{"id":309967,"date":"2026-07-30T17:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/309967\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T17:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:30:09","slug":"brian-may-names-freddie-mercurys-most-beautiful-queen-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/309967\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian May names Freddie Mercury\u2019s \u201cmost beautiful\u201d Queen song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian May and Freddie Mercury created some of Queen\u2019s most enduring anthems, with the guitarist\u2019s melodic precision providing the perfect counterbalance to Mercury\u2019s theatrical brilliance. But when asked to name the most beautiful song his late bandmate ever wrote, May doesn\u2019t point to \u201cBohemian Rhapsody<\/a>,\u201d \u201cSomebody to Love\u201d or any of Queen\u2019s other towering classics.<\/p>\n

Instead, he chooses a far less obvious track: \u201cIt\u2019s a Hard Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Released in 1984 as the third single from Queen\u2019s 11th studio album, The Works, the song became the band\u2019s third consecutive U.K. top 10 hit, peaking at number six. In the U.S., however, it stalled at number 72 \u2014 a modest showing compared with many of Queen\u2019s biggest successes.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Freddie\n<\/p>\n

Performing at California\u2019s Oakland Coliseum in 1977. (Image credit: Richard McCaffrey\/ Michael Ochs Archive\/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Despite that, it remains a song that holds deep personal meaning for May. Writing in the liner notes for Queen\u2019s Greatest Video Hits 2 compilation in 2003, the guitarist described Mercury\u2019s composition as one of the most revealing pieces his bandmate ever created.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my mind, it\u2019s one of the most beautiful songs that Freddie ever wrote,\u201d May said. \u201cIt\u2019s straight from the heart, and he really opened up during the creation of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

The song arrived during a period when Queen were still capable of producing massive hits, including \u201cRadio Ga Ga,\u201d \u201cI Want to Break Free,\u201d and \u201cHammer to Fall.\u201d Yet beneath its grand arrangement \u2014 Mercury\u2019s soaring falsetto, ornate piano work, and May\u2019s carefully placed electric guitar<\/a> lines \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s a Hard Life\u201d was ultimately a deeply personal song about relationships and emotional struggle.<\/p>\n

For May, the most memorable part was watching Mercury reveal that side of himself during the writing process.<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat with him for hours and hours pouring over every word and trying to get the most out of it,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt\u2019s a very revealing thing about how relationships are, and he was talking about his relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song\u2019s famously extravagant music video, filmed in Munich, Germany, might suggest otherwise. Mercury appears in the outfit Queen jokingly called \u201cThe Giant Mediterranean Prawn,\u201d while May wields a skull-shaped guitar that was merely a prop. The video\u2019s lavish setting and theatrical excess seemed at odds with the song\u2019s emotional weight \u2014 and that was partly the point.<\/p>\n

\n

\"British\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it\u2019s one of his loveliest songs, and on the face of it, I think I was mortified that he wanted to make this kind of video because it\u2019s totally distracting,\u201d May said. \u201cThis is a Freddie indulgence, and we indulged him. With pleasure I have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

That willingness to indulge each other was a key part of Queen\u2019s creative chemistry \u2014 although May has also revealed there were moments when he had to fight to get his own ideas heard, including when he pushed to include a guitar solo<\/a> on one of the band\u2019s biggest hits<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian May and Freddie Mercury created some of Queen\u2019s most enduring anthems, with the guitarist\u2019s melodic precision providing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-309967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}