Queen are a British rock band that formed in 1970. The band originally consisted of lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor. Queen have been described as giving the greatest live performance ever,producing the greatest single in history and being the best British band of all time They have released 15 studio albums, five live albums and numerous compilation albums. In 2009, the band's record label EMI reported their worldwide album sales as over 300 million, as did the BBC and other independent sources.Queen enjoyed success in the UK during the early 1970s but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975) that gained the band international success, both critically and commercially. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK charts for nine weeks.Their success continued through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In 1987, Mercury was diagnosed HIV positive and in 1991 died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS. Deacon's retirement followed in 1997. Since then, May and Taylor have infrequently performed together at special events and programmes. Queen were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Between 2004 and 2009 the duo collaborated with Paul Rodgers under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers