A Crazy Little Song About Love

45 Years Ago, Queen Was Spreading The Love

Here’s a crazy little thing — 45 years ago this week, the number one song on the Billboard 100 was Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

I got my first record player in first grade when I was just six years old. Before I had any records of my own I would raid my parents’ collection, which they kept in the living room. Along with albums by Blondie, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix, one that I listened many times was Queen’s Live Killers. That’s where I first heard classics like “We Will Rock You” and “Killer Queen”, along with less popular songs like “I’m in Love with my Car”. Many years later, I was the only one of my friends that knew Nine Inch Nails’ song “Get Down, Make Love” was a cover tune.

Walmart used to sell 45s for a buck, maybe a buck and a half. I remember going there with my mom and buying singles of the songs I heard of the radio. I had “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and Juice Newton’s “Quee of Hearts” and all the J. Geils Band singles like “Freeze Frame” and “Centerfold”. I also started buying Queen’s singles. I had the classic “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions” single, I had “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and of course “Another One Rides the Bus”, which I ruined a few years later trying to play backwards to see if it really contained a hidden backwards message that said “It’s fun to smoke marijuana.” It didn’t, and I had the ruined record player needle to prove it.

The thing I liked about Queen is that their music was so diverse. I would dash around my room playing the guitar solo from “We Will Rock You” on an old tennis racket and moments later sing along to the operatic harmonies on “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The b-side of “Another One Bites the Dust” was this odd song called “Don’t Try Suicide” which was an odd song for a second grader to sing around the house.

I remember hearing “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” on the radio for the first time and what it had in common with every other Queen song is that it didn’t sound like any other Queen song. Instead of Brian May’s instantly identifiable guitar tone we got an acoustic guitar out front which, after seeing the music video, we learned was played by Freddy Mercury. It’s a fun song, one you can instantly sing along with, and there’s a fun breakdown in the middle. All kids love an opportunity to clap along to a song, and this one delivered.

Oh, and that “Ready, Freddie” moment… chef’s kiss.

“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” hit the top spot on the Billboard Top 100 45 years ago this week and stayed there for four weeks. Not bad for a song Mercury said he wrote “in five or ten minutes.”