What year did Queen release their first album?

Queen released their first album, the self-titled Queen, in 1973.

The debut studio album was released in the United Kingdom on 13 July 1973 through EMI Records, followed by its United States release on 4 September through Elektra Records. It introduced the band’s combination of hard rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, layered harmonies, and theatrical songwriting.

Although the album appeared in 1973, much of it had been recorded during 1972 at De Lane Lea and Trident studios in London. The record was completed and mixed before the band secured a conventional release, and delays at Trident meant Queen had to wait months before the album reached the public.

Another common mix-up concerns the single “Keep Yourself Alive.” It was Queen’s first single and came out shortly before the album in the UK, but it was not the album itself. The debut’s follow-up, Queen II, arrived in 1974, while the band’s wider commercial breakthrough developed through later albums such as Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera.