Crazy Little Thing Called Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO6D_BAuYCI

Today I will analyse Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love. The song is quite simple, with it’s Rockabilly and Blues style and simple instrumentation using acoustic guitar, electric guitar(Fender Telecaster), electric bass, drums, lead and backing vocals. The song uses a slap back delay on several instruments including Freddie’s lead vocals which is reminiscent of Elvis which was something they wanted to emulate, they tried to capture the rockabilly style. The overall vibe of the song is fun and creates a great build up to the end of the song despite the simple instrumentation, they did this by firstly introducing Brian May’s guitar solo in the second half which may seem obvious but it keeps the song interesting and leads perfectly into the solo vocals and claps section. Which leads me into my next point the solo vocals and claps section, this part is genius as it invites the listener into the song, as that is something normally done in a live performance bringing it into a recorded song brings the energy and excitement of a Queen show direct to the listener to feel or re-live that moment.

The structure and instrumentation goes like this,

4 bar intro - acoustic guitar start

12 bar verse 1 - lead vocals, drums, bass, acoustic guitar

12 bar verse 2 - lead vocals, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals enter

12 bar bridge - lead vocals, drums, bass, acoustic guitar

Break - “cool cool cool sweat”

12 bar chorus 1 - lead vocals, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar

12 bar guitar solo - drums, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar

Break - “cool, cool, cool sweat” but replaced with a guitar solo

12 bar chorus 2 - lead vocals, backing vocals, claps

12 bar chorus 3 - full band

16 bar outro - fade out