Pop Song 407 of 500 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' Queen 1979

Pop Song 407 of 500 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' Queen 1979

With my older brother Aurelius
'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 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. Mercury took it to the studio shortly after writing it and presented it to Taylor and John Deacon. 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). 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,

This thing called love
I just can't handle it
This thing called love
I must get 'round to it, I ain't ready
Crazy little thing called love
This thing (this thing) called love (called love)
It cries (like a baby) in a cradle all night
It swings (woo-ooo), it jives (woo-woo)
It shakes all over like a jelly fish
I kinda like it
Crazy little thing called love
There goes my baby
She knows how to rock and roll
She drives me crazy
She gives me hot and cold fever
Then she leaves me in a cool, cool sweat
I gotta be cool, relax
Get hip, get on my tracks
Take a back seat, hitch-hike
And take a long ride on my motorbike
Until I'm ready
Crazy little thing called love
Yeah, I gotta be cool, relax
Get hip and get on my tracks
Take a back seat, hitchhike (ahem, ahem)
And take a long ride on my motorbike
Until I'm ready (ready, Freddie)
Crazy little thing called love
This thing called love
I just can't handle it
This thing called love
I must get 'round to it, I ain't ready (ooh)
Crazy little thing called love
Crazy little thing called love (yeah, yeah)