Sheer Heart Attack

Sheer Heart Attack is a Queen album from 1974. It was their third studio album, and was produced by Queen and Roy Thomas Baker for EMI in the UK, and Elektra in the US.

During Queen’s first North American Tour (as a support band for Mott the Hoople) Brian May collapsed with hepatitis (he had been infected with an unclean needle during a vaccination before the Australian tour), but he continued to work from hospital. When he was fit, the work continued in studio, but then he fell ill again, this time with a stomach ulcer.

With an ailing guitarist and all plans of their first US tour scuttled, the band flew back home and decided what their future would be while May recovered. The guitarist felt guilty, and was a bit nervous that someone would replace him in the band. Much to his relief, no one in the group had even considered it. All three members were continuing on recording without Brian at the time. Production planning had left a lot of spaces in the songs for his solos.

Whenever he felt well enough, May came back and completed the tracks with guitar solos and backing vocals. “She Makes Me” used night-life recordings from New York. “Now I’m Here”, released also as a single, was an idea of Brian’s in hospital, when he was thinking about touring with Mott the Hoople.

It would seem that the plans meant to jump full-on into recording their next album, an unplanned but necessary LP in order to remain in the public eye. With basic sessions starting at Trident Studios in July 1974, Queen were reduced to a trio, with John Deacon occasionally deputizing on guitar as well as his normal bass duties.