September 5, 1946 – November 24, 1991
In honor of his upcoming 76th Birthday here is a brief accumulation of Freddie Mercury’s greatest songs; including fun facts with links to the different ways people remember him today.
Bohemian Rhapsody– 1975, A Night at the Opera, written by: Freddie Mercury.
Fun Facts: At the time of composition Bohemian Rhapsody was the most elaborate and expensive recording in popular music history, and it does not even have a chorus. Its head-banging potential was highlighted in the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World. There have been several covers of this song: “Weird Al” Yankovic put his weird stink on it, The Muppets had a go at it, hands up their butts and all, and finally, William Shatner had a word to speak about it.
Killer Queen– 1974, Sheer Heart Attack, written by: Freddie Mercury.
Fun Facts: After being released as a single “Killer Queen” became the breakthrough hit Queen needed, rising to number two in the UK and number 12 in the US. It was featured in season 10, episode 16 of Family Guy and Katy Perry liked the way it Smelled…*Sigh*, releasing a perfume, stating: she was inspired by Freddie Mercury. I suppose this is better than her releasing a vocal cover of the song, am I right? Haha. Moving on.
Somebody to Love– 1976, A Day at the Races, written by: Freddie Mercury.
Fun Facts: Channelling my favorite Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody: Somebody to Love offers once again fantastic guitar solos and lovely vocal harmonies, but this time around they went with the vocal stylings of a 100 voice gospel choir, giving this song the “soul-searching” quality Mercury was hoping for. There are several covers of this song as well: Anne Hathaway gives the song a go as Ella in the movie Ella Enchanted, Brittany Murphy (yes that’s right) lent her voice to the song as Gloria the emperor penguin in Happy Feet, and Glee infected the song with their stink fooling current youth into thinking they are the originators of the amazing song. Finally, in 2010 Somebody to Love was made available to gamers via Rock Band 3, giving anyone the ability to perform a little Queen on their own, but hopefully not in public!
Don’t Stop Me Now– 1979 (recorded 1978), Jazz, written by: Freddie Mercury.
Fun Facts: At its original release date this song made it to number 9 in the UK charts, but only 86 in the US making it less popular than some of the songs before it. This is clearly not the case now, as one of Queens most popular songs you can hear Don’t Stop Me Now on the radio, in advertisements, on TV shows, in films, and through covers. Don’t Stop Me Now is featured in one of the best scenes in Edgar Wrights: Shaun of the Dead, and in 2011 Freddie got Doodled by Google in honor of his 65th birthday.
Crazy Little Things Called Love– 1979, The Game, written by: Freddie Mercury.
Fun Facts: This fun little tune hit number 2 in the UK, peaked at number 1 in the US (staying there for 4 weeks), and topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven weeks. This song features Freddie on rhythm guitar, which he played during concerts for the first time, and can be described as rockabilly in style. This song was covered several times including:… you guessed it… The Chipmunks, featured in the album Chipmunk Punk, the great Diana Ross rocked a cover of the song in 2007 in her “I love you” album, and Maroon 5 throws a cover of A Crazy Little Thing Called Love in the bonus tracks of their album “Hands All Over.”
FINALLY, Last but not least:
We Are the Champions– 1977, News of the World, written by Freddie Mercury.
Fun Facts: This badass power ballad is by far Queens most famous song…well actually.. Anthem! It reached number 2 in the UK Singles charts, number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2005 it was voted as the world’s favorite song, by Sony Ericsson’s world music poll, and finally, according to the Daily Mail, in 2007 a group of really cool scientific researchers concluded somehow that We Are the Champion was the “catchiest” song in the history of popular music. The different versions, covers, and samplings of this song are vast, if you have been to a spots game I am sure you’ve heard the song! A tiny sampling of the covers include Green Day’s live performance in 2004 at the Reading Festival, Robbie William’s version as featured in the 2001 film “A Knights Tale”, and finally just for fun Disney’s 2005 cover in Chicken Little.
That’s it people, keep remembering, hope you clicked on all the little links, there is some fun stuff there!
