When I first heard Queen’s hit song, “Crazy little thing called love” I kinda fell instantaneously in love with it because it sounded different. I was in my early teens when radio disc jockeys played this song over and over again especially when it hit the charts in 1979.
The story goes that the band’s lead singer Freddie Mercury composed the song in under five minutes while enjoying his warm bath at the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich during one of their extensive recording sessions. We don’t know what Mercury was thinking when he dedicated the song as a tribute to Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, whose career during those times, was entering rock bottom, and theirs, still rising. Presley inspired many of Mercury’s generation and most of them, including Mercury admired Presley for trailblazing and popularizing rock and roll.
Anyway, no one would ever really know why Mercury chose Elvis, probably he had a crush on him or really admire the first ever rock and roll giant in that century. By the way, Mercury only knew a few bars, and the song got polished by Taylor and John Deacon. With producer Reinhold Mack, the Queen recorded it at Musicland Studios in Munich. It was uncertain though how long they recorded the song. Officially, it took them less than an hour although Mack says it went six. The first time the band played this song live was at Wembley Stadium in London in 1985.
The “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” single hit number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and became the first US number-one hit for the band, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. It was knocked out of the top spot on this chart by Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II”.The song also topped the Australian ARIA charts for seven consecutive weeks from 1 March to 12 April 1980.The UK release had “We Will Rock You (live)” as the b-side and America, Australia, Canada had “Spread Your Wings (live)” (this is from Wikipedia).
Is love really that crazy? Maybe. Or maybe not.
