Crazy Little Thing Called Love
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| "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Queen | ||
| from the album The Game | ||
| Released | 5 October 1979 | |
| Format | vinyl record (7") | |
| Recorded | 1979 | |
| Genre | Rockabilly | |
| Length | 2:42 | |
| Label | EMI, Elektra (US) | |
| Writer(s) | Freddie Mercury | |
| Producer(s) | Queen and Mack | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Queen singles chronology | ||
| "Love of My Life" (live) (1979) |
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (1979) |
"Save Me" (1980) |
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song performed by the English rock band Queen, written by singer Freddie Mercury. While it peaked at number two in the UK, it hit number one on the U.S. charts on February 23, 1980, remaining there for four consecutive weeks. It topped the charts in Australia for six weeks. It was also their first number 1 single in the U.S.
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[edit] Composition
The song is written in a rockabilly style, with Freddie Mercury singing in an Elvis Presley-esque fashion. It can be found on the 1980 album The Game.
As reported by Mercury in Melody Maker, May 2, 1981, he composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the guitar in just five to ten minutes. Other accounts say that he wrote it while lounging in a bubble bath in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich during one of Queen's extensive Munich recording sessions. He took it to the studio shortly after writing it and presented it to bandmates Roger Taylor and John Deacon. The three of them, with their new producer Mack, recorded it at Musicland Studios in Munich. The entire song was reportedly recorded in less than half an hour, which may have helped create its fresh and catchy sound. The speed it took to record was due to the fact that Mercury had composed the arrangements for the other bandmates before presenting the song to the band, so all the other bandmates had to do was play. The instruments used were a Ludwig drum kit (Taylor), Fender Precision Bass (Deacon) and Martin D-18 Acoustic Guitar (Mercury).
Lead guitarist Brian May almost missed the chance to be a part of the song: by the time he arrived at the studios, they had almost finished editing it for the single release. Fortunately there was enough time for him to play the guitar solo (on a Fender Telecaster) and sing backing vocals.
While the song is rockabilly in feel, the harmonic structure demonstrates awareness of the intervening twenty-odd years — the subdominant of the subdominant (ie the bVII) is freely used, and the bVI-bVII-I progression (see "Lady Madonna") provides the main hook of the song.
[edit] Live history
In November 1979, Queen began what they called the 'Crazy Tour', playing nineteen gigs in the UK and one in Ireland. One of its central numbers consisted of Mercury walking in with an Ovation 12-string guitar to perform this piece; often the audience thought it was a joke as Freddie Mercury was not typically known to be a guitar player. However he could indeed play, and even if he was very modest about his guitar technique (he often introduced "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by saying "I can only play three chords"), he played well.
On stage, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was an important part of the show. Brian May often used three different guitars during the song: the first verse was played by Freddie Mercury alone with his guitar, then May joined with another Ovation Acoustic; before the third verse he had already switched to a Telecaster on which he performed the solo. During the sing-along part (famous for its "ready Freddie" line) Brian May again changed instruments to his home-made Red Special. From 1984 onwards Mercury replaced the acoustic with another Telecaster as seen at Live Aid.
After the last Queen tour in 1986, the former Queen band members have performed it many times: at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 they played it with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant on vocals. Brian May played a Godin Thinline A-12 for the first part and then the Red Special. May also performed it with Bryan Adams in 2002. Most recently May and Taylor have performed with Paul Rodgers (labelled as "Queen + Paul Rodgers"), with Rodgers singing and playing Freddie Mercury's parts with a Yamaha; May also played a Yamaha for the first part. The tune was also performed at Queen's induction to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, featuring Wynonna Judd on vocals.
[edit] Single release
The "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" single was very successful for the band, hitting number two in the UK and becoming the first U.S. number-one hit for the band in spite of Elektra Records' reluctance to release it as a single as The Game album was not finished yet. There's an unconfirmed legend (commented on by Roger Taylor in the radio show In the Studio which devoted an episode to the making of The Game, and by Brian May on his website) that declares John Lennon was inspired by "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" to go back to the music business. Whether this is true or not is still unknown, but it is a fact that Lennon had listened to the band and he did try new influences on his Double Fantasy album.
[edit] Charts
| Preceded by "Do That to Me One More Time" by Captain & Tennille |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single February 23, 1980 |
Succeeded by "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" by Pink Floyd |
[edit] Cover versions
The song was covered in 2003 by Michael Bublé in his debut album and in 2004 as a B-Side from McFly, in 1980 by The Chipmunks on their comeback album, Chipmunk Punk, and can occasionally be heard covered at the live gigs of Suffolk rockers The Darkness. Country singer Dwight Yoakam also covered the song in 1999; this version featured on a Gap advert. Orion covered the song, in a style very similar to Elvis Presley, on his 1980 album Rockabilly. Josh Kelley recorded a cover for the Killer Queen tribute album in 2005. Brian Setzer also did a version of this song, which had a combination of sounding rockabilly and a little like doo wop at the same time. Raymond Quinn performed a swing version as part of the 2006 series of The X Factor. Diana Ross covered the song for her 2006 EMI album, I Love You. Taylor Hicks also sang it for American Idol. Radiohead covered the song for MTV.
[edit] Trivia
- Freddie wrote the song whilst taking a bath.
- Because of its rockabilly sound, and Queen's general distance from that sound, the song is sometimes mistaken for being the work of rockabilly-specialist groups, such as the Stray Cats.
- At their Live Aid performance, Mercury deliberately warbled some of the words to acknowledge the song's resemblence with the Presley sound.
- Originally Brian May was opposed to the idea of playing a Fender Telecaster for this song as he said in his 1984 Star Licks video. Saying "For Crazy Little Thing Called Love they made me play this Telecaster, which I don't want to do."
