The Queen Classic Brian May Was “Bludgeoned” Into Playing a New Way

There are certain things we expect from any Queen classic: Freddie Mercury will be leading the charge on vocals, Brian May will be ripping on his trusty Red Special guitar, and so on. But one hit was a notable exception, giving all new meaning to “you snooze, you lose.”

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At least, that’s the lesson May learned the hard way upon his return to the studio after taking a short break to sleep off the late night of Queen’s session the previous day.

When Freddie Mercury Took Over For Brian May

For the most part, everyone in Queen had set instrumental roles in the band: Freddie Mercury sang and played piano, Brian May played guitar, Roger Taylor played drums, and John Deacon played bass. But Mercury was actually an impressive multi-instrumentalist, and while he couldn’t rip on the guitar quite like his bandmate, May, he was certainly proficient enough to play acoustic rhythm. One fateful night in 1979, Mercury strummed out the basic chord progression of one of the band’s most career-defining hits in a matter of five or ten minutes.

In a 1981 interview with Melody Maker, Mercury recalled how quickly he came up with “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” He admitted, “I can’t play [guitar] 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.” Mercury brought it to the rest of the band in the studio, and they tracked a rough demo version in about half an hour. May, meanwhile, was absent from the studio, catching up on sleep from the previous day’s late-night session.

“I came back, and they’d already put down the backing track,” May recalled. “Roger just had the live drums. Freddie had played acoustic guitar. That rhythm on there is Freddie. I don’t think I played any of that. Freddie was really a good acoustic player. He was very modest about it, but he could really play the acoustic guitar very well in an inimitable, very frenetic kind of style. I can still [hear] his kind of horny fingers hitting the strings. Freddie doing his Elvis, very successfully” (via Guitar Player).

The Queen Guitarist Said He Was “Bludgeoned” In The Studio

Despite his exclusion from the original tracking of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” Queen guitarist Brian May held no ill will toward the classic track. He knew it was a fantastic song from the jump, and bandmate Freddie Mercury had done a fine job laying the acoustic rhythm guitar. However, Mercury wasn’t quite as good at soloing, which is when May stepped in. Once again proving that he prioritized sound over his own ego, May allowed the band’s producer, Reinhold Mack, to strongarm him into playing a guitar that wasn’t his go-to.

Mack had wanted a Telecaster sound, which May was ready to recreate on his signature homemade guitar. But Mack pushed back. “He said, ‘If you want it to sound like a Telecaster, play a Telecaster.’ I used one of Roger’s really old, beat-up, natural wood Telecasters. I got bludgeoned into playing it. That was Mack’s idea.” Although May might not have felt as comfortable with this electric set-up as with his homemade Red Special, the solo he recorded has become one of his most iconic.

History would prove that it all worked out in the end. This Queen classic topped the charts in the U.S., Netherlands, Canada, and Australia, cementing itself as one of the band’s most recognizable hits, even if Brian May wasn’t playing his usual guitar.

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