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Rock and Roll Queen is a compilation album by the British rock band Mott the Hoople. The album predominantly features selections from the four albums Mott recorded for Island Records in the UK, all of which were subsequently distributed in North America by Atlantic Records. The album was initially released by Island Records UK in late 1972 (catalog no. ILPS 9215) following Mott's move to CBS/Columbia Records earlier that year, and the band's success with their first CBS/Columbia album All the Young Dudes. Atlantic Records did not initially elect to publish the album in North America, ultimately issuing it in February 1974 (catalog no. SD 7297) after the release of Mott's second CBS/Columbia album Mott (1973). Atlantic's release also shortly followed recording of ex-Mott guitarist Mick Ralphs's first album with his new band Bad Company, which was issued as the first release by Atlantic's affiliated label Swan Song Records in June of 1974.
The album includes selections from all of Mott the Hoople's Island/Atlantic albums, as well as one non-LP track, as chosen by the band's early mentor and producer Guy Stevens. Stevens' selections might in some cases be viewed as questionable; in particular, his choices include a short edit of "The Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception" (a coda to Ian Hunter's song "The Journey" on which Stevens took a songwriter's credit), and the one track from Mott's otherwise self-produced album Wildlife that Stevens collaborated with them on, the live 1950s rock and roll medley "Keep A Knockin'." Regardless of this, however, critic Ira Robbins cited the album as having merit in his Trouser Press online retrospective of Ian Hunter's and Mott the Hoople's work: "Rock and Roll Queen ... omits 'Sweet Angeline' [from Mott's fourth album Brain Capers] and includes 'Keep A Knockin' but is otherwise a fair sampler of the band's Atlantic era."
