QUEEN guitarist Brian May's website reports:

Queen: The Singles Collection Box Set Volume 1

Released 17th November

Audio CD

Number of Discs: 13

Label: EMI

Pre-order available: Digital Stores, Amazon and other retail outlets.

Welcome to Queen: The Singles Collection, a project 35 years in the making and spanning no less than sixteen albums; from the debut LP, Queen, in 1973, to the last project with FREDDIE MERCURY, Made In Heaven, in 1995, and beyond. This box, the first of four, kicks off with the first single, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, and runs through to ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ from 1979. Box 2 will continue the story into the mid 1980s, and so on. Ultimately, the four boxes will offer every one of Queen’s singles to have made the top 40 (except 'Keep Yourself Alive' which is included because it was the first ever single).

On July 6th 1973, EMI released the first Queen single ‘Keep Yourself Alive’. In the UK it is the first and only track to be taken from the band’s debut album Queen. The record attracts some interest in England but gets little airplay, and so fails to appear in the singles chart. EMI’s promotion team are given feedback from the radio programmers that the song doesn’t fit into their play-lists, because, apparently, “It takes too long to happen” - presumably referring to its 30-second guitar intro (now widely regarded as one of its most intriguing features!). In order to ensure the same excuse is not offered next time around, in crafting the band’s second single, 'Seven Seas Of Rhye' (from Queen II), the band decide to make everything happen in the opening seconds… “Everything, including the kitchen sink,” as Brian would later quip. Evidently, it works; this time the single picks up immediate airplay and charts in the first week of release: in February 1974 Queen achieve their first UK and worldwide hit.

From this moment on, Queen hit singles become a virtual certainty, with the release of each successive album, each one musically a departure from the last, and, significantly, featuring compositions from all four band members. Queen is to date the only group whose members have all written No. 1 hits around the world.

Packaged in a flip top box the 13 CD singles feature a selection of faithfully reproduced cover artwork from around the world.

CD1:

1. A. 'Keep Yourself Alive'

2. B. 'Son And Daughter'

CD2:

1. A. 'Seven Seas Of Rhye'

2. B. 'See What A Fool I’ve Been'

CD3:

1. A. 'Killer Queen'

2. A. 'Flick Of The Wrist'

CD4:

1. A. 'Now I’m Here'

2. B. 'Lily Of The Valley'

CD5:

1. A. 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

2. B. 'I’m In Love With My Car'

CD6:

1. A. 'You’er My Best Friend'

2. B.'’39'

CD7:

1. A. 'Somebody To Love'

2. B. 'White Man'

CD8:

1. A. 'Tie Your Mother Down'

2. B. 'You And I'

CD9: Queen’s First EP

1. A. 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy'

2. 'Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To…)'

3. B. 'Tenement Funster'

4. 'White Queen (As It Began)'

CD10:

1. A. 'We Are The Champions'

2. B. 'We Will Rock You'

CD11:

1. A. 'Spread Your Wings'

2. B. 'Sheer Heart Attack'

CD12:

1. A. 'Bicycle Race'

2. A. 'Fat Bottomed Girls'

CD13:

1. A. 'Don’t Stop Me Now'

2. B. 'In Only Seven Days'