The song “These are the Days of our Lives” by legendary U.K. rock group Queen has the last footage of iconic lead singer Freddie Mercury live on film. There’s something that some fans may not know. The video for “These Are the Days of our Lives” was eventually completed in black and white because Freddie was so ill from the AIDS that was killing him that it showed on camera. “These are the Days of our Lives” was credited to the entire band, but it was actually mostly written by Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, and was released as a single on Freddie’s 45th birthday, September 5, 1991, just over two months before Freddie Mercury died in the same year.
When it was released as a double A-side with Bohemian Rhapsody after Freddie died, it hit the U.K. Singles Chart at number one and stayed there for five weeks. It reached number 16 on the German charts and number one on the Irish charts. This video, in color, shows more than anything else that’s out there just how fragile Freddie was at this time. This filming was done in May of the year Freddie died, so about six months before he died. It also shows that he was patiently working through what he was going through.
It would have been easy for him to become angry and lash out at the people who were helping him, but that wasn’t his style. He knew that the problem was out of their control, and for that matter, out of his control.
Watch this video below. This is the last time Queen fans and Freddie Mercury’s devoted fans ever saw him alive. We’ve included the final video, shot in black and white, below this video.
Here is the final black and white video. The last video Freddie Mercury ever made.
