Crazy Little Thing Called Love

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For other uses, see Crazy Little Thing Called Love (disambiguation).

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
File:Crazy little thing called love.jpg
UK picture sleeve
Single by Queen
from the album The Game
B-side
Released
  • 12 October 1979 (UK)[1]
  • 7 December 1979 (US)
RecordedJune–July 1979
StudioMusicland (Munich, Germany)
Genre
Length2:42
Label
SongwriterFreddie Mercury
Producers
Queen UK singles chronology
"Love of My Life (Live at Festhalle Frankfurt, 2 Feb '79)"
(1979) 		"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
(1979) 		"Save Me"
(1980)
Queen US singles chronology
"We Will Rock You (Live)"
(1979) 		"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
(1979) 		"Play the Game"
(1980)
Audio sample
Music video
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on YouTube

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, the track is included on their 1980 album The Game, and also appears on the band's compilation album Greatest Hits in 1981. The song peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979 and became the group's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US in 1980,[6] remaining there for four consecutive weeks.[7][8] It topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven weeks.[9] It was the band's final single release of the 1970s.

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.[10] 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 on Fire – Live at the Bowl, Live at Wembley '86 and Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest.[11][12] 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.[13] The style of the song was described by author Karl Coryat as rockabilly in his 1999 book titled The Bass Player Book.[14]

Composition

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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.[15]

'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 his musical heroes Elvis Presley[16] and Cliff Richard. Roger Taylor added in an interview that Mercury wrote it in just 10 minutes while lounging in a bath in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich during one of their extensive Munich recording sessions, which was later confirmed by Mercury himself.[17] Mercury took it to the studio shortly after writing it and presented it to Taylor and John Deacon.[10][18] The three of them, with their then new producer Reinhold 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).[19]

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 at Wembley Stadium, London in 1985.[10][20] Billboard described Brian May's guitar playing as being "stunning in its simplicity".[21] Cash Box called it a "hip shakin' rockabilly romp" and an "upbeat tune".[22] Record World said that the band "does a superb job of capturing the spirit and sound of the late '50s be-bop rock'n'roll".[23]

May wanted to emulate Rick Nelson's and Presley's longtime guitarist James Burton, and at Mack's suggestion used a Fender Esquire rather than his regular Red Special for the recording session.[24]

Music video

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The music video for the song was filmed at Trillion Studios on 21 September 1979 and directed by Denis deVance involving four dancers featuring Nikki Billyeald and Julie Warwick and a floor of hands. An alternate version was included on the Days of Our Lives DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Live performances

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In the immediate aftermath of the single, the band embarked on a mini UK tour entitled the Crazy Tour.

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 Live at Wembley '86, where the song continues for five minutes.

On 13 July 1985, Queen performed the song for the Live Aid dual-venue benefit concert.

Single release

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The "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" single hit number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, unable to dislodge "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" from #1 for 2 weeks, 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's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II".[7][8] The song also topped the Australian ARIA charts for seven consecutive weeks from 1 March to 12 April 1980.[9] The UK release had "We Will Rock You (live)" as the B-side, while America, Australia, and Canada had "Spread Your Wings (live)".

Personnel

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Although Mercury played an acoustic-electric twelve-string Ovation Pacemaker 1615 guitar and later on an electric six-string Fender Telecaster (both owned by May) live, he recorded the studio version of the song using a six-string acoustic with external mics. Mercury also played the original guitar solo on a version which has been lost.[25]

Charts

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Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[54] Platinum 90,000‡
Italy (FIMI)[55] Platinum 100,000‡
Netherlands (NVPI)[56] Platinum 150,000^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[57] Gold 10,000*
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[58] 2× Platinum 120,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[59] Platinum 600,000‡
United States (RIAA)[60] Platinum 1,000,000‡

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Dwight Yoakam version

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"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
File:Dwight - Crazy Little Thing Called Love.jpg
UK CD picture sleeve
Single by Dwight Yoakam
from the album Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits from the 90's
B-side
Released19 May 1999
GenreCountry
Length2:22
LabelReprise
SongwriterFreddie Mercury
ProducerPete Anderson
Dwight Yoakam singles chronology
"These Arms"
(1998) 		"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
(1999) 		"Thinking About Leaving"
(1999)

American country music singer Dwight Yoakam 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.[61] 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 was directed by Yoakam. This version appears in the movie The Break-Up (2006), starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.

Charts

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Chart (1999) Peak
position
Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)[62] 19
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[63] 1
UK Singles Chart 35
US Billboard Hot 100[64] 64
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[65] 12
Year-end chart (1999) Rank
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[66] 22
US Country Songs (Billboard)[67] 64

See also

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References

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  7. ^ a b Whitburn, Joel (2006). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Billboard Books
  8. ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. London: Guinness World Records Limited
  9. ^ a b Kent, David (1993) (doc). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W
  10. ^ a b c Lights! Action! Sound! It's That Crazy Little Thing Called Queen Archived 28 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Circus Magazine. Retrieved 29 June 2011
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  16. ^ Queen interview: Brian May on Crazy Little Thing Called Love on YouTube Absolute Radio. Retrieved 18 December 2011
  17. ^ ROGER SPEAKS: COLOGNE AUDIO PRESS KIT BrianMay.com. Retrieved 29 June 2011
  18. ^ Billboard 18 Jul 1980 p.33. Billboard. Retrieved 29 June 2011
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  20. ^ Crazy Little Thing Called Love UltimateQueen. Retrieved 29 June 2011
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  30. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Irish Singles Chart.
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  41. ^ "Queen Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
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