On This Day in 1974, Queen Made Their Live Debut in the U.S. at a Denver College Supporting Mott the Hoople

In 1974, Queen were navigating shaky times following the release of their third album, Sheer Heart Attack. Despite the band’s success and a string of hits, they were in debt and considered breaking up if their next album didn’t go above and beyond the others.

“We were not only poor, but we were in debt,” recalled guitarist Brian May. “All the sound and lighting companies and the people that we worked with hadn’t been paid. So we were at a really crucial point. We might have had to break up if that album hadn’t done well.”

That year, the band was also forced to cut their first U.S. tour short a month after it started when May contracted hepatitis and was rushed into emergency surgery for a life-threatening ulcer.

By 1975, the band started working on A Night at the Opera, and opened the album by addressing the band’s management, which had left them broke, on the opening Freddie Mercury-penned “Death on Two Legs”—You suck my blood like a leech / You break the law and you breach / Screw my brain till it hurts / You’ve taken all my money / You still want more.

Recorded between August and November of 1975 (except for May’s closing instrumental “God Save the Queen,” recorded in 1974), A Night at the Opera—titled after the 1935 Marx Brothers film of the same name—became the band’s mock opera.

At the time, A Night at the Opera was one of the most expensive albums ever made, and was heightened by the band’s more progressive sound and conceptualized themes, from John Deacon‘s pop ballad “You’re My Best Friend,” May‘s sweetly nostalgic and countrified skiffle “39,” Mercury‘s lovingly “Love of My Life,” and Queen’s opus “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

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[RELATED: On This Day: Queen Scored Their First No. 1 Album with ‘A Night at the Opera’]

The album was the band’s first to go to No. 1 in the UK and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. Before Queen’s big breakthrough with A Night at the Opera, the band’s 1974 tour to America was another milestone. After the band had a run of 22 dates in the UK from March 1 through April 2, they made their way to the United States for their first show in America.

Supporting Mott the Hoople, Queen made their live debut in the U.S. on April 16, 1974, at the Regis College Field House, a conservative Jesuit institution in Denver, Colorado. Their 15-song set opened with three tracks from the band’s second album, Queen II: “Father to Son,” “Ogre Battle,” and “White Queen (As It Began),” before ending the rest of the set on their 1973 debut, Queen.

First, the band moved into “Great King Rat,” written by Mercury, along with “Doing All Right,” “Son and Daughter,” and the May-penned “Keep Yourself Alive.”

“Hangman,” another song the band often played live in the early ’70s but never officially released, was also added, along with their earlier rock opera “Seven Seas of Rhye,” and the set closer, “Liar,” both also from Queen.

The band’s five-song encore was mostly filled with covers, from Elvis Presley‘s “Jailhouse Rock,” “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” by Big Joe Turner & His Blues Kings, Connie Francis’ 1958 hit “Stupid Cupid,” and Cy Coleman’s “Big Spender.”

Queen ended the show with one of their own, the Roger Taylor-penned “Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll” from their ’73 debut.

Setlist: Queen at Regis College Field House, Denver, CO, April 16, 1974

1. Father to Son
2. Ogre Battle
3. White Queen (As It Began)
4. Great King Rat
5. Doing All Right
6. Son and Daughter
7. Keep Yourself Alive
8. Hangman
9. Seven Seas of Rhye
10. Liar
    
    ___Encore
    
11. Jailhouse Rock
12. Shake, Rattle and Roll
13. Stupid Cupid
14. Big Spender
15. Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll

Photo: Fin Costello/Redferns