A visit from the Queen

I wonder how dear Ol’ Blue Eyes, the late Frank Sinatra, would react had he known that people in this country get killed because of his song My Way. And now it has become a joke that when you are inside a sing-along bar, nobody wants to hear or sing My Way for fear of his life or at the very least for fear of a bloody rumble.

My Way is a romantic song, first sung by Matt Monroe, then recorded by Frank Sinatra. For sing-along habitués, it is an easy piece to sing in spite of its high and low notes. If you have that baritone timber then My Way is a perfect song for you. Despite the danger it poses, it remains a favorite piece in bars. Sinatra and Monroe fans would not agree on how My Way has been terribly misjudged.

That piece is one of Sinatra’s most popular songs. Well, aside of course from countless hits like, Strangers in the Night, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, (which the Chairman of the Board himself, Mr. Frank Sinatra, also rendered in a duet with Bono of U2), When Somebody Loves You, It Had To Be You, Misty, Love’s Been Good to Me, Come Fly With Me, You and the Night and the Music, I’ve Got A Crush On You, I Got a Kick Out of You, Fly Me to the Moon, My Funny Valentine, Bewitched, Summer Wind, All the Way, Send In the Clowns, etc., etc.

Sinatra is a legend and during his heyday, he was untouchable. He was revered and he was a demi-god. I did not have the chance to see him perform at CCP late in his career when he came to Manila. But I have heard and read books and magazines about the man. He was an icon. He was also known for his generosity. And if I were to believe the things I have read about him, Ol’ Blue Eyes had Mafia connections that made him impregnable and untouchable. I really don’t know.

There are favorite songs sing-along goers love to sing. For the birit song they go for Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Dianne Reeves, Whitney Houston, among others. The brave ones go for Queen. The Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is a hard song to sing. Can anyone duplicate Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody? And if they go close to it, would its front man Freddie Mercury be turning up in his grave?

We all know how Queen transformed live concerts to a pure showcase of talent, production value and adrenaline. The group achieved 23 Top 10 hits, 43 Top 40 hits and all of their albums reached the Top 10 in the music charts. The Queen was revered for their music and magnetic presence. They also combined special effects and stage theatrics with over-the-top musical energy that made them a major player in the rock music scene.

Now comes Queen It’s Kinda Magic, a full-scale theatrical rock production that is the closest thing you can get to a live Queen concert. A production based on the 1986 Queen World Tour, the show features 30 of the Queen’s greatest hits like Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, We Will Rock You and Another One Bites The Dust, among others.

Queen It’s Kinda Magic has performed in jam-packed venues in Europe, Australia and the US. It also had a sold-out performance in Singapore last year. Mercury’s close friend and personal assistant Peter Freestone says of Queen It’s Kinda Magic: "This is not just another cover band doing Queen songs. They can feel the genuine love of the music they reproduce on stage."

On the front of this cast is Craig Pesco as Mercury. Pesco has amassed a collection of Queen materials and was the closest to playing Mercury after some over 80 hopefuls. Pesco and the rest of the members of Queen It’s Kinda Magic (Travis Hair, Brian May, Brett Millican, Roger Taylor and Sean Nolan) have since been performing around the world.

Queen It’s Kinda Magic will be held at Araneta Coliseum on Feb. 9. Tickets at P2,088, P1,566, P1,044, P627 are available at Concertus at 813-2612 and Ticketnet at 911-5555.