Queen will go back to the beginning of their recording career on a new box set edition of their debut.

The Collectors Edition of their 1973 self-titled effort - now retitled Queen I - will be a 6CD/LP set featuring a brand-new remix of the album by engineers Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson; demos and studio outtakes; instrumental versions and live recordings. (A 2CD cut-down will include the new mix and the set's third disc, featuring studio alternates.) The box also includes a fold-out poster, photo prints of the four band members and a hardcover book of liner notes and rare archival images.

Having gigged for years around England, the members of Queen - singer/pianist Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara (who'd change his surname to Mercury after a lyric in the track "My Fairy King"), guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon (recently recruited in 1971) and drummer Roger Taylor - had amassed enough songs to finally make putting an album together worth it. Though their lyrics were slightly more mystical then what would come from them for the rest of the decade, the classic Queen sound is still there: baroque pop, mostly from Mercury's pen; balls-to-the-wall rock courtesy of May (who wrote or co-wrote four of the album's tracks, including standout opener "Keep Yourself Alive") and dense vocal harmonies from Mercury, May and Taylor. The album was a modest success, going gold in both the U.S. and the U.K., although neither "Keep Yourself Alive" nor follow-up single "Liar" had any chart placement. (The album closed with a brief instrumental version of the track "Seven Seas of Rhye," which the band would further build out on Queen II a year later, becoming their first Top 10 hit at home.)

The album also suffered, in the band's view, from a difficult recording. Hastily assembled between London's De Lane Lea and Trident Studios whenever the booths were free, the band and Trident's in-house producers, Roy Thomas Baker and John Anthony, frequently disagreed over the record's overall sound. (A particular sticking point was the requirement to use the drum kit in the studio instead of Taylor's own equipment.) Thus, this new reissue features what May calls in the liner notes "the debut album we always dreamed of bringing to you." Nothing has been re-recorded and no alternate tracks are utilized - and indeed, as noted on the original sleeve and many Queen albums to follow, nobody played synthesizer - but Shirley-Smith, Macrae and Fredriksson, the band's longtime remix engineers, have worked to give the record the in-your-face ambience the band wanted over a half-century ago. (The album has also been slightly resequenced to add "Mad the Swine," a track the band left off the album and finally released as a bonus track in 1991.)

Queen's treasured five-song demo, recorded at De Lane Lea in 1971 and included as bonus material in a 2011 reissue campaign, kicks off the bonus material. Shirley-Smith, Macrae and Fredriksson have also newly remixed those demos, along with a dozen alternate versions and outtakes from both studio sessions and a version of the album without Mercury's lead vocals. Additional bonus material include all 11 versions of songs from Queen I the band performed for BBC's Sounds of the Seventies program between 1973 and 1974 - all of which were included on the band's Queen On Air collection - and an assortment of live versions of Queen I tracks. That disc includes not only tracks from a previously released 1974 set at the Rainbow Theatre in London, but unissued performances from the San Diego Sports Arena in 1976 and - of particular historical value - portions of the band's Imperial College set in London from August 1970, one of the first they performed after changing their name from Smile to Queen. (Deacon would not join the band until the following January; playing bass was Barry Mitchell.)

Queen I will be reissued October 25 in a variety of formats, including official store-exclusive picture disc and cassette versions. Later this week, the new mix of "The Night Comes Down" will be issued as a single, with a video premiering on Friday; it will also be available as a 7", backed with the new instrumental mix. The box set and 2CD editions are available at the links below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Queen I (Collectors Edition) (Virgin EMI (U.K.)/Hollywood (U.S.), 2024)

6CD/LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2CD (CDs 1 and 3 of box set): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP (Album Remix Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1/LP: Queen I - 2024 Remix

1. Keep Yourself Alive
2. Doing All Right
3. Great King Rat
4. Mad the Swine
5. My Fairy King
6. Liar
7. The Night Comes Down
8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll
9. Son and Daughter
10. Jesus
11. Seven Seas of Rhye...

Original mixes of Tracks 1-3 and 5-11 released as EMI EMC 3006 (U.K.)/Elektra EKS 75064 (U.S.), 1973. Original mix of Track 4 released on CD reissue of original album - Hollywood HR-61064 (U.S.), 1991

CD 2: De Lane Lea Demos - December 1971 (2024 Remix)

1. Keep Yourself Alive
2. The Night Comes Down
3. Great King Rat
4. Jesus
5. Liar

All tracks released on bonus EP with deluxe reissue - Island 276 387 9 (U.K.)/Hollywood D0013639-02 (U.S.), 2011

CD 3: Queen I Sessions *

1. Keep Yourself Alive (Trident Take 13 - Unused Master)
2. Doing All Right (Trident Take 1 - with Guide Vocal)
3. Great King Rat (De Lane Lea Take 1 - with Guide Vocal)
4. Mad the Swine (Trident Take 3 - with Guide Vocal)
5. My Fairy King (Trident Backing Track in Development)
6. Liar (Trident Take 1 - Unused Master)
7. The Night Comes Down (De Lane Lea Takes 1 & 2 - with Guide Vocal)
8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Trident Takes 8 & 9)
9. Son and Daughter (Trident Takes 1 & 2 - with Guide Vocal)
10. Jesus (De Lane Lea Take 2 - with Guide Vocal)
11. Seven Seas of Rhye... (Trident Take 3)
12. See What a Fool I've Been (De Lane Lea Test Session)

CD 4: Queen I Backing Tracks (same track list as CD 1) *

CD 5: Queen I At The BBC

1. My Fairy King (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 2/5/1973; broadcast 2/15/1973)
2. Keep Yourself Alive (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 2/5/1973; broadcast 2/15/1973)
3. Doing All Right (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 2/5/1973; broadcast 2/15/1973)
4. Liar (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 2/5/1973; broadcast 2/15/1973)
5. Keep Yourself Alive (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 7/25/1973; broadcast 8/13/1973)
6. Liar (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 7/25/1973; broadcast 8/13/1973)
7. Son and Daughter (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 7/25/1973; broadcast 8/13/1973)
8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 12/3/1973; broadcast 12/6/1973)
9. Great King Rat (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 12/3/1973; broadcast 12/6/1973)
10. Son and Daughter (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 12/3/1973; broadcast 12/6/1973)
11. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Sounds of the Seventies - rec. 4/3/1974; broadcast 4/15/1974)

Tracks 1-4 and 8-10 released on At The Beeb - Band of Joy BOJLP001 (U.K.)/At The BBC - Hollywood HR-62005 (U.S.), 1995
Tracks 5-7 and 11 released on Queen On Air - Virgin EMI 0602557082289 (U.K.)/Hollywood D0024240-02 (U.S.), 2016

CD 6: Queen I Live

1. Son and Daughter (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
2. Guitar Solo (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
3. Son and Daughter (Reprise) (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
4. Great King Rat (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
5. Keep Yourself Alive (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
6. Drum Solo (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
7. Keep Yourself Alive (Reprise) (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
9. Liar (Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England - 3/31/1974)
10. Hangman (Live at the San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA - 3/13/1976) *
11. Doing All Right (Live at the San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA - 3/13/1976) *
12. Jesus (Live at Imperial College, London, England - 8/23/1970) *
13. I'm a Man (Live at Imperial College, London, England - 8/23/1970) *

Tracks 1-9 released on Live At The Rainbow - Virgin EMI 0602537910687 (U.K.)/Hollywood D0020449-02 (U.S.), 2014