Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen (1979) 8/4/22

Queen's Freddie Mercury was not a good guitar player, and was always quick to say so. But in 1979, his creative juices were flowing and he wanted to write a rockabilly-style tribute to Elvis Presley and Britain's Sir Cliff Richard.

So, while lounging in a Turkish bath (true story), he picked up a guitar and in short order, cranked out today's "Great Song of 1979."

In Freddie's words: "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."

Yes he did.

The song was released as a single in December of 1979, and in early 1980, it became Queen's first #1 song on Billboard's Hot 100. It also went to #1 in Canada, Australia, and The Netherlands...and was a Top 10 hit in 9 other countries, including #2 in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.

It also became a "Great Song of 1999" when country music's Dwight Yoakum took his cover version to #1 on Canada's country chart and #12 on in the US.

So with that in mind...and since Queen's original version was released in '79...I can count "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" as a "Great Song of the '70s,'80s, and '90s, right?) :-)

Queen:

Dwight Yoakum: