"Love Is the Hero" is a song performed by American Rock singer and guitarist

Billy Squier William Haislip Squier (, born May 12, 1950) is an American rock musician and singer who had a string of arena rock and crossover hits in the early 1980s. His best-known songs include "The Stroke", "Lonely Is the Night", "My Kinda Lover", "In t ...

, with

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 ...

from

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 ...

on backing vocals. It appears as the second track on his fifth studio album ''Enough Is Enough'' from 1986. After an incredibly bad video for his hit song " Rock Me Tonite", Squier's career had taken a downturn. As a result, he stopped selling out concerts and his album and singles success waned. "Love Is the Hero" became a commercial disappointment, peaking at #65 in ''

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 ...

'' magazine and #80 on 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 ...

'' Hot 100 chart. It fared much better on AOR (Album Oriented Rock) radio and received rotation on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

. It is often deemed one of the best songs from his later career and the standout track of ''Enough Is Enough''. Mercury originally recorded an intro sung solely by himself, but it was cut from the album and single version. It was kept on the extended 12" version and later restored on Squier's compilation album ''Reach For the Sky: The Anthology'' and Mercury's ''

The Solo Collection ''The Solo Collection'' is a compilation album, compilation box set detailing the solo career of Freddie Mercury; it includes the material Mercury recorded before joining up with Queen (band), Queen, up through the 1993 No More Brothers remixes ...

'' box set''.'' In the spring of 2021, the afromentioned version was finally released as a digital single.

Personnel

- lead vocals, guitars, keyboards *

- backing vocals, co-lead vocals, piano (12" version only) * Bobby Chouinard - drums * Alan St. Jon - keyboards *

Jeff Golub Jeff Golub (April 15, 1955 – January 1, 2015) was an American jazz guitarist who had a solo career and who led the band Avenue Blue. He worked as a sideman for a number of rock and pop musicians. He was arguably best known for his work with Rod ...

- guitars *

TM Stevens Thomas Michael "T. M." Stevens (born July 28, 1951) is an American bass guitarist from New York City. Stevens has worked with an array of rock, R&B, and pop acts as a session musician, and also leads his own groups and works as a solo performer ...

- bass

References

{{Billy Squier 1986 songs 1986 singles Billy Squier songs Freddie Mercury songs Songs written by Billy Squier Song recordings produced by Peter Collins (record producer)