| "Love of My Life" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Queen from the album A Night at the Opera | ||||
| Released | 21 November 1975 | |||
| Recorded | 1975 at various studios | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 3:39 | |||
| Label | EMI, Parlophone (Europe) Elektra, Hollywood (US) |
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| Writer | Freddie Mercury | |||
| Producer | Queen Roy Thomas Baker |
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| A Night at the Opera track listing | ||||
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| "Love of My Life (live)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Queen | ||||
| from the album Live Killers | ||||
| B-side | Now I'm Here (live) | |||
| Released | 29 June 1979 | |||
| Format | Vinyl record (7") | |||
| Recorded | 1979 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 4:59 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Queen singles chronology | ||||
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"Love of My Life" is a ballad by the English rock band Queen from their 1975 album A Night at the Opera.[1] The song was written by Freddie Mercury about Mary Austin, with whom he had a long term relationship in the early 1970s.[2] After performing the song in South America, a live release of the single reached number 1 in Argentina and Brazil in 1981, and stayed in the charts in Argentina for an entire year.[3]
Freddie Mercury wrote it on the piano and guitar first, Brian May rearranged the song for acoustic 12-string guitar to facilitate live performances. May contributed occasional guitar phrases to the original recording and played the swooping harp glissandos by pasting together multiple takes of single chords. The song is an example of Mercury's familiarity with rubato phrasing, showcasing his classical piano influences, notably by Chopin and Beethoven. An acoustic version of the song features in the band's 1979 album Live Killers.[1]
With its similar lyrical theme, later single "These Are the Days of Our Lives" would hark back to "Love of My Life", twice using the line "I still love you". At the end of "These Are the Days of Our Lives", Mercury simply speaks the words, as he would often do in live versions of "Love of My Life."[4]
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Introduced during the News of the World Tour in 1977, "Love of My Life" was such a concert favourite that Mercury frequently stopped singing and allowed the audience to take over. It was especially well received during concerts in South America, and the band released the song as a single there.[1]
After Mercury's death, Brian May usually dedicated the song to him. A notable exception is the Sheffield show which yielded the Return of the Champions CD and DVD. At that show, May announced that Mercury's mother was at the show and he dedicated the song to her. In the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour, May would sing a few lines of the song, then let the audience take over for every verse, as Mercury used to. When played at the Glasgow SECC in the 2008 Cosmos Rocks tour, May dedicated the song to his recently deceased mother. The song was played on the guitar by Brian May on concerts, unlike on the album A Night at the Opera.[5]
Numerous other artists have released a cover of "Love of My Life" commercially, including Scorpions, Michael Burgess, Extreme (which featured Brian May)[5] Rose Marie, Declan Galbraith, Elaine Paige, Mark Slaughter, Antonio Vega,Lani Misalucha, Norma Waterson, Iris and the ladies gold medal winning quartet NoteOrious.
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