The following is adapted from LIFE’s new special issue on West Side Story, is available online and at retail outlets nationwide.
It was the kind of break most any songwriter in 1957 would have killed for: the chance to work with Leonard Bernstein on a Broadway-bound musical based on Romeo and Juliet. But Stephen Sondheim, who died on Nov. 26, 2021 at age 91, was never just any songwriter. When he was 25 years old, with the barest experience, only arm-twisting by his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II, convinced him to accept the offer. “I didn’t want to do it,” Sondheim remembered later, but “[Oscar] said…this is the chance to work with real professionals…” And so, “I said okay. And that’s how I got the job.”
To describe Sondheim as a precocious talent would be stating the obvious. He completed his first full musical, By George, a comic take on high school, at 15 and enlisted Hammerstein, the father of a friend, to critique it. As a college undergrad, Sondheim adapted a George S. Kaufman play as a musical and completed four other musicals of his own. One of his earliest professional jobs was composing songs for Saturday Night, a work by twin screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein of Casablanca fame.
But for all of Sondheim’s success, as his career progressed, his work got darker, less commercial, and less popular with broad American audiences. Company, from 1970, about a womanizer, was told in out-of-chronological order. Pacific Overtures, from 1976, about the westernization of Japan, originally was presented in Kabuki style. And then there’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, from 1979, about revenge and cannibalism. His work was less like that of his musical theater contemporary, glitzmaster Andrew Lloyd Webber, than the poets Robert Lowell and John Berryman, wrote critic Adam Kirsch in the Wall Street Journal earlier in 2021. “Sondheim’s sense that we reveal ourselves in what we don’t say and do—that slips and silences can be as important as full-throated declarations—is another thing that he shares with writers of his generation,” wrote Kirsch.
It’s unlikely Sondheim would have disagreed, at least when it came to the kind of writing that interested him. He had dismissed the lyrics of West Side Story favorites such as “I Feel Pretty” as embarrassing, and the lyrics of “Tonight,” the iconic fire escape duet between Tony and Mary, as artificial. In an interview on 60 Minutes in 2020, when West Side Story was being revived on Broadway, Sondheim told Bill Whitaker he wished he’d never written the line from “Tonight,” Today the world was just an address. It was too “fancy” for a tough-guy teen, Sondheim said. As for “I Feel Pretty,” the composer in a different interview complained that it, too, did not align with the character: “She’s a Puerto Rican street girl. She should speak in street poetry.”
However he felt about the lines, they are part of one the most beloved shows in the history of Broadway, and of the rich and complex legacy of a true titan of the stage.
In its Aug. 23, 1963 issue, which featured Frank Sinatra and Frank Sinatra Jr. on the cover, LIFE decided to pay homage to the men of Italy. The story presented photos of men in a variety of situations and circumstances—a father giving away a bride, a farmer tending his goats, workmen on a lunch break, a mountaineer reaching a summit, a goofball clowning on the beach.
This tribute to the Italian male began with these words:
In whatever he does, from quietly combing the hair of a girl friend to loudly showing off at the swimming pool, the Italian man is the most natural of men. His spontaneity and his self-confidence are unequalled. He knows the girl will sigh with bliss, that there will be water under him when he comes down. He treats fleeting moments as if they were the most important in his life—because they are. As his country—and his spirits revived, the world has become better acquainted and even fascinated with his engaging qualities. For his candid enthusiasm and sensuality have helped fill the world with music and art, laughter and love and a particular kind of triumphant masculinity.
While making generalizations—even positive ones—about the male population of an entire country can be a dubious enterprise, in this case the idea is justified by the results, which are outstanding. The photos for the essay were taken by Paul Schutzer, a prodigal talent who became a LIFE staff photographer at the age of 26, and whose most famous images came from the big stages of history; Schutzer would die while on assignment in a combat zone, covering the Six-Day War in 1967.
