Queen co-founder Roger Taylor is at work on a new solo album, which he hopes to have ready for 2013.
Unlike your average drummer, however, Taylor has a shown a knack for crafting hit songs. In fact, he’s written three Top 5 smashes with Queen, including 1991’s “These are the Days of Our Lives, which topped the charts in the UK and went to No. 2 in America. His “Radio Ga Ga” was a No. 2 UK hit for Queen in 1984; “A Kind of Magic” went to No. 3 in England in 1985, too. Taylor was also an integral part of the Queen songs “Breakthru,” “The Invisible Man” and “Heaven For Everyone,” among others.
Too, longtime fans will remember that Taylor was actually the first member of Queen to issue a stand-alone recording, the solo single “I Wanna Testify” in 1977. He then released the albums Fun in Space in 1981 and Strange Frontier in 1984 — both of which were Top 30 UK hits. The 1990s saw him issue Happiness and Electric Fire. Taylor’s side band Cross also produced three studio recordings, beginning in 1987.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: When a drunken guy became an internet sensation earlier this year singing a boozy rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ Queen’s Roger Taylor was anything but angry.]
More recently, Taylor has been overseeing the Queen Extravaganza, an official tribute group constructed through online auditions. The show made 25 stops in North America in May and July of this year, and is set to tour again in early 2013. Taylor appeared with fellow Queen co-founder Brian May and American Idol finalist Adam Lambert — filling in for the late frontman Freddie Mercury — last summer, as well.
As for his new solo effort, Taylor has an interesting idea for sequencing the music, according to a new post at Queen’s official web site. He’s going to begin posting tracks to the web, and then allow the public to vote on which of them ultimately appears on the forthcoming project.
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