Queen were a unique band in that all four members individually wrote songs that topped the charts. Even the Beatles, whose songs have reached number one in the U.S. and U.K. a combined 38 times, can’t claim that distinction.
“Somebody to Love,” released on 1976’s A Day at the Races, turns 50 today (November 12). For Brian May, the song was not only a spiritual successor to their operatic epic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but also an example of the band’s songwriting “sausage machine” operating at full tilt.
The track’s elaborate arrangements included layers of vocals designed to evoke a gospel choir, alongside an extravagant approach to May’s guitar harmonies that gave them an orchestral quality. There’s also one of the guitarist’s trademark melodic guitar solos, played with the neck and middle pickups of his Red Special out of phase to produce a “screamy” tone. But, speaking previously to Absolute Radio, May said the song was all about Freddie Mercury.
“Freddie wanted to be Aretha Franklin, you have to bear this in mind,” he said. “That explains everything. He loved Aretha, and this was his gospel epic.”
May, whose self-penned hits include “We Will Rock You,” “I Want It All” and “The Show Must Go On,” understood Mercury’s vision. He was happy to take a back seat as, five albums into their career, Queen’s songwriting machine was running smoothly.
“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 an English choir,” May recalled. “Freddie came in very well prepared with a lot of vocal parts, and we just worked our way through them.
“It became something we called the sausage machine. We sort of followed our instincts, or whoever was leading at the time, and it’s a very good feeling. I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, this is going to be something great.’”
May’s description of the process suggests a band working with an almost assembly-line efficiency, with everyone knowing their parts and contributing to a larger whole. It was a rather different experience from the disagreements that surrounded the writing of “Don’t Stop Me Now”, or the raised eyebrows that followed Mercury’s proposed album title.
Following Mercury’s death, the remaining members of Queen performed the song with George Michael at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in London on April 20, 1992. The performance has since become one of the most celebrated interpretations of the song.
“People like Mr. Michael — it was staggering to work with people of that caliber,” May later said of the performance (via Ultimate Classic Rock). “Without any kind of falseness, he was one of the great surprises to most people of the evening. I think in most people’s feelings, he got closest to the range of Freddie himself.”
May has since clarified his position on touring and the future of Queen, while pouring cold water on hopes of a residency at the Sphere. He has also been looking back on Queen’s historic performance behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest, reflecting on the difficult feelings that revisiting the show has brought back.