But in his essay on the Italian man, it’s clear how much he was inspired by the opportunity to capture something about everyday life. Look at this run of pictures and you can practically hear Paul Schutzer saying “Oh, that guy is amazing. And that one. And that one.” Over and over and over. The original essay ran for six pages in magazine, but Schutzer took thousands of frames, enough to fill an encyclopedia. Roaming the cities and the countryside of Italy, he couldn’t stop shooting—which is as true a form a tribute as can be.
A man combed a woman’s hair, Italy, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian man, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian man, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian man, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian man, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Photo essay on the men of Italy, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian man, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A father, soon to be overcome by emotion (see next photo), walked his daughter down the aisle.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A father broke down while walking his daughter down the wedding aisle.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A farmer tended his goats, from an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From an essay on the Italian male, 1963.
Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
An Italian mountain climber lifted his hat in salute after reaching a mountaintop, 1963.
Jane Fonda’s appearances in LIFE magazine from 1960 to 1971 track the transformations of an actress finding her voice.
Fonda, born on Dec. 21, 1937, was pictured alongside her famous father when she made the cover of LIFE for the first time in the Feb. 22, 1960 issue. Henry Fonda had starred in such films as The Grapes of Wrath and Twelve Angry Men, among dozens of others, and LIFE heralded Jane’s joining the family business with a fanfare that was positively Olympian: “Like an ancient goddess who was born full-grown out of her father’s head, Jane Fonda at 22 has sprung up almost magically as a full-fledged and versatile actress.”
The line was a reference to Greek mythology which cast Henry Fonda as Zeus and Jane as Athena. It was a lot to live up to. At that point Jane was just making her film debut in a 1960 romantic comedy called Tall Story. Jane played a cheerleader; her costar was Anthony Perkins, best remembered for his performance as Norman Bates in Psycho, released that same year. Tall Story made more of a thud than a splash.
But in 1964 Jane Fonda was featured in LIFE again, when she was in France to film Circle of Love, directed by Roger Vadim. Fonda didn’t make the cover then, but the magazine still gushed in the headline over “Henry Fonda’s lovely, leggy daughter.” The story continued in that frothy vein: “The girl’s look—soft, wheaten-blond hair, a dazzling smile, lovely long legs—is emphatically American and it is a look that knocks Frenchmen dead.”
Fonda let the world know she was all grown when she was back on the cover of LIFE for its March 29, 1968 issue, which trumpeted her performance in the outlandish cult classic Barbarella. (Watching the original theatrical trailer for the movie feels like a piece of sci-fi time travel itself). LIFE’s story on the actress paid much attention to the movie’s director, Vadim, who was now Fonda’s husband. He had previously been married to actress Brigitte Bardot, whom he had directed in And God Created Woman, and another actress, Annette Stroyberg; Vadim also had a child with French screen star Catherine Deneuve. LIFE wrote of Fonda’s union with the director: “She is caught up in an absorbing marriage with Vadim, whose reputation has him more knowledgeable in matters sexual than Kinsey, Freud and Krafft-Ebing, due partly to his many spectacular wives and partly to the films that he makes.” The story also discussed fissures in Jane Fonda’s relationship with her father, with who she was not speaking at the time. (They would later appear together in the 1981 film On Golden Pond, earning an Oscar for him and a nomination for Jane).
The April 23, 1971 cover of LIFE marked the first big story in which the magazine presented Jane Fonda chiefly on her own, rather than in relation to her father or her husband. The cover proclaimed her a “busy rebel” and the story focussed on her newfound activism, opening with this sly sentence: “When her estranged husband, French director Roger Vadim, called her Jane d’Arc, Jane Fonda didn’t smile.”
LIFE greeted Fonda’s political awakening with something less than enthusiasm (and this was before her controversial trip to Vietnam that gave her the nickname Hanoi Jane). The story was headlined “Nag, Nag, Nag,” and reported, “The Hollywood Women’s Press Club gave her its annual Sour Apple Award (for giving the industry a “sour image)” and some say her activities played a part in her failure to get an Oscar for her performance in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”
The magazine that had not too long ago swooned over her appearance now noted snarkily, “Long a member of the worst-dressed list, she has reduced her wardrobe to little more than two sweaters and two pairs of jeans, which she carries in a Louis Vuitton bag.”
