This song came to this band’s front man in 1979 while he was taking a bath at the hotel the band was staying at in Munich. He said it took “5 or 10 minutes. I did that on the guitar, which I can't play for nuts. And in one way it was a good thing because I was restricted knowing only a few chords.”
The song went to number 1 in America and would knock out Captain and Tenille’s ‘Do That to Me One More Time’ from the number 1 spot and it stayed here for almost a month before being knocked out by another British act’s rock classic: Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’.
The entire song was reportedly recorded in less than half an hour, and was written as a tribute to Elvis Presley.
Having written today’s song on guitar and played an acoustic rhythm guitar on the record, for the first time ever Mercury played guitar in concerts, for example at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium, London in 1985, which has been named one of the top ten most pivotal music moments in television history, but their 21-minute set has been voted the greatest live performance in ROCK history, and it was all because to the charisma of Freddie Mercury.
With his half-mic-stand held out to the vast crowd, in a joyous call-and-response that transferred energy from the stage to the audience and then back again, and with thousands clapping in unison to the beat of another of their songs, ‘Radio Ga Ga’, it was a moment of togetherness the concert had been missing until that point.
Closing with We Are The Champions, at the home of British football, the band left triumphant, and everyone there (and watching all over the world on tv) gained a new understanding of the power of a true showman.
It's Queen. Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I know that song!