September 5: Happy Birthday Freddie Mercury
https://lebeauleblog.com/2019/09/05/september-5-happy-birthday-freddie-mercury-and-john-stewart/
Freddie Mercury (1946-1991; given name Farrokh Bulsara) was born in present-day Tanzania to parents who were from India. Mercury attended British schools in the Mumbai area, where he formed his first band, and moved to England with his family in the early sixties. He played in some short-lived bands in the late sixties, and in 1970, a band that included guitarist Brian May recruited him as lead singer.share
By spring of the following year, the band had a new name, Queen, and a lineup that would stay constant for two decades: Mercury as lead singer, May on guitar, John Deacon on bass and Roger Taylor on drums (although some instrumental assignments were flexible). Mercury was also one of their main songwriters. Initially a hard rock/metal band, Queen evolved a more mainstream rock sound over the years.
Queen were popular in the UK from the start, but didn’t really break out in the US until they released their 4th album, A Night at the Opera, in 1975. Their single “Bohemian Rhapsody,” written by Mercury, was a huge hit in England. A single from their album News of the World, also written by Mercury, was enormously successful in the US as well.
https://youtu.be/KXw8CRapg7k
Queen continued to be successful worldwide into the early 1980s. They had huge hit singles in “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Another One Bites the Dust, and wrote the soundtrack to the film Flash Gordon. Mercury also did occasional solo albums. One was Barcelona, a collaboration with operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. The title song from that album became a theme song at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
As the 1980s progressed, it became clear that Mercury was not well. He had been diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987, but did not publicize the fact at the time. The band was forced to curtail their touring, although they continued recording new albums. Mercury confirmed his AIDS diagnosis publicly in November 1991, only a day before his death.
Rolling Stone ranked Mercury 18th in their listing of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Last year, Rami Malek starred as Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and made a sweep of the major Best Actor honors.