"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the British

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

. Written by

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the ...

in 1979, the track is included on their 1980 album '' The Game'', and also appears on the band's compilation album ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

'' in 1981. The song peaked at number two in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in 1979, becoming the group's first number-one single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the US in 1980, remaining there for four consecutive weeks. Whitburn, Joel (2006). The ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Book of Top 40 Hits. Billboard BooksRoberts, David (2006).

British Hit Singles & Albums ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' (originally known as ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles'' and ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums'') was a music reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the publishing arm of ...

. London: Guinness World Records Limited It topped the Australian

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

for seven weeks. Kent, David (1993) (doc). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W It was the band's final single release of the

1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War i ...

. Having composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on guitar, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he played guitar in concert with Queen. Queen played the song live between 1979 and 1986, and a live performance of the song is recorded in the albums ''

Queen Rock Montreal ''Queen Rock Montreal'' is a live album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 29 October 2007 as a double CD, Blu-ray, DVD, and triple vinyl in the UK and the following day in the US. It was recorded in Montreal, Quebec, at the M ...

'', ''

Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl ''Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl'' is a DVD/live album by the British rock band Queen released on 25 October 2004 in Europe and on 9 November 2004 in the US. It was recorded live at the Milton Keynes Bowl, Buckinghamshire, England, on 5 J ...

'', ''

Live at Wembley '86 ''Live at Wembley '86'' is a double live album by the British rock band Queen. It was recorded live on Saturday 12 July 1986 during The Magic Tour at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The album was released on 26 May 1992, with a companion ...

'' and '' Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest''. Since its release, the song has been covered by a number of artists. The song was played live on 20 April 1992 during

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was a benefit concert held on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992, at Wembley Stadium in London, United Kingdom for an audience of 72,000. The concert was produced for television by Ray Burdis, d ...

, performed by

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

with Queen. The style of the song was described by author

Karl Coryat Karl Coryat is an American writer, comedian, and musician. ''Jeopardy!'' contestant In 1996, he was a two-day champion on the television game show ''Jeopardy!''. Subsequently, he wrote an online article with advice for prospective ''Jeopardy!'' ...

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

in his 1999 book titled ''The Bass Player Book''.

Composition

As reported by

in ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'', 2 May 1981, he composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the guitar in just five to ten minutes. The song was written by Mercury as a tribute to his musical heroes

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

and

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

Roger Taylor Roger Taylor may refer to: *Roger Taylor (Queen drummer) (born 1949), drummer for Queen *Roger Taylor (Duran Duran drummer) (born 1960), drummer for Duran Duran *Roger Taylor (author), author of epic fantasy Hawklan series *Roger Taylor (college pr ...

added in an interview that Mercury wrote it in just 10 minutes while lounging in a bath in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

during one of their extensive Munich recording sessions. Mercury took it to the studio shortly after writing it and presented it to Taylor and

John Deacon John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English retired musician, best known for being the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits " You're My Best Friend", " Another One Bit ...

. The three of them, with their then new producer

Reinhold Mack Reinhold Mack (also known as Mack, born 25 August 1949) is a German Record producer, record producer and Sound engineer, engineer. Mack is best known for his collaborations with Electric Light Orchestra, Queen (band), Queen, and Sparks (band), S ...

, recorded it at

Musicland Studios Musicland Studios was a recording studio located in Munich, Germany. It was established by Italian record producer, songwriter and performer Giorgio Moroder in the early 1970s.

in Munich. The entire song was reportedly recorded in less than half an hour (although Mack says it was six hours). Having written "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on guitar and played an acoustic rhythm guitar on the record, for the first time ever Mercury played guitar in concerts, for example at

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, London in 1985.Lights! Action! Sound! It's That Crazy Little Thing Called Queen
Circus Magazine. Retrieved 29 June 2011 ''

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

'' described

Brian May Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Fredd ...

