Top 10 Queen Album Covers

Photo: Mark James Miller is the original photographer / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Our Top 10 Queen Album Covers article takes a look at the legendary Queen album covers that graced the band’s brilliant records throughout their entire career. Album covers mattered dearly during the vinyl days. It was an art form within itself. When CDs arrived on the scene in the mid 1980s, many of us complained about how the smaller size was ruining the concept of album cover art. That seems very trivial now during the days of digital downloads and live streaming. Nonetheless, those wonderful days in the 1970s and early 1980s were spent staring at an album cover or album back cover while listening to those great albums.

It was even more of a joy when certain albums were released as gatefold records such as A Night at The Opera, A Day At The Races, News of The World , Jazz, and Live Killers. It was always more enjoyable owning a gatefold record that opened up to a world of lyrics and extra pictures. Some albums such as Jazz and News of The World even included posters with the records.

We could probably even do a best-packaged list. But, this one is all about the cover art. Queen released their first album in 1973 entitled Queen. That album was followed up quickly one year later with the great Queen album entitled Queen II. An album that stands as the favorite among many Queen fans. In 1974 Queen released two albums. The band followed up the album Queen II with the smoking record Sheer Heart Attack. The band released the biggest album of their career a year later with A Night at The Opera in 1975.

After the worldwide success of A Night at The Opera which was fueled by the rock opera “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Queen released the album A Day At The Races in 1977. The band was so hot by 1977, there was no stopping them. Just when you thought they might have peaked, the band released News of The World which featured soon-to-be legendary anthems “We Will Rock You,” and “We Are The Champions.” Queen ended their decade of classic 1970s albums with the great album Jazz in 1978.

At the start of the decade of the 1980s, Queen came out of the gate with another huge hit. The Queen album The Game was catapulted to extreme success with the massive hit single “Another One Bites The Dust.” Interestingly, after releasing the album Jazz which featured a beautiful gatefold cover and included a very nice poster, The Game album release was issued in a single-sleeve album jacket printed with a dull gray cover and a black and white photo. The next Queen release was a soundtrack album for the motion picture entitled Flash Gordon which was released the same year as The Game album.

Queen shocked many of their fans and just about everyone else in the world when they released a disc album in 1982 entitled Hot Space. Two years later they would return somewhat to their older sound with the album The Works. Queen rounded out the 1980s with two more studio releases titled A Kind of Magic in 1986 and The Miracle in 1989. The final Queen studio album released while Freddie Mercury was still alive was issued in 1991 called Innuendo. The band’s final album released after Freddie Mercury had passed away was released in 1995 entitled Made In Heaven.

During their run, Queen also released a series of live albums. Overall, Queen had released ten official live albums so far. Three of them were released while Freddie Mercury was still alive. Their first great live album was released early on in 1977 entitled Live Killers. It was a smoking two-record set with beautiful artwork and a nice gatefold cover. Live Magic was released in the U.K. in 1986. One of our favorite live Queen albums ever released was issued in 1989 entitled Live At The Beeb which was based on a recording done in 1973.

After Freddie Mercury’s passing in 1991, Queen continued to release live albums. Live at Wembley ’86 was released in 1992, Queen on Fire– Live at the Bowl was released in 2004, Queen Rock Montreal was released in 2007, Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest was released in 2012 although it was not a CD release, it was issued on DVD and Blu Ray. One of our favorite Queen live albums was released in 2014 entitled Live at the Rainbow ’74. Queen and Hollywood Records continued to release live albums with many of them having gone quickly out of print while demanding high prices on the internet. In 2015 the band released the album A Night at the Odeon – Hammersmith 1975. Rounding out the Queen live album releases as of this writing in 2020 was the release of On Air which was a compilation of the live BBC recordings from the early 1970s.

Our top 10 Queen Album covers chooses from all official Queen releases covering both live and studio albums. It’s simply a fun exercise, but also a showcase of all their great Queen album covers. We won’t comment on the covers as they speak for themselves. Additionally, we have covered all the Queen album covers release dates in the introduction.

# 10 – Live at the Rainbow ’74

We open up our Top 10 Queen Albums Covers artciel with a later-day release based on the band’s 1974 tour. The purple color just jumps right out as it wraps around the iconic image of a young long haired Freddie Mercury.

# 9 – Jazz

Queen’s Jazz album was released as a deluxe gatefold vinyl album package complete with a poster of women riding bicycles in their birthday suits. promoting the song “Bicycle Race.” That was a pretty original idea

# 8 – Live At Wembley 86

The picture of Freddie Mercury standing on the stage at Wembley Stadium in 1986 is one that defines his status visually as one of the biggest rock stars in classic rock history. Both a beautiful and haunting album cover.

# 7 – Innuendo

The final Queen studio album was released while Freddie Mercury was still alive.

# 6 – Live Killers

There was just something magical and special about the light show that Queen used in the 1970s. This album covers depicted it perfectly.

# 5 – Made In Heaven

The statue of Freddie Mercury graced the cover of the final Queen studio album released after Freddie Mercury’s passing.

# 4 – TIE – A Night At The Opera / A Day At The Races

Such a brilliant idea to release these two albums in a row presenting common themes associated with British culture.

# 3 – News Of The World

One of the band’s coolest album covers was quite a contrast to the two records released before this album.

# 2 – Sheer Heart Attack

There was something quite dangerous in this album cover that went perfectly well with the intense music released on this spectacular album.

# 1 – Queen II

The image of Queen on the band’s second album cover would be promoted by the band throughout their entire career. Simply just a stunning cover and portrait of one of the greatest rock bands of all time.