Crazy Little Thing Called Love
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"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by singer Freddie Mercury.
It is in a rockabilly style, with Freddie singing in an Elvis Presley-esque way. Because of this many fans mistakenly credit Presley for writing the song. It can be found on the album The Game, which also features the funky Another One Bites The Dust.
As reported by Mercury in Melody Maker, May 2, 1981, he composed Crazy Little Thing in guitar and lasted five to ten minutes doing it. He took it to the studio afterwards and presented it to band-mates Roger Taylor and John Deacon. The three of them and their new producer Mack recorded it at Musicland Studios in Munich; they were a little drunk when they did it and only lasted about half an hour, which is probably a cause of its fresh and catchy sound. The instruments used were a Ludwig Drum-Kit (Roger), Fender P-Bass (John) and Martin D-18 Acoustic Guitar (Freddie).
Lead guitarist Brian May almost missed the chance of being part of it, when he came to the studios they had almost finished editing it for the single release. Fortunately there was enough time for him to play the guitar solo (in a Fender Telecaster) and sing backing vocals.
In November that year Queen begun what they called the 'Crazy Tour', playing 19 gigs in the UK and one in Ireland. One of its central numbers consisted in Mercury walking in with Ovation 12-string Acoustic Guitar to perform this piece; often the audience used to think it was a joke because they didn't know Freddie had the ability to play guitar, but indeed he could and even if he was very modest about his guitar technique (he often introduced Crazy Little Thing by saying "I can only play three chords" or something to that effect) he played well.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love's single was very successful for the band, hitting the #2 in England and #1 in the US (the first single from the band to do so). There's an unconfirmed legend (commented by Roger Taylor in the radio show 'In The Studio' and by Brian May recently in his website) that declares John Lennon was inspired by Crazy Little Thing to go back to music business. Whether it's true or false is yet unknown, but it is a fact that Lennon had listened to the band and he did try new influences in Double Fantasy.
Crazy Little Thing on stage was an important part of the show, Brian May used three different guitars on the song: first verse it was Fred alone with his guitar, then Brian joined with another Ovation Acoustic; before the third verse he had already switched it by a Telecaster on which he performed the solo. During the singalong part (famous for its "ready Freddie" line) Brian had already changed the Tele by his home-made Red Special. From 1984 onwards Mercury replaced the acoustic by another Telecaster.
After the last Queen tour in 1986, the former Queen blokes have performed it many times: at Freddie's Tribute in 1992, they did 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, no Telecaster anymore. May performed it as well with Bryan Adams in 2002, and in the recent tour May and Taylor have made with Paul Rodgers (labelled as "Queen & Paul Rodgers") they did it every night, with Rodgers singing and playing Fred's parts in a Yamaha; May played a Yamaha for the first part as well.
The song got covered in 2004 as a B-Side from McFly, but occasionally, it can be heard covered at the live gigs of Norfolk rockers The Darkness as well.