Sheer Heart Attack

Sheer Heart Attack (1974) is the third studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 8 November 1974 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Departing from the progressive themes featured on their first two albums, the album featured more pop-centric and conventional rock tracks and marked a step towards the "classic" Queen sound. It was produced by the band and Roy Thomas Baker, and launched Queen to mainstream popularity in the UK and throughout the world.

The album's first single "Killer Queen" reached number two on the UK singles chart and provided the band with their first top 20 hit in the US, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sheer Heart Attack was the first Queen album to hit the US top 20, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape Chart in 1975.

Rolling Stone awarded the album a positive rating of 3 stars and wrote: "If it's hard to love, it's hard not to admire: this band is skilled, after all, and it dares." John Mendelsohn, however, was unimpressed, writing: "I hunted all over both sides of this latest album for something, anything, even remotely as magnificent as 'Keep Yourself Alive' or 'Father to Son', only to end up empty-eared and bawling." As 1974 drew to a close, the album was ranked by Disc as the third best of the year and tied for 24th place on NME's end-of-year list.