The singer Freddie Mercury said had “one of the best voices ever”
Any singer who has ever dreamed of wowing crowds across the world is going to be studying Freddie Mercury for the rest of their lives.
Up until his final show, there wasn’t a single soul that could entertain a crowd the way he could, and even while being so mild-mannered behind the scenes, he could turn into an animal from the minute he started singing some of those Queen classics. But that didn’t mean that Mercury couldn’t still find some room for improvement when he looked at the kind of artists he was up against.
Then again, to have someone of that level think that they could improve feels almost foolish. There is hardly anyone with that much charisma in one body, and yet, when looking at some Queen classics, there are a few songs that he wishes could have been done differently. Brian May may have had his qualms with a song like ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, but Mercury, being frustrated with all of the pieces of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ before stringing them together, is either a work of genius or one of the most glorious happy accidents in rock and roll history, depending on how you look at it.
But even if they were technical wizards, the stage was just comfortable enough for Mercury to own every single time he went up there. He was playing rock and roll better than anyone else, but there was also a regality to the way he conducted himself. The band wasn’t named after royalty by accident, and seeing him own the stage felt like a mighty ruler commanding his subjects half the time.
This probably explains why his taste ventured towards more theatrical flavours of rock and roll. He loved the power that hard rock had, the dramatic flair of opera, and the showmanship that someone like Elvis Presley had, but nothing could compare with someone who was making soulful music. Mercury classified his sound as ‘emotional music’ whenever he talked about himself, but of all his influences, it was strange to see him share his love for people like Aretha Franklin.
Because, really, R&B isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind when looking at Queen’s work. They had a heavy dose of funk thanks to John Deacon’s love of bands like Chic, but when looking at their performance of ‘Somebody to Love’, Mercury was doing everything that he could to do justice to what Franklin did, down to that massive descending scale that happens towards the end of the tune.
Some people can get a bit more granular about her sense of pitch, but Mercury felt that nothing could replace the raw emotion in Franklin’s voice, saying, “I love Aretha Franklin above all other singers. She must have one of the best voices ever and she sings like a dream. I wish I could sing half as well as she does. It’s so natural and she puts her whole emotion into it. Each word she sings is so full of meaning and expression. I could listen to it forever. I can still see Aretha as part of my world. ‘Natural Woman’ is one of my all-time favourites.”
That kind of passion might not show up in the same way when Mercury is singing, but it’s more felt half the time. ‘We Are the Champions’ isn’t necessarily in the same R&B and gospel areas that Franklin thrived in by any stretch, but when listening to Mercury’s emotional gravitas in the chorus, he was taking her example and pumping it up on steroids to the point where it sounded like the greatest anthem ever made.
So while people can still try to practice their best Mercury moves in the mirror, the reason why he had the confidence to command a crowd like Wembley Stadium all comes from the lessons that Franklin taught him. Not everyone might be able to reach her voice, but as long as any singer knew how to be themselves like she did, there was no limit to where they could do later down the line.
