As part of the 50-week YouTube mini series “Queen the Greatest”, unpublished interview material from the Queen singer Freddie Mercury, which lays open what song he found even better than the hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975). According to Mercury, “Somebody to Love” from 1976 is the better.
In the archive material, Mercury explains: “No matter how much you try to think of past hits, no matter how much you try. I really thought: Ok, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is a great success, but as far as my writing skills are concerned, I think I can write better. And I only looked at it from this point of view. I think that a song like ‘somebody to love’ is a better song in terms of writing. ”
Mercury was inspired by Aretha Franklin
The song appeared in 1976 as a single of her fifth studio album “A Day at the Races”. When writing “Somebody to Love”, Freddie Mercury supposedly said inspired by Aretha Franklin and her early work, which apparently gave the song his gospel approach. He said: “And I was busy with Aretha Franklin, which at the same time made me a little crazy. I really wanted to write something like that. “
See the interview with Freddie Mercury here:
Queen-Gitarist Brian May added: “Freddie wanted to be Aretha Franklin, you have to consider that, and that explains everything. He loved Aretha. That was his gospel epic. “Surrently May said:” The steps of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ followed that we built these different vocals, but this time we were a gospel choir instead of an English choir. ” He also remembered: “Freddie had prepared many vocals very well and we simply worked through. It was a very good feeling. I always remember that I thought: yes, it will be something great. “