A fan account on Instagram dedicated to Queen icon Freddie Mercury posted his photos with British musician Sir Cliff Richard and revealed a rarely known story of how Freddie amazed him with his unique voice.
The legendary frontman of Queen Freddie Mercury sadly passed away in 1991 at the age of 45. The cause of his death was later revealed as bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. The fans and friends around the world were devastated by the news of his death.
One of the most popular fan pages of Freddie Mercury on Instagram named Freddie Mercury Online posted a photo of the Queen star with the famous musician Sir Cliff Richard taken in 1986.
On the caption of the post, the fan account shared the story behind the photo which was taken while Mercury and Richard were working together for a musical named ‘Time.’ Although he recorded two tracks for the cast album, Freddie did not appear in the musical itself, except at a special charity performance. On that charity performance, Freddie sang the same two tracks as well as ‘Born To Rock ‘n’ Roll‘ and ‘It’s In Every One Of Us‘ as a duet with Sir Cliff Richard.
Furthermore, the fan account added a quote from Richard expressing how his thoughts changed when he heard Mercury singing his version of ‘In My Defence.’ Apparently, initially, Cliff was not happy about Freddie being the first choice in the tracks in the musical arrangements. However, when he heard the legendary singer singing, Richard realized the unquestionable vocal abilities Freddie had and never stopped praising him ever since.
Here’s the caption of the fan account dedicated to Freddie Mercury:
“Freddie and Sir Cliff Richard in 1986.
‘I got to sing with Freddie Mercury, how many people can say that!?…. Barcelona was such a brave and ingenious project, just terrific and again, it was Freddie Mercury who dares to do it. It was the most unlikely project for a rock star to tackle and it was always going to have a stunt factor, but it was a lot bigger achievement than just that, just brilliant. Our industry is so small-minded, they should be supportive when someone makes a move in a new direction.’ — Cliff Richard.
Freddie’s old college mates claimed they together would listen to Cliff Richard among others, and when Freddie became a known person, both musicians got to know each other.”
The story continues:
“Freddie and Cliff Richard worked together when Dave Clark asked Freddie to join the ‘Time’ musical with Richard, being this the last time Freddie would ever sing live in front of an audience.
Apparently, Cliff being a star for such a long time, was not happy that Freddie Mercury was getting the first choice in the tracks in the musical arrangements but when he heard Freddie’s version of ‘In My Defence’, his jaw dropped to the floor and the whole song had to be changed for Cliff to be able to sing it as it was far too high for him. After this, he never stopped praising Freddie, being one of the few people able to visit him on his last months of life.”
You can see the photo posted by the Instagram account dedicated to Freddie Mercury below.
