Love Of My Life
Love of My Life is a ballad by British rock band Queen from the album A Night at the Opera. It was originally written on the piano by Freddie Mercury, but later guitarist Brian May re-arranged the song for acoustic 12-string guitar to facilitate live performances. Though May only contributed occasional guitar phrases to the original recording, he also played the swooping harp glissandos (by pasting together multiple takes of single chords). The song is a good example of Mercury's familiarity with rubato phrasing, which showcases his classical piano influences (notably Chopin and Beethoven).
The previous track on the album ("The Prophet's Song") flows seamlessly into "Love of My Life", although the two were never performed back-to-back by Queen. "Love of My Life" was such a concert favourite that Mercury would frequently stop singing and allow the audience take over completely (a phenomenon that encouraged the band to write future songs such as "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" specifically with audience participation in mind). It was especially well received during concerts in South America, which encouraged the band to release the song as a single there.
A live version can be found on the 1979 album Live Killers. It was also performed during the Live at the Bowl, Live at Wembley '86, and Return of the Champions concerts.