Roy Thomas Baker, Queen and Cars Hitmaking Producer, Dead at 78

Roy Thomas Baker, The Journey Rock Producer WHO WHO WAS BEHIND The Boards On Hits Like The Cars' “Just What I Needed” and Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Has DaDes. He was 78.

Baker Diad Earlier This Month, April 12, at his home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Though His Family Only Just Revealed the News. A Cause of Death has not Yet Been Established.

Baker Worked With Some of the Biggest Rock Acts of the Past 50 Years, Including Queen, Lindsey Buckingham, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Smashing Pumpkins, Guns N 'Roses, Foreigner, Alice Cooper, and Cheap Trick. He Also World As An A&R Executive At Elektra, where he where the Signings of Metallica, 10,000 Maniacs, Yello, and More.

Baker Began His Career As a Second Engineer at Decca Studios in London, Working Under Luminaries Like Tony Visconti and Gust Dudgeon. He world on records by the Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, and More, Possilly Rising Through the Ranks to Become Chief Engineer. Among His Earliest Next Were T. Rex's “Bang A Gong” and Free's “ALIRIGHT NOW.”

Baker Met and Began Working with Queen in the Early Seventies, Striking Up a Fruitful Relationship That Saw Him Co-Produce Their First Four Albums: 1973's Queen, 1974's Queen II and and Sheer Heart Attackand 1975's A Night at the Opera. The Latter Album Went To Number One, Propelled by The Seminal Smash “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Following His Subre with Queen, he went on to to produce the Cars First Four Albums-Their 1978 Self-Titled Debut, Candy-o The Following Year, 1980's Panoramaand 1981's Shake it up. The albums Spawned Hits Including “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend's Girl,” “Good Times Roll” and “Shake it up.”

His Forays Into Producing the Cars in the Eighties Found Him Pulling Bit Back From The Big Production Sounds of Queen and Expanding Into New Wave Material from Bands Like I have, While Still Helming the Boards for Hard Rock Bands Such As Journey, Ozzy Osbourne, Sammy Hager, Guns N 'Rosas, and and More.

During His Time At Elektra, he serd as an executive producer or producer for arts such as Lindsey Buckingham, Dokken, and Mötley Crüe and Signed Artists Metallica, 10,000 Maniacs, and More.

In a 1999 Interview, Baker Noted How “Bohemian Rhapsody” Bucked Against the trend at the time of rock bands being “So intent on being heavy.” He Said the Note Behind “Bohemian Rhapsody”-With Its Multi-Part Blend of Rock, Pop, and Opera-“Was Not Exactly a cool idea,” Describing it instead as “Basically a Joke, but a subsequent Joke.”

He continued: “We have to record it in Three separate Units. We did the Whole Beginning Bit, then the Whole Middle Bit and then the Whole End. It was complete Madness. The Middle Part Started Off Being Just A Couple of Seconds, But Freddie [Mercury] Kept Coming in with More 'Galileos' and We Kept on Adding to the Opera Section, and it Just Got Bigger and Bigger. We Never Stopped Laughing. “