Fonda’s transformation from ingenue to activist over the course of the 1960s was only the beginning of a fascinating evolution that defies easy summation. In the 1980s Fonda reinvented herself as the country’s leading workout guru, with her exercise videos topping the charts for six years. The outspoken critic of capitalism, after being married to progressive activist Tom Hayden for 17 years, followed that up with a ten-year marriage to media titan Ted Turner (they divorced in 2001).
The most consistent through-line is her acting, which continues fruitfully. She currently costars with Lily Tomlin in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, which has earned her award nominations and whose seven-season run is set to conclude in 2022.
Jane Fonda, 1956.
Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Henry Fonda with daughter Jane, 1960
Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda with her father Henry Fonda on the set of Henry’s television show, ‘The Deputy’, circa 1960.
Alan Grant/Life Pictures/Shuttetstock
Jane Fonda in cheerleader costume she wore for her film debut in the movie “Tall Story,” 1960.
Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda played a cheerleader in her film debut, the 1960 movie ‘Tall Story’.
Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Joshua L. Logan, who directed Jane Fonda’s film debut Tall Story and was also a family friend, studied a movie script with her, 1959.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Director Joshua L. Logan (center, right) with Jane Fonda (center, left) during the filming of Tall Story
Jane Fonda in California, 1959.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda, 1959.
Allan Grant/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda, 1959.
Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda, 1959.
Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda, 1961.
Gjon Mili/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The LIFE cover for the March 29, 1968 issue, featuring Jane Fonda wearing a space-age costume for title role in Roger Vadim’s film “Barbarella.”
Jane Fonda ensconced in the “excessive machine” on the set of Barbarella, 1968. At right is her husband, the director Roger Vadim.
Carlo Bavagnoli / The LIFE Picture Collection
Jane Fonda as Barbarella, 1968
Carlo Bavagnoli / The LIFE Picture Collection
Jane Fonda as Barbarella, 1968
Carlo Bavagnoli / The LIFE Picture Collection
Jane Fonda, wearing a space-age costume and holding a space gun, being carried by Guardian Angel (John Phillip) in a scene from Roger Vadim’s motion picture Barbarella.
LIFE Magazine will celebrate its 85th birthday on November 23, 2021. To mark the occasion, we’ve teamed up with our friends at TCG Toys for a month-long anniversary party and giveaway! Join us on Facebook and Instagram for beautiful photos, fun LIFE Trivia questions and for your chance to win a limited-edition LIFE anniversary puzzle.
The LIFE anniversary puzzle is now available for pre-order on Amazon. LIFE fans will love this puzzle featuring photos from the LIFE Picture Collection; each photograph celebrates a different issue from the first year of publication in 1936.
“We loved creating this commemorative puzzle and we’re so excited and honored to collaborate with our friends at LIFE on this project. It’s not every day you get to work with photography of this caliber,” said TCG Toys manager Thea Bourne. “To design this limited edition puzzle, we wanted to go back and explore the beginnings of both the magazine and the photography collection, selecting each image with love and care with the fans specially in mind.
“LIFE revolutionized the publishing industry right from its first edition with their astonishing photography,” Bourne continued, “and we felt it was important that we celebrate that, being sure to include the first cover image of Fort Peck Dam taken by Margaret Bourke-White in 1936. Each of the twelve images is a featured cover from the first year of publication, an homage to LIFE’s first year and a way for both LIFE and puzzle enthusiasts to bring these iconic images into their homes in a totally new way–much like how LIFE brought photography into the home in a totally new way back in 1936.”
Please see instructions below for how to win your very own LIFE Magazine limited edition puzzle!
Enter on Facebook or Instagram for your chance to win this puzzle!
Here’s How to EnterThrough Facebook or Instagram: (US + Canada Only)
The full giveaway series starts on October 20th, 2021 and ends on November 27, 2021. LIFE Anniversary Puzzles will be available for Pre-Order in November 2021 on Amazon.
