这首歌旋律复杂,音轨众多,编排类似于一支福音合唱团[5]。它是专辑《A Day at the Races》中的第一首单曲,主唱默丘里、吉他手梅和鼓手泰勒的歌声被多轨录音,以创造出一百人合唱团的效果。贝斯手约翰·迪肯没有在此歌中献声。歌词受到了福音音乐的影响,内容和信仰、绝望、灵魂相关。歌手诉说生命中缺少爱的经历,探寻神扮演的角色和存在性[1]。该曲在A♭大调上,最低音为唱“Can anybody find me?”和声中的F2,最高音为真声C5和假声A♭5,都由默丘里完成[6]。
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“《Somebody to Love》受了艾瑞莎·弗蘭克林的影响。弗雷迪对她的音乐很着迷。我们试图把这首歌做成松散的、福音音乐风格的感觉。我认为这是我们做过的最松散的歌。[注 2]
该曲的音乐视频采用了在萨尔姆东录音室(英语:Sarm East Studios)的录音过程视频(专辑《A Day at the Races》的录制地点)和同年九月乐队在海德公园的现场演唱视频。皇后乐队的巡演工作人员领导彼得·赫恩斯(Peter Hince)在Mojo杂志(英语:Mojo_(magazine))的采访中回忆道:“从视频的美学角度上来说,你得让四名乐队成员都围着话筒唱,但约翰(迪肯)并没有参与唱歌。他自己承认他没有好听的声音。他的确在现场演唱时参与和声,但工作人员总是知道把他的话筒音量控制得很小。[注 3][8]”
美剧《欢乐合唱团》(Glee)的演员们在2009年的《The Rhodes Not Taken》一集中翻唱[20]。
脚注
引用英语原文
^原文:"Queen could swing as hard as it could rock, by channeling the spirit of gospel music."
^原文:"'Somebody To Love' is Aretha Franklin-influenced. Freddie's very much into that. We tried to keep the track in a loose, gospel-type feel. I think it's the loosest track we've ever done."
^原文:"Aesthetically, you had to have all four around the microphone, but John (Deacon) didn't sing on the records. By his own admission he didn't have the voice. He did sing on-stage but the crew always knew to keep the fader very low."