Love Of My Life - Queen

If I had a favorite group as a kid it was Queen. The first song I remember liking was Blinded By The Light - by Manfred Man and the Earth Band but there was a moment when Queen was on the Midnight Special that changed my life.

They did Bohemian Rhapsody. Combined with filmed segments and live action the group created what many have called the first true rock video. As a child of the 80s (who is also an expert on that time period), I would have to agree. I had never seen a song presented in that way and I instantly recognized it as a game changer. From there on I had to get everything they released. Aside from the Beatles, there was no other group that I followed as much as Queen.

When I was a kid my parents would let me and my sister get two albums a month. We loved music in our house and it was really just an excuse by my parents to bring more tunes into the home. I once traded with my sister to get her choice so that I could get Queen - Night at the Opera and Queen - Day at the Races (named for two Marx Brothers movies) at the same time. It was a major coup for me. I loved that their albums came with lyrics and spiffy embossed art on the record sleeves.

Queen was a group who wrote beautiful music, always experimenting with presentation and style. It wasn't as difficult to get into as say a Led Zeppelin whose entire discography sounds the same to me.

I read Lord of the Rings around the time I was listening to Queen II and that has forever been my soundtrack to Middle Earth. The song, Love of My Life, is from Queen II and is the perfect ballad for Aragorn and Arwin.

When I was at cadet camp we needed a song that we could play when we first woke up. We had to be down to the parade square in 3 minutes so we needed something fast and upbeat to move our asses. Queen - Mustapha from the album JAZZ was perfect for the job at three minutes and eight seconds.