Video hit Queen
Queen - Love of my life (Rock Montreal 1981)
Love of My Life is a ballad by the English rock band Queen from their 1975 album A Night at the Opera.
The song was written by Freddie Mercury about Mary Austin, with whom he had a long term relationship in the early 1970s.
After performing the song in South America in 1981, the version from their live album Live Killers reached number 1 in the singles chart in Argentina and Brazil, and stayed in the charts in Argentina for an entire year.
Freddie Mercury wrote it on the piano and guitar first, Brian May rearranged the song for acoustic 12-string guitar to facilitate live performances. May contributed occasional guitar phrases to the original recording and played the swooping harp glissandos by pasting together multiple takes of single chords. The song is an example of Mercury's familiarity with rubato phrasing, showcasing his classical piano influences, notably by Chopin and Beethoven.
During the voyage of the space shuttle Columbia (STS-107), the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, asked to play the song. The song was played in the shuttle and playback and Ramon said: "A special good morning to my wife, Rona, love of my life." Ramon and the ferry died in Columbia disaster shortly thereafter, during its return to the atmosphere in 2003.
Live performances
Introduced during the News of the World Tour in 1977, "Love of My Life" was such a concert favourite that Mercury frequently stopped singing and allowed the audience to take over. It was especially well received during concerts in South America, and the band released the Live Killers version of the song as a single there.
After Mercury's death, Brian May usually dedicated the song to him. A notable exception is the Sheffield show which yielded the Return of the Champions CD and DVD. At that show, May announced that Mercury's mother was at the show and he dedicated the song to her. In the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour, May would sing a few lines of the song, then let the audience take over for every verse, as Mercury used to.
When played at the Glasgow SECC in the 2008 Cosmos Rocks tour, May dedicated the song to his recently deceased mother. The song was played on the guitar by Brian May on concerts, unlike on the album A Night at the Opera.
The lyrics:
Love of my life - you hurt me,
You broken my heart and now you leave me.
Love of my life can't you see,
Bring it back, bring it back,
Don't take it away from me, because you don't know, what it means to me.
Love of my life don't leave me,
You've taken my love, you now desert me,
Love of my life can't you see,
Bring it back, bring it back,
Don't take it away from me because you don't know what it means to me.
You will remember -
When this is blown over
And everything's all by the way -
When I grow older
I will be there at your side to remind you how I still love you - I still love you.
Back - hurry back,
Please, bring it back home to me, because you don't know what it means to me -
Love of my life
Love of my life...