The Top 250 Pop Hits of the Last 50 Years - #240 Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, the track is featured on their 1980 album The Game, and also appears on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits. The song peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. on 23 February 1980, remaining there for four consecutive weeks. It topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven weeks.
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. Queen played the song live between 1979 and 1986, and a live performance of the song is recorded in the albums Queen Rock Montreal and Queen at Wembley. 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, performed by Robert Plant with Queen. The style of the song was described by author Karl Coryat as rockabilly in his 1999 book titled The Bass Player Book.

As reported by Freddie Mercury in Melody Maker, 2 May 1981, he composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the guitar in just five to ten minutes.

'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' took me five or ten minutes. I did that on the guitar, which I can't play for nuts, and in one way it was quite a good thing because I was restricted, knowing only a few chords. It's a good discipline because I simply had to write within a small framework. I couldn't work through too many chords and because of that restriction I wrote a good song, I think.

—Freddie Mercury

The song was written by Mercury as a tribute to Elvis Presley. Queen drummer Roger Taylor added in an interview that Mercury wrote it in 10 minutes while lounging in a bath in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich during one of their extensive Munich recording sessions. Mercury took it to the studio shortly after writing it and presented it to Roger Taylor and John Deacon. The three of them, with their new producer Mack, recorded it at Musicland Studios 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 rhythm on the record, for the first time ever Mercury played guitar in concerts, for example at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium, London in 1985.

Music video

The music video for the song was filmed at Trillion Studios in September 1979 and directed by Dennis De Vallance featuring four dancers and a floor of hands. An alternate version featuring alternate angles, out-takes and backstage footage from the original video shoot was included on the Days Of Our Lives DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Personnel

• Freddie Mercury – lead and backing vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar, handclaps
• Brian May – lead guitar, backing vocals, handclaps
• John Deacon – bass guitar, handclaps
• Roger Taylor – drums, backing vocals, handclaps

Although Mercury would play an electrified twelve-string on stage (and later a six-string electric), in the studio he recorded it with a six-string acoustic with external mics. Freddie Mercury also played the original guitar solo on a version which has been lost.

Single release

The "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" single hit number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and became the first U.S. number-one hit for the band, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. The song also topped the Australian ARIA charts for seven consecutive weeks from 1 March to 12 April 1980. Some copies contain an alternate b-side; Spread Your Wings (live)