<P> Having attended art college, Mercury also designed Queen's logo, called the Queen crest, shortly before the release of the band's first album . The logo combines the zodiac signs of all four members: two lions for Leo (Deacon and Taylor), a crab for Cancer (May), and two fairies for Virgo (Mercury). The lions embrace a stylised letter Q, the crab rests atop the letter with flames rising directly above it, and the fairies are each sheltering below a lion . There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix . The whole symbol bears a passing resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, particularly with the lion supporters . The original logo, as found on the reverse - side of the cover of the band's first album, was a simple line drawing . Later sleeves bore more intricate - coloured versions of the logo . </P> <P> In 1972, Queen entered discussions with Trident Studios after being spotted at De La Lane Studios by John Anthony . After these discussions, Norman Sheffield offered the band a management deal under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of Trident, to manage the band and enable them to use the facilities at Trident to record new material, whilst the management searched for a record label to sign Queen . This suited both parties, as Trident were expanding into management, and under the deal, Queen were able to make use of the hi - tech recording facilities used by other musicians such as the Beatles and Elton John to produce new material . </P> <P> In 1973, Queen signed to a deal with Trident / EMI . By July of that year, they released their eponymous debut album, an effort influenced by heavy metal and progressive rock . The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone called it "superb", and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above average debut". However, it drew little mainstream attention, and the lead single "Keep Yourself Alive" sold poorly . Retrospectively, it is cited as the highlight of the album, and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked it 31st in the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time", describing it as "an entire album's worth of riffs crammed into a single song". The album was certified gold in the UK and the US . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> "The March of the Black Queen" A sample of "The March of the Black Queen" from Queen II (1974). The band's earlier songs (such as this) leaned more towards progressive rock and heavy metal compared to their later work . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> </Table>

When did queen's first song come out