The second entry in the week of love is a single band that produced two songs about love in its greatest hits album, which also happens to be one of my favorite classic rock albums.
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen probably didn't win any awards for best music video, but it's a peppy song written by lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1979 that peaked at No. 2 in the UK, but topped the charts in the U.S. and Australia.
It's been repeatedly covered over the years, most notably by country artist Dwight Yoakam and most recently by pop band Maroon 5.
The next song on Queen's Greatest Hits album is "Somebody to Love," which was recorded three years prior to "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." The rangy classic rock ballad couples a complex melody and deep layering of vocal tracks performed by all four band members in live performances -- three in the studio -- that creates the impression of being sung by a large gospel choir.
A lyrical description on Wikipedia deduces that Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991, uses the song to question his diminished love life and the role and existence of God. It didn't have as much success as the former song, reaching No. 2 on the UK charts, but only No. 13 in the U.S. Its most notable cover was George Michael, who performed a pretty cool version of it with the surviving members of Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness in April 1992.
Not to make any more work for you Alan, but this is a perfect blog for an Audioboo of you doing your best Wolfman Jack. That's an old school reference, I know, but this is about classic rock right. C'mon give us some of your best bearded radio D.J. jabber!
ReplyDeleteEven a fleeting mention of Maroon 5 doesn't belong within 500 miles of Queen.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i shuddered when i wrote that, but figured it's all about SEO. It's such a terrible cover
ReplyDelete