Composition
The song was composed by John Deacon, with a meter of 4/4 (12/8), with one bar in 6/4 during the chorus, and a key of C-major (a-minor).
The album A Night at the Opera features songs of numerous styles including this three-minute ballad pop song. Very unusually for the genre there is no section appearing more than twice. On the other hand, in terms of phrases and measures, we find numerous repetitions or variants. The form is cyclic and very similar to that of "Spread Your Wings" (1977). Another similarity between the two songs is the lack of (real) modulation. The arrangement features 3- and 4-part vocal and guitar harmonies (no rhythm guitar), bass (melodic approach), drums, and electric piano. This is Deacon's second recorded song and the first one released on single (some six months after the album-release). Mercury's lead vocal features lot of "special effects" (voice, rubato-ized rhythms, ornaments, slided notes).
Read more about this topic: You're My Best Friend (Queen Song)
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)
“I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Give a scientist a problem and he will probably provide a solution; historians and sociologists, by contrast, can offer only opinions. Ask a dozen chemists the composition of an organic compound such as methane, and within a short time all twelve will have come up with the same solution of CH4. Ask, however, a dozen economists or sociologists to provide policies to reduce unemployment or the level of crime and twelve widely differing opinions are likely to be offered.”
—Derek Gjertsen, British scientist, author. Science and Philosophy: Past and Present, ch. 3, Penguin (1989)