“Three Voices, One Spirit: The Gospel Heart of Queen’s Final Chapter”

17 June 1996 – Queen released their 45th UK single, ‘Let Me Live’ with Bicycle Race’ and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls (1994 EMI Remaster)’

‘Let Me Live’ is the fourth single (UK) released from Queen’s fifteenth album, ‘Made In Heaven.’

This beautiful, welcome return to gospel started life in 1976 as an untitled impromptu jam with Rod Stewart. He visited the band during the recording of ‘A Day At The Races.’ Nothing became of the “jam” until seven years later when it was revisited in Los Angeles while Queen was working on ‘The Works’ album. Once again, Rod Stewart joined the band in the studio and he brought Jeff Beck with him. This time they were all able to flesh out a more fully working title of ‘Take Another Piece Of My Heart.’ It was intended for ‘The Works’ according to an early “ideas” cassette, the song was never finished and never made the cut. Queen placed it into their vault.

Then, a decade later, Brian, Roger and John returned to the studio to work on their final studio album, ‘Made In Heaven,’ and as with many songs on their last album after the death of Freddie, they pulled material out of their vault. This gem was one of the songs and they discovered they only had 90 seconds of Freddie’s voice to work with. Rod’s portion was scrapped and Freddie’s vocals were lovingly salvaged. An entire song was amazingly constructed around this small snippet. This is not only a testament to the advances of technology but the tenacity of the others to create a complete song.

Roger and Brian wrote additional verses to complete a full song. They also shared vocals making “Let Me Live” the only Queen song where Freddie, Roger and Brian share the lead. John with his own admission, said, ‘I can’t sing.’

Queen wanted to give this song a gospel touch so they added a choir-like harmony in the middle performed by session singers: Rebecca Leigh-White, Gary Martin, Catherine Porter (Brian May Band) and Miriam Stockley. This added layers of sweetness and the end result was astounding!

“Let Me Live” peaked at #9 on the UK charts.

“We started off with just scrapes of tape. It was a huge job… using the limited input we had from Freddie. Sometimes there was a complete first vocal take, whole other times there was no more than three or four lines. It was a labor of love for me, working through the night perhaps on just one line.”

“The last album is one of the most ridiculously painful experiences, creatively, I have ever had. But the quality’s good, partly because we did have those arguments. Whether it’s healthy for life or not is another matter.”

Queen promo photo for ‘The Miracle’
Look at John’s shoes.
Brian May Radio 1 interview :