's guitar playing as being "stunning in its simplicity." ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called it a "hip shakin' rockabilly romp" and an "upbeat tune." May wanted to emulate Rick Nelson's and Presley's longtime guitarist

James Burton James Edward Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized ...

, and at Macks's suggestion used a

Fender Esquire The Fender Esquire is a solid-body electric guitar manufactured by Fender. The Esquire was the first solid-body guitar sold by Fender, debuting in 1950.. Shortly after its introduction, a two- pickup version was built. It was soon renamed the ''B ...

rather than his regular

Red Special The Red Special is the electric guitar designed and built by Queen's guitarist Brian May and his father, Harold, when Brian was a teenager in the early 1960s. The Red Special is sometimes referred to as the Fireplace or the Old Lady by May and ...

for the recording session.

Music video

The music video for the song was filmed at Trillion Studios on 21 September 1979 and directed by Dennis De Vallance involving four dancers and a floor of hands. An alternate version was included on the ''Days of Our Lives'' DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Live performances

In the immediate aftermath of the single the band embarked on a mini UK tour entitled the

Crazy Tour Crazy Tour was the seventh concert tour by the British rock band Queen during November and December 1979. Background After the release of the single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", the band decided to change the concert format they do in th ...

. Whenever the song was played live, the band added a solid rock ending that extended the under-three-minute track to over five minutes, with May and Mercury providing additional guitars. An example of this is on the CD/DVD Set ''

'', where the song continues for five minutes. On Saturday, 13 July 1985, Queen performed the song for the

dual-venue

benefit concert A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate hu ...

Single release

The "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" single hit number two in the

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 Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

's "

Another Brick in the Wall, Part II "Another Brick in the Wall" is a three-part composition on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera ''The Wall,'' written by bassist Roger Waters. "Part 2", a protest song against corporal punishment, and rigid and abusive schooling, features a child ...

". The song also topped the Australian

ARIA charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

for seven consecutive weeks from 1 March to 12 April 1980. The UK release had "

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album ''News of the World''. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and it placed at numbe ...

(live)" as the b-side and America, Australia, Canada had "

Spread Your Wings "Spread Your Wings" is a power ballad by the rock band Queen, from their 1977 album ''News of the World''.

Personnel

– lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, hand claps *

– electric guitar, backing vocals, hand claps *

– drums, backing vocals, hand claps *

– bass guitar, hand claps Although Mercury would play an acoustic-electric twelve-string Ovation Pacemaker 1615 guitar and later on an electric six-string

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

, both owned by May, in the studio he recorded it with a six-string acoustic with external mics. Mercury also played the original guitar solo on a version which has been lost.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Dwight Yoakam version

American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Dwight Yoakam Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and film director. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album '' Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.''. Yoakam had considerab ...

included a cover of the song on his 1999 album '' Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits from the 90's''. Yoakam's version was released as a single. It debuted at number 65 on the US ''Billboard'' "Hot Country Singles & Tracks" chart for the week of 1 May 1999, and peaked at number 12 on the US country singles charts that year. It was also used in a television commercial for clothing retailer Gap at the time of the album's release. The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was directed by Yoakam. This version appears in the movie ' (2006), starring

Vince Vaughn Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor. Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...

and

Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress and film producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Since her career ...

Charts

References

External links

* Official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

videos: ,
Queen + Paul Rodgers
(with

)
Lyrics at Queen official website
{{authority control Queen (band) songs 1980 songs 1980 singles Number-one singles in Australia RPM Top Singles number-one singles Dutch Top 40 number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Dwight Yoakam songs Musical tributes to Elvis Presley Songs written by Freddie Mercury EMI Records singles Reprise Records singles Alvin and the Chipmunks songs Rockabilly songs Song recordings produced by Reinhold Mack Song recordings produced by Pete Anderson Elektra Records singles Hollywood Records singles British rock-and-roll songs

Composition

Music video

Live performances

Single release

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Dwight Yoakam version

Charts

See also

References

External links