Fact #61987

Brian May (guitarist, Queen) : That solo came about in a very interesting way. I played the solo on guitar, and we did various versions of it. But the song was written by John Deacon so, as was always the custom in Queen, he would have the final decision on the musical arrangement as well. He didn’t want a guitar on it, he wanted synth. So we got one of our friends, Fred Mandell, a very good musician, to come in and he did the solo on a synth with one of those bendy bar things, and made it sound half-way between a guitar and a synth. I was pretty upset, I can tell you. I always used to do it live, though, because it came from my guitar part in the beginning.
(Source : not known)