebody to Love” was an audacious follow-up to “Bohemian Rhapsody” and eventually danced its way into the hearts of Queen fans everywhere.

# 4 – News of the World

After A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, Queen changed direction with an exciting album that delivered two of the biggest songs of its career.

“We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” became stadium anthems, which is not an easy achievement. The album was loaded with other excellent cuts, including “It’s Late,” “Spread Your Wings,” “Get Down, Make Love,” and “My Melancholy Blues.” This was one of the most consistent albums Queen ever released and remains a fan favorite.

# 3 – A Night at the Opera

If you grew up in the 1970s, you cannot help remembering how enormous this album was. It was a groundbreaking record fueled by one of the most original rock and roll songs ever recorded, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” You may be tired of hearing it, but there is no denying its brilliance.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was not the only great song on the record. All four members contributed outstanding material. Roger Taylor’s “I’m in Love with My Car” stands as one of the drummer’s greatest compositions and performances. John Deacon’s “You’re My Best Friend” defined the pinnacle of his early songwriting career.

Brian May’s Celtic-inspired compositions counterbalanced the rest of the album, while Freddie Mercury’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Love of My Life,” and the terrific opener “Death on Two Legs” proved that Mercury had reached the highest level of his magnificent career as a songwriter and vocalist.

# 2 – Sheer Heart Attack

While Queen’s first two albums may have blown your pet rocks through your bedroom windows, the third record proved that this was a band ready to make a serious invasion of rock and roll’s fun house.

We had never heard music like this before. Album-oriented rock radio jumped on the record immediately. “Stone Cold Crazy,” “Tenement Funster,” “Killer Queen,” “Now I’m Here,” and “In the Lap of the Gods” were mind-blowing incursions that set the stage for what Queen would unleash on the world one year later.

# 1 – Queen II

Closing out our Top 10 Queen Albums list is the band’s second album, Queen II. This is the record on which Queen came as close to heavy metal as the band ever would.

The album rocks hard but remains defined by ingenious melodies, enormous vocal arrangements, and four musicians playing at the peak of their early powers. “Ogre Battle” stands as one of the best Queen songs of all time. “Father to Son,” “White Queen (As It Began),” “The March of the Black Queen,” and “Seven Seas of Rhye” make the album feel like one continuous journey.

In March 2026, Queen released a newly mixed, remastered, and expanded Queen II Collector’s Edition. The set included sessions, backing tracks, BBC performances, live recordings, and a new 2026 mix of the original album. More than half a century after its debut, Queen II still sounds daring, heavy, theatrical, and unlike anything else. This is a magnificent record and probably the most underrated album in Queen’s catalog.