Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury (September 5 1946 – November 24 1991) was a pianist, songwriter, arranger, singer, and lead vocalist of the British rock band Queen.

Mercury as songwriter

Mercury presented himself as a primary songwriter for Queen from beginning to end, except in the albums News Of The World, The Game and A Kind Of Magic, where bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor composed an equal or greater number of songs.

Related Topics:
News Of The World - The Game - A Kind Of Magic - Brian May - Roger Taylor

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Mercury is one of the popular composers who have achieved most success in "bringing complex music to the masses". On one side, he was able to use an impressively rich vocabulary of advanced harmonic, rhythmic and structural features, but at the same time remain catchy and earning commercial success. Mercury wrote or co-wrote nine #1 hits:

Related Topics:
Harmonic - Rhythmic

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• "Bohemian Rhapsody": Topped the charts of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the UK.
• "Love Of My Life": #1 in Argentina for an entire year
• "Somebody To Love": #1 in The Netherlands in its original release, and in the UK in a cover version by Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, Mike Moran and George Michael
• "We Are The Champions": #2 in the UK; #2 in the US; #1 in France for 13 weeks
• "Crazy Little Thing Called Love": #1 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Holland and the United States
• "Under Pressure": Credited to Queen & Bowie, but essentially Mercury's according to bassist John Deacon. Melody and lyrics were created by both Mercury and Bowie. #1 hit in Argentina, Canada, theNetherlands and the UK. A 1999 remix topped the charts in Czech Republic. In 1990, rap artist Vanilla Ice sampled the main bassline on his worldwide #1 hit "Ice Ice Baby".
• "Living On My Own": Originally recorded in 1985, a remix was released after his death and topped the charts in the UK
• "Innuendo": Again credited to the band, but Mercury was the principal writer (with input from drummer Roger Taylor in lyrics). It was #1 in the UK and South Africa
• "I'm Going Slightly Mad": Credited to Queen but composed by Freddie, this track topped the charts in Hong Kong in spring 1991