1. Answer the Trivia Question by posting your answer in the comments on the post* 2. Like this Post 3. Tag a Friend 4. Follow Life.com, TCG Toys, & SureLox Puzzles
*To participate please respond to the original post on TCG Toys Facebook or Instagram. Please see the weekly posts on social media for the end and drawing of winners for each giveaway. Also please read all rules for the giveaway series below.
Rules to Enter: • You must be at least 18 years or older to enter. • Open to residents of continental United States and Canada only • No Purchase Necessary • This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed or associated with Instagram
GOOD LUCK! Winners are picked at random & announced each Saturday!
This collection of LIFE photos of comedy legends proves one thing definitively: There’s a lot of ways to be funny.
Many take the broad approach, of course. The Three Stooges, for example, appear in their photos with eyes popping, arms akimbo and so forth. The masters of slapstick rode that shtick into the hearts of comedy-loving children for generations.
But there are other ways to get a laugh. Look at Bob Hope for example. His expressions in this photos capture his signature style: he is smart, aware, amused by it all. He was funny in large part because of how he reacted to what was going on about him.
You could say the same for Jacques Tati, the adored French comedian who came to New York in 1958 for a movie premiere and brought a LIFE photographer along to for a day of his distinct version of clowning as he moved about the city, in a befuddled battle with the modern world (including modern art, when he stops by MoMA).
Phil Silvers is the impish trickster, always working a hustle, and he did in his most beloved character, Sergeant Bilko.
Phyllis Diller, it becomes clear in her pictures, was really ahead of her time, and not just because of she was a pioneering figure for female stand-up comedians. In the photos of her with a giant mink and with her preposterous collections, she looks like she was parodying the Kardashians a half-century before their show came on the air.
Another lesson to take from this collection is that while comedy can be heavily verbal, so much of a performer’s particular style and wit can come through in a still photograph. Consider the picture of photos of Ernie Kovacs, the inventive and influential satirist who was the subject of a 1957 LIFE cover story. The photos include a staged shot of Kovacs eating dinner with his family, with everyone, and especially his wife Edie, looking quite distant and miserable. In another photo Kovacs and Edie are in bed together, watching separate televisions, in another subversion of expectation. No canned versions of domestic bliss here, although the caption for that photo did quote Kovacs as saying, “Edie’s never said `Get that cigar out of here before I tear your arm off,'” and for that I am grateful….I love her for that.”
And in a postscript note: the search for photos of comedy legends showed a surprising number of photos in which they were dancing: Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Lewis—even Johnny Carson tries out some steps on stage with soul legend James Brown. Jack Benny’s body language shows a physical grace as he entertains the troops. Perhaps it’s a throwback to when the comedy world’s proving grounds were vaudeville rather than standup or Saturday Night Live. Whatever a case, some of these the old-time funny people knew how to move.
Bob Hope during the rehearsals for the 1958 Academy Awards.
Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Bob Hope, 1962.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Bob Hope on the set of the 1958 television movie version of Roberta.
Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Comedian Bob Hope (left) with Soupy Sales (second from right) and Shirley MacLaine, their faces covered with remnants of cream pies, 1962.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A Milton Berle joke slayed Tony Curtis, Dean Martin, and publicist Warran Cowan. “Show Miltie a curtain, he takes a bow,'” said Dean.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis at the Copacabana, 1949.
Ralph Morse/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis at the Copacabana, 1949.
Ralph Morse/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Bob Hope with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in 1950
Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Three Stooges performed a skit, 1959.
Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Three Stooges performed a skit, 1959.
Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Pickle Queen posed with the Three Stooges during National Pickle Week, 1949.
Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Comedian Phil Silvers, in the character of Sgt. Bilko, shuffling cards on his television show.
Yale Joel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Gracie Allen and George Burns, 1958. On the wall behind them is a photo of the pair, in a similar pose, from their days as vaudeville performers.
Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Actor George Burns (R) and actor Jack Benny (L) rehearsed a scene on the George Burns Show, 1958.
Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Entertainer Jack Benny performed bits for troops stationed in Korea, 1951.
Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
French actor Jacques Tati in New York City, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
French actor Jacques Tati looked at the high ceiling of a New York City lobby, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacques Tati examined a sculpture by Max Ernst at the Museum of Modern Art, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Mike Nichols and Elaine May doing skit on recent TV scandals during “Fabulous Fifties” TV special, 1960.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Comic Ernie Kovacs having dinner at home with his wife, Edie Adams, and his two daughters by a previous marriage, 1958.
Ralph Morse/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Actress Barbara Loden had her face made up for spoof of a cosmetics ad to appear for an Ernie Kovacs special, with a TV filter helping to complete the gag, 1958.
Ralph Morse/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Comic Ernie Kovacs at home in bed watching twin TV sets with his wife Edie Adams, 1958. Kovacs remarked, “Edie’s never said `Get that cigar out of here before I tear your arm off,'” and for that I am grateful….I love her for that.”
Ralph Morse/Life Pictures, Shutterstock
Phyllis Diller, wearing a fox fur coat and high-heeled half boots, is picked up by a driver sent by her husband at the St. Louis airport, April 1963.
Francis Miller/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Phyllis Diller sits amid a large collection of hat boxes in the basement of her St. Louis home, 1963.
Francis Miller/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Phyllis Diller read the names of the well-known (including Frank Sinatra, Vic Damone and the Vagabonds) and the not so well-known on a wall after circling her own name (center), 1963.
Francis Miller/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Entertainer Jackie Gleason (C) executing his famous How Aweet It Is dance wlhile the chorus girls are taking a bow behind him, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Actors Jackie Gleason (L) and Gene Kelly (C) casually tap dancing Ed Sullivan during visit to Gleason’s studio, 1967
Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Singer James Brown (R) teaching talk show host Johnny Carson how to dance, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson, host of The Tonight Show, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in his Manhattan apartment, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson and his Tonight Show cohost Ed McMahon, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Rodney Dangerfield (left) and Joan Rivers (right) wrapped up Dick Cavett in a scene from Portnoy’s Complaint, 1969.
Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Comedian Henry Youngman (left) in a steam cabinet in Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1960.
Francis Miller/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Henry Youngman drying out after steam bath in Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1960.
Through its remarkable heyday, Queen—with its singular star, Freddie Mercury, and deliciously innovative guitar player, Brian May—touched folks from across the musical and pop culture spectrum. Below are ten quotes that speak to the depth and breadth of the band’s appeal. These quotes, along with spectacular photographs and a gripping narrative of the band’s rise, appears in LIFE’s new tribute issue to the band Queen: The Music. The Life. The Rhapsody, available at newsstands and online.
1) “Musically, they’re so good. The whole group stuns you, first of all because they look so interesting.” —Liza Minnelli, one of Mercury’s two favorite performers, along with Jimi Hendrix
2) “Freddie took it further than the rest . . . he took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights.” —David Bowie
3) “The most important figures in rock ’n’ roll. Freddie’s a real one-off, and that time, nobody looked like him, nobody sang like him, with the harmonies and everything.” —Elton John
4) “Every band should study Queen at Live Aid. If you really feel like that barrier is gone, you become Freddie Mercury.” —Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, on the 1985 dual-venue concert at which 70 acts performed and Queen’s bravura, 19-minute setstole the show
5) “They’ve always approached music very intelligently, probably because they have so many degrees.” —Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy, referring to the fact that all four Queen members graduated from university
6) “[Brian May] is the governor, he’s the best pop-oriented guitar player there is, really.” —Jeff Beck
7) “The name fits the band, and it fits Freddie too, it seems, because the whole thing was so majestic.” —Paul Young
8) “For a long time, I think almost all the music I played was Queen. I had a big addiction.” —Sir Jackie Stewart, three-time Formula One world champion
9) “If I didn’t have Freddie Mercury’s lyrics to hold on to as a kid, I don’t know where I would be. It taught me about all forms of music. It would open my mind. I never really had a bigger teacher in my whole life.” —Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses
10) “Freddie Mercury was and remains my biggest influence. The combination of his sarcastic approach to writing lyrics and his ‘I don’t give a f—’ attitude really inspired my music.” —Katy Perry
