Love Of My Life

"Love of My Life" is a ballad from the album A Night at the Opera by English rock band Queen. A live release of the single reached number 1 in Argentina and Brazil, in 1979. The preceding track on the album, "The Prophet's Song", flows seamlessly into this song, although the two were never performed back to back live. Freddie Mercury wrote it on the piano and guitarist Brian May rearranged the song for acoustic 12-string guitar to facilitate live performances. May contributed occasional guitar phrases to the original recording and played the swooping harp glissandi by pasting together multiple takes of single chords. The song is a good example of Mercury's familiarity with rubato phrasing, showcasing his classical piano influences, notably by Chopin and Beethoven. The song was written for Mary Austin, Mercury's girlfriend at the time. "Love of My Life" was such a concert favourite that Mercury frequently stopped singing and allowed the audience to take over. It was especially well received during concerts in South America, and the band released the song as a single there. The 1979 album Live Killers features a live version of the song. It was also performed during the Queen Rock Montreal, Live at the Bowl, Live at Wembley '86, and Return of the Champions concerts. There is a live video of the song on the DVD Greatest Video Hits 1 of a May-Mercury-Audience trio in Tokyo, 1979. The audio for that clip came from a 1979 performance in Frankfurt. After Mercury's death, Brian May usually dedicated the song to his late friend. A notable exception is the Sheffield show which yielded the Return of the Champions CD and DVD. At that show, May announced that Mercury's mother was at the show and he dedicated the song to her. In the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour, May would sing a few lines of the song, then let the audience take over. He did this on every verse.

[Intro] [Verse 1] Love of my life, you've hurt me You've broken my heart And now you leave me [Chorus] Love of my life, can't you see? Bring it back, bring it back Don't take it away from me Because you don't know What it means to me [Verse 2] Love of my life, don't leave me You've taken my love (all my love) And now desert me [Chorus] Love of my life, can't you see? (Please bring it back, back) Bring it back Bring it back, don't take it away from me Because you don't know what it means to me [Bridge] You will remember, when this is blown over And everything's all by the way When I grow older I will be there at your side To remind you how I still love you (I still love you) [Instrumental break] [Chorus] Back, hurry back Please bring it back home to me Because you don't know What it means to me [Outro] Love of my life Love of my life Ooh, ooh