Seven Seas of Rhye
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| “Seven Seas of Rhye” | |||||
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| Single by Queen from the album Queen II |
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| B-side | "See What a Fool I've Been" | ||||
| Released | February 23, 1974 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | August 1973 at Trident Studios | ||||
| Genre | Glam Rock/ Hard Rock | ||||
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| Label | EMI (UK), Elektra (US) | ||||
| Writer(s) | Freddie Mercury | ||||
| Producer | Roy Thomas Baker and Queen | ||||
| Queen singles chronology | |||||
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Seven Seas of Rhye is a song written by Freddie Mercury and performed by English rock group Queen. It is the final track on their debut album Queen, and their follow-up Queen II, released in 1973 and 1974, respectively. However, only a less-developed instrumental version was featured on the former. The completed version served as the band's third single, the earliest-released song to appear on their first greatest hits album.
The song was released as a single, and after the band performed it on Top of the Pops it became their first hit, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song, like "My Fairy King" from the debut album, Queen, is about Freddie Mercury's childhood fantasy world named Rhye. The song became a live favourite throughout Queen's existence. It features a distinctive arpeggiated piano introduction (on the Queen II recording, the arpeggios are played with both the right and left hands, an octave apart, whereas on the Queen recording, and most live performances, Mercury played the simpler one-handed version of these arpeggios), and is relatively short, however containing several of Brian May's heavy guitar fill-ins. The theme also appears at the end of "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)".
The version of Queen II ends with a cross fade, instruments blending into several people singing "I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside".
The Seven Seas of Rhye are also mentioned in another Queen song, "Lily of the Valley" from Sheer Heart Attack; in the lyric "Messenger from Seven Seas has flown/To tell the king of Rhye he's lost his throne".
In the Queen musical We Will Rock You, the Seven Seas of Rhye is a place where the Bohemians are taken after they are brainstormed by Khashoggi.
[edit] References in other works
- Happy Rhodes references this and other Queen songs in her non-album track "Nevermore", her song about Freddie Mercury's passing.
- In the SNES video game Ogre Battle which was also named after one of Queen's songs, there is a level named the Rhye Sea, which is also present in Ogre Battle 64 separating the kingdoms of Nirdam and Zenobia.
[edit] External links
- Queenpedia - detailed worldwide release information
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