Freddie Mercury secretly featured on a 1978 song Dave Grohl called “the most beautiful” ever written
Long-term Foo Fighters fans will know just how much of a Queen nut Dave Grohl is.
As far as Grohl’s concerned, Freddie Mercury stands as the ultimate frontman. From inducting Queen at the 2001 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame submission as well as the occasional one-stage performance with Brian May and Roger Taylor, it’s Queen’s immortal show at Live Aid that left the deepest impression on the old Nirvana drummer, a commanding connection with the audience that set a standard he agreed as “one of the most triumphant live performances of all time” to The Atlantic when musing on the power of the concert.
However, Mercury’s magic proved the most touching far away from the Queen canon and their Broadway rock opera. He’d been busy outside his day job by the late 1970s and early 1980s, lending his vocals and production chops to cuts from Ian Hunter, Billy Squier, Eddie Howell, and long-buried collaborations with Michael Jackson.
Yet, it would be a quietly uncredited contribution in the studio that would yield a lifelong love for the Foo Fighters frontman.
A stalwart of the Los Angeles soft rock scene, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Gold would jump between various bands in the city before finding serious industry recognition with his arranging skills on Linda Ronstadt’s Heart Like a Wheel. Before long, his solo career would kick off in earnest, already penning songs as far back as his school days.
It would be 1978’s ‘Never Let Her Slip Away’ that would stand as Gold’s defining piece in the eyes of many fans. A jaunty love song for his then-girlfriend, Saturday Night Live star Laraine Newman, All This and Heaven Too’s final single would also boast Eagles associates JD Souther and Timothy B Schmit for backing vocal harmonies, rendering Mercury’s parts hard to discern.
And there’s a reason. As announced on Gold’s official Facebook page in 2012, a representative made clear that such Mercury guest vocals were merely the stuff of urban legends: “Andrew never mentioned working with Queen or Freddie. Sometimes there are mistakes in the credits, but I doubt anyone would have missed Freddie!! I, of course, checked the vinyl insert to make sure. If JD tells me Freddie snuck in the studio, I will report back!!”
Whatever the case, ‘Never Let Her Slip Away’ proved an immortal slice of romantic pop to Grohl when discussing the song on his 2013 WTF with Marc Maron appearance, claiming Gold’s UK Top Ten smash was “the most beautiful piece of music ever written,” and “maybe one of the most melodically sophisticated songs I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” and even hinted at a wish to record his own version.
An official Foo Fighters take on ‘Never Let Her Slip Away’ has yet to materialise, but off the back of his Various Artists take on The Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’ a few years back, it could be that Grohl steps behind the mic for a rendition of Gold’s enduring lover song in a similar fashion.
