Crazy Little Thing Called Love The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
Fender Telecaster Electric Guitar
1: Although the very low note in Leroy Brown (a C1) is slowed down, the original pitch was still quite low, since the varispeed was around three semitones. 2: Brian sang lead vocal and played piano in All Dead All Dead, but harmonies were by Freddie. 3: These songs featured backing vocals by Roger when played on stage, but in the studio they were all Freddie. 4: These songs featured backing vocals by Roger and Brian when played on stage, but in the studio they were all Freddie. 5: Live, Keep Yourself Alive had backing vocals by Roger, Brian and occasionally John, but the album version had only Freddie (although Roger and Brian do take a lead vocal line each). 6: Live, One Vision had backing vocals from Roger, Brian, John and probably Spike Edney, but in the studio it was only Freddie (with Brian having a cameo distorted lead vocal during the intro). 7: Roger and Freddie did vocal orchestrations in Seaside Rendezvous, which aren't counted here as "backing vocals", because they actually aren't. |
FREDDIE MERCURY As Backing Singer
Besides being an extraordinary lead singer, Freddie had a marvellous skill for harmonies, which he proved in the studio. Throughout Queen albums, solo albums and some session work he did for other artists (such as Eddie Howell, Ian Hunter and Peter Straker), Mercury's speciality was how to overdub loads of voices with extreme accuracy, achieving an ethereal phasing effect no machine can emulate. Some time before Queen were formed, Freddie, Brian, Tim Staffell, Roger and some of their mates used to practise harmonies by singing tracks from The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Bee Gees. Although live, Freddie used to concentrate solely on lead vocal, leaving Roger the high part and Brian the low one, in the studio it was quite different: sometimes the formation was Freddie-Roger-Brian from the top (e.g. Doin' All Right), sometimes it was Roger-Freddie-Brian (e.g. Who Wants to Live Forever), sometimes Roger-Brian-Freddie (e.g. Bohemian Rhapsody, during the "no no no no no no no" bit), which means that Mercury had to be prepared to sing in any range - high, middle, low- if required. The earliest tracks featuring Freddie doing all of the harmonies are White Queen (where he emulated an angelical choir) and Nevermore (where he put a marvellous chordal backing to reinforce the piano and bass). For both, the formula was the following: he first did a rough take of each part, which the producers (Roy Thomas Baker and Robin Cable, respectively) added reverb and phasing to; then Mercury recorded the proper take having the effect on his headphones, and as a result he reproduced it much better. Then he double-tracked or triple-tracked the bit and went over to the next part. Depending on the sound he wanted he could sing softly or strongly, as he demonstrated in both tracks. The slow bit in The March of the Black Queen is 100% Freddie as well (covering very high and very low voices too). Note his exceptional solo-tutti dynamic interaction. From then on, it'd be common for Freddie to sing all backing vocals in his piano ballads (Lily of the Valley, Love of My Life, You Take My Breath Away, Jealousy, Life Is Real...), as well as some tracks by the others (e.g. Dear Friends, Misfire, Who Needs You?, These Are the Days of Our Lives). On his first solo album, 'Mr Bad Guy', he did all harmonies too (covering a range from low G to soprano Bb, i.e. three octaves and a minor third), and in 'Barcelona' he sang most of them (except on The Golden Boy), providing support for Montserrat's exquisite voice and his own. During the 70s (and 'Innuendo'), the range covered by Freddie on backing vocals was quite large:
42.5% of these songs were recorded in the 70s, 57.5% come from the 80s or 'Innuendo'. One of the reasons is the number of tracks in the later period that instead of having Queen trademark layered backing vocals, only had Freddie harmonising himself in thirds and/or fifths (e.g. Bites the Dust, Break Free, Back Chat, Staying Power, Days of Our Lives), a formula rarely used in the 70s (one case is Get Down Make Love). If we note the authors, there's an interesting situation too: only two of these tracks (i.e. 5%) are Roger's, because he often sang either lead or backing (or both) in his own numbers; seven (17.5%) are Brian's, while nine (22.5%) are John's (which is quite a lot considering he only penned twenty-one for the band, two of which are instrumental and several ones having no backing vocals at all), and twenty-two (55%) are Freddie's. |
