Crazy Little Thing Called Love

For other uses, see Crazy Little Thing Called Love (disambiguation).

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
UK picture sleeve
Single by Queen
from the album The Game
B-side
Released
  • 12 October 1979 (UK)[1]
  • 7 December 1979 (US)
RecordedJune–July 1979
StudioMusicland (Munich, Germany)
Genre
Length2:42
Label
Songwriter(s)Freddie Mercury
Producer(s)
Queen UK singles chronology
"Love of My Life (Live at Festhalle Frankfurt, 2 Feb '79)"
(1979) 		"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
(1979) 		"Save Me"
(1980)
Queen US singles chronology
"We Will Rock You (Live)"
(1979) 		"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
(1979) 		"Play the Game"
(1980)
Audio sample
Music video
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on YouTube

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, the track is included on their 1980 album The Game, and also appears on the band's compilation album Greatest Hits in 1981. The song peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979 and became the group's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US in 1980,[5] remaining there for four consecutive weeks.[6][7] It topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven weeks.[8] It was the band's final single release of the 1970s.

Having composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on guitar, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he played guitar in concert with Queen.[9] Queen played the song live between 1979 and 1986, and a live performance of the song is recorded in the albums Queen Rock Montreal, Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl, Live at Wembley '86 and Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest.[10][11] Since its release, the song has been covered by a number of artists. The song was played live on 20 April 1992 during The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, performed by Robert Plant with Queen.[12] The style of the song was described by author Karl Coryat as rockabilly in his 1999 book titled The Bass Player Book.[13]

  1. ^ "BPI certifications".
  2. ^ Crouse, Richard (1998). Who Wrote The Book of Love?. Doubleday Canada. ISBN 978-0385257329.
  3. ^ Bogdanov, Vladimir (2003). All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music. Backbeat Books. p. 368. ISBN 978-0879307608.
  4. ^ July 2016, Paul Elliott 13 (13 July 2016). "Every song on Queen's Greatest Hits, ranked from worst to best". loudersound. Retrieved 30 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Billboard Hot 100 Chart History for Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen". Song-database.com. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  6. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2006). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Billboard Books
  7. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. London: Guinness World Records Limited
  8. ^ Kent, David (1993) (doc). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Circus was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (30 October 2007). "Queen Rock Montreal – Queen | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  11. ^ "Queen "Live At Wembley 1986 / Live At Wembley Stadium" album and song lyrics". Ultimatequeen.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  12. ^ "Queen "The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert" video and song lyrics". Ultimatequeen.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  13. ^ Coryat, Karl (1999). The Bass Player Book. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. p. 59.