{"id":344591,"date":"2025-12-31T11:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/344591\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T11:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:49:11","slug":"the-genius-queen-song-brian-may-was-initially-unsure-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/344591\/","title":{"rendered":"The “genius” Queen song brian May was initially unsure of"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Queen<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Carl Lender)<\/p>\n

Wed 31 December 2025 8:44, UK <\/p>\n

Working alongside Freddie Mercury in Queen<\/a> for decades was never a chore for Brian May, who was consistently amazed by the magic his bandmate could cook up in the studio. The mercurial frontman operated on a different wavelength from his peers, with his risk-taking strategies propelling Queen to success.<\/p>\n

It is often forgotten that while Mercury was a consummate performer, perhaps one of the greatest lead singers of all time, in fact, he was also a canny songwriter. Able to bring together heartbreak and joy with a single breath, Mercury\u2019s contributions to the band\u2019s success go far beyond his ability to belt out a tune and command an audience. <\/p>\n

Mercury was an outside-of-the-box thinker who did things differently. At times, his bold strategies and penchant for living life in the fast lane worried May, but it proved to be the catalyst for Queen reaching the top of their game. In the late 1970s, Mercury revelled in hedonism and wanted to keep the good times rolling forever, inspiring the hit \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Me Now\u2019.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned track, which appeared on the band\u2019s album Jazz, was recorded in Switzerland in 1978, with Mercury writing the lyrics as a sole endeavour. Everything in his life was going swimmingly, and he wanted to bottle these emotions forever, which he did in the form of a song.<\/p>\n

Despite initially not performing well, by Queen\u2019s high standards<\/a>, as a single, \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Me Now\u2019 later became one of the group\u2019s most beloved tracks. Yet, at first, even May was unsure of the song and felt it expressed an inappropriate message that didn\u2019t fit the band\u2019s moral compass.<\/p>\n

\"Freddie<\/a>A leather-clad Freddie Mercury. (Credits: Far Out \/ Elektra Records)<\/p>\n

However, the guitarist later reassessed his opinion upon seeing how it connected with the general public, who adopted it as their hedonistic anthem. May went full circle from viewing \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Me Now\u2019 as an irresponsible act of musicianship to appreciating it as the \u201cstroke of genius\u201d from Mercury that it was.<\/p>\n

During an interview with\u00a0Absolute Radio\u00a0in 2011, May said: \u201cI thought it was a lot of fun, but I did have an undercurrent feeling of, \u2018aren\u2019t we talking about danger here,\u2019 because we were worried about Freddie at this point.\u201d it\u2019s a reminder of the moral code that bands have to address when dabbling in the triumvirate of sex, drugs and rock n\u2019 roll. <\/p>\n

The archetype of a rock band is to go headfirst into the world\u2019s darker places, revel in rebellion and enjoy the wilder sides of life. But as that started to catch up with Mercury and what went up was starting to come down, May and the rest of the band had to often reconsider the message they were putting out into the world. However, for May, the song seemed to bring more positivity than negativity. <\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t mean that the song\u2019s true origination doesn\u2019t still hang on in May\u2019s mind, \u201cThat feeling lingers, but it\u2019s become almost the most successful Queen track as regards to what people play in their car or at their weddings. It\u2019s become a massive, massive track and an anthem to people who want to be hedonistic. It was kind of a stroke of genius from Freddie,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Similar to May, Queen drummer Roger Taylor wasn\u2019t initially particularly enamoured with \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Me Now\u2019, but the way the song\u2019s meaning has evolved over the years is a source of pride for the musician.<\/p>\n

Taylor told Mojo in 2019: \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily think it\u2019s one of our best songs, but I love the sentiment \u2018call me Mr. Fahrenheit.\u2019 It\u2019s hilarious and it\u2019s become a sort of rallying cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t Stop Me Now\u2019 offers a snapshot into Mercury\u2019s existence when he was happiest and had no care in the world. While he was later cruelly robbed of his life<\/a>, this track paints a portrait of the person that he\u2019d want to be remembered.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Carl Lender) Wed 31 December 2025 8:44, UK Working alongside Freddie Mercury in Queen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1005,96,1004,128,1006,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-344591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-brian-may","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-freddie-mercury","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-queen","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}