#las palabras de amor
June 1, 1982
Single release of Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love) on 7" vinyl. B-Side – Cool Cat. In the UK chart single spent 8 weeks, the highest position – the 17th.
The song was written by Brian May, who was deeply impressed by the warm welcome of Latin American fans in February-March 1981 (Argentina, Brazil). Since Brian studied Spanish a little bit, he picked up a few words in Spanish for the new song to create something similar to the 1976 Teo Torriatte for Japanese fans.
It was with Las Palabras De Amor Queen that they performed for the last (15th) time on Top of the Pops (recorded on June 9, 1982, aired on June 17). However, during the life of Freddie Mercury, Queen did not play the song live, except for a few introductory chords played by Brian on a 12-string acoustic guitar at a concert in Milton Keynes June 5, 1982, before the beginning of Love Of My Life.
The first full live performance of Las Palabras De Amor took place on April 20, 1992 at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness. Queen performed it with the Italian singer Zucchero. The song was later included on the 2008 rock the Cosmos Tour setlist (for Spain and Latin America).
7 years later, in 2015, during another visit to Chile, Roger Taylor in an interview with the local newspaper La Tercera said:
«When we first came to South America, we unfortunately could not visit Chile, but we performed in Brazil and Argentina. I remember that Brian was very inspired by the fantastic reception of Latin Americans, and we decided to write a song with the choir in Spanish as an expression of gratitude, because you can’t just sing in English all the time.
The audience was very hot and sincere. We saw the enthusiasm with which they sing along to our songs, and wanted to express in this way the return courtesy.»
that damn smile
