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Freddie Mercury
Born 5 September 1946
Stone Town, Zanzibar
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as
the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was
known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave
range.
Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including "Bohemian
Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love",
"Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love",
and "We Are the Champions". In addition to his work with Queen, he
led a solo career, and also occasionally served as a producer and guest
musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia
brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly
acknowledging that he had the disease. Mercury wrote 10 of the 17 songs on
Queen's Greatest Hits album: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Seven Seas
of Rye", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love",
"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions",
"Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little
Thing Called Love" and "Play the Game". The most notable
aspect of his songwriting involved the wide range of genres that he used,
which included, among other styles, rockabilly, progressive rock, heavy
metal, gospel and disco. As he explained in a 1986 interview, "I hate
doing the same thing again and again and again. I like to see what's
happening now in music, film and theatre and incorporate all of those things.
Compared to many popular songwriters, Mercury also tended to write musically
complex material. For example, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is acyclic in
structure and comprises dozens of chords. He also wrote six songs from Queen
II which deal with multiple key changes and complex material. "Crazy
Little Thing Called Love", on the other hand, contains only a few
chords. Despite the fact that Mercury often wrote very intricate harmonies,
he also claimed that he could barely read music. He wrote most of his songs
on the piano and used a wide variety of different key signatures.
In addition to his work with Queen, Mercury put out two solo albums and
several singles. Although his solo work was not as commercially successful as
most Queen albums, the two off-Queen albums and several of the singles
debuted in the top 10 of the UK Music Charts. His first solo effort involved
his contribution to the Richard "Wolfie" Wolf mix of Love Kills on
the 1984 album (the song also used as the end title theme for National
Lampoon's "Loaded Weapon") and new soundtrack to the 1927 Fritz
Lang film Metropolis. The song, produced by Giorgio Moroder, debuted at the
number 10 position in the UK charts. In 1981–1983, Mercury recorded several
tracks with Michael Jackson, including a demo of "State of Shock",
"Victory" and "There Must Be More to Life Than This".
None of these collaborations were officially released, although bootleg
recordings exist. Jackson went on to record the single "State of
Shock" with Mick Jagger for The Jacksons' album Victory. Mercury
included the solo version of "There Must Be More To Life Than This"
on his Mr. Bad Guy album In November 2011, Brian May announced that a series
of duets that Mercury recorded with Jackson were to be released in 2012. He
later updated the release date to fall.
Died 24 November 1991 (in the age of 45)
Kensington, London, England, UK
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