Queen has shared the next episode in their 50-week-long Youtube series ‘The Greatest.’ The latest episode, entitled ‘Somebody to Love – Freddie’s Greatest Hit?’ explores the inspiration and cultivation of the hit single.
Announcing their newest episode on Instagram, the iconic band wrote: “Queen: 1976 Somebody To Love – Freddie’s Greatest Hit? ‘Freddie came in very well prepared with a lot of vocal parts and we just worked our way through it. Yes, there was a very good feeling. I always remember thinking’ yeah, this is going to be something great.” @brianmayforreal.This week we celebrate what is undoubtedly one of Queen’s greatest hits, the @freddiemercury & gospel inspired masterpiece, Somebody To Love. .”
Examining their “Gospel inspired masterpiece” ‘Somebody To Love,’ the five minute episode explores Freddie Mercury’s inspiration behind the song and how they released it as an attempt to try new things after their successful album release ‘A Night At The Opera.’ A clip of Mercury speaking of the track is featured in the episode, he said: “I mean we had the same three people singing on the big choir sections but I think it had a different kind of technical approach, there was this sort of Gospel way of singing which, I think, is different to us…I just wanted to write something in that kind of thing. I was sort of incentivised by the gospel approach that she had on her albums, the earlier albums.”
The archival footage used in the episode features the band in the height of their rise to fame during the 1970s. We also hear from Queen guitarist Brian May, as he too describes the Gospel-inspired nature of ‘Somebody To Love,’ a musical influence the band had grown to love after their successful hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ He said: “Freddie wanted to be Aretha Franklin, you have to bear this in mind, and that explains everything. He loved Aretha. And, this was his Gospel epic. It kind of followed in the steps of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the sense that we were building up these multiple vocal parts, but this time we were being a Gospel choir, instead of being an English choir.”
In a statement accompanying the episodes release, Queen wrote: “After the incredible success of A Night At The Opera and Bohemian Rhapsody, all eyes were on Queen to see what they would do next. As Freddie Mercury worked on his next composition, inspiration came from one of the world’s finest singers and ended up with him, Brian and Roger becoming a Gospel choir. Was it better than Bohemian Rhapsody? The man himself thinks it might be…”
Queen made headlines earlier this week after their track ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ reached one billion streams on Spotify. The song was the longest-running top ten single of 1980, and over 40 years later, it is evidently still a cult favourite.
You can watch the latest episode of ‘The Greatest’ – ‘Somebody To Love – Freddie’s Greatest Hit?’ now on YouTube.
