The Story of … ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen

25 March 2021, 16:06

Queen’s six-minute masterpiece ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is one of the most famous songs of all time and has sold over a million copies in its first year. output only. But what do you really know about the hit song?

Released in 1975, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” quickly became one of the most controversial and famous songs of its time.

Nearly 50 years later, the hit of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon is just as popular.

The name of the song was used as the title for the 2019 Oscar-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody, a Queen biopic chronicling the band’s success, and in 2018 the song became the most-listened to song of the 20th century after being downloaded or streamed over 1.6 billion times.

But what inspired the song and how was it made? Here are all the important facts:

1. Who wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody”?

   Freddie Mercury wrote “ Bohemian Rhapsody ” with his bandmates Queen in August 1975.

   Recording the song would have taken three weeks, with Brian, Freddie and Roger singing for up to 10 hours a day and Freddie Mercury would have performed the piano parts on the same piano that Paul McCartney played on the Beatles recording of “ Hey Jude ”.

   

   Producer Roy Thomas Baker recalled the creation of the track in a 1999 interview: “Bohemian Rhapsody” was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it. We had to save it in three separate units. We did all the start. , then the whole middle piece, then the whole end.

   “It was total madness. The middle part started to last only a few seconds, but Freddie kept coming up with more ‘Galileos’ and we kept adding to the opera section, and she became de bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing. “

   

2. What is “Bohemian Rhapsody” about?

   Freddie Mercury is said to have started writing parts of “ Bohemian Rhapsody ” in 1960.

   Parts of a song he played on the piano called ‘The Cowboy Song’ contained lyrics that ended up in the final piece, but Freddie Mercury always refused to explain what the song was about, saying only that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody ‘was “about relationships”.

   

   

   Brian May said he thought the song was about Freddie Mercury’s personal traumas: “Freddie was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he hid insecurities and issues to reconcile his life with his childhood. never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into this song. “

   However, in a documentary interview with BBC Three, Roger Taylor said that the song’s true meaning was “pretty self-explanatory with just a little bit of nonsense in the middle.”

3. Where was “Bohemian Rhapsody” recorded?

   

   Queen spent a month rehearsing at Ridge Farm Studio, Surrey in August 1975, where they worked on songs for their album. A night at the opera.

   Roger Taylor later confirmed that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was one of the songs they were working on during their stay, but four additional studios – Roundhouse, Sarm East Studios, Scorpio Sound and Wessex Sound Studios – were also used.

4. How was “Bohemian Rhapsody” created?

   The recording of “Bohemian Rhapsody” took three weeks and parts of the song would contain 180 overdubs.

   The song was ahead of its time and consisted of several sections: an intro, a ballad part, an opera passage, a hard rock segment and a coda.

   

   Brian May explained the process of the technical details of creating the song in an interview with Guitar world in 2021: “This track had been evolving for a while. It was largely the product of Freddie’s feverish forehead. We knew it was something very special.

   “It was recorded in pieces, as I think everyone knows. We would rehearse and record. We would do it until we got it right. The different pieces were put together.

   “Freddie put on a vocal guide, and then we started doing all the multitrack vocal harmonies. He said he wanted a solo in there, and I said I’d like to sing a verse on the guitar effectively.

   Watch the official music video for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ below:

   Speaking about his famous guitar solo, Brian May said, “I could hear this melody and I didn’t know where it was coming from.

   “This melody is nowhere else in the song, but it’s over a familiar chord sequence … the job of the guitar solo is to bring in that extra voice, but then it’s a link to that. that everyone now calls ‘the opera section’. You know you are into something very different. ”

5. Why was “Bohemian Rhapsody” so controversial?

   When the band wanted to release “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 1975, music executives told Queen that at 5 minutes and 55 seconds the song would never be played on the radio and would not be a hit.

   However, Queen gave the recording to Soft radiosister station of Capital FM, where DJ Kenny Everett teased portions of the song for listeners until they clamored to hear the whole thing, culminating with the song played in full 14 times in two days.

   

   

   DJ Paul Drew, who ran RKO General stations in the US, heard the track on Capital FM and started playing the record on his show, which resulted in fans clamoring for its release as a single.

   Danny Baker then said that “it was a weird situation where radio on both sides of the Atlantic was breaking a record that the record companies said never aired!”

6. When was “Bohemian Rhapsody” released and did many copies sell?

   “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released in October 1975 and became Christmas number one that year after holding # 1 for nine weeks.

   The track also returned to number one after the death of Freddie Mercury in November 1991 and stayed there for five weeks, earning it a second record Christmas number one.

   

   In 2018 after the film’s release Bohemian Rhapsody, the song re-entered the charts 26 years after its last place in the top 40.

   Six million copies of the song have been sold worldwide, according to reports, and in 2018 the song became the most listened to song of the 20th century after being downloaded or streamed over 1.6 billion times.

7. Who Covered ‘Bohemian Rhapsody? “

   Many bands and artists have given their own creative take on “Bohemian Rhapsody” over the years, but some stand out from the crowd.

   

   Elaine Paige notably covered the song on her 1988 tribute album The queen’s album to great success.

   In 1993, a variety of British celebrities made their own parody of the song for Comic Relief and Kanye West gave his own take on the track during his famous performance at Glastonbury in 2015.

   

   Elton John, Axl Rose and Queen gave a superb performance of the hit at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, which saw the Tiny dancer the singer took to the piano and gave a moving rendition of the song in memory of Freddie.

   But perhaps the most touching – and ironic – of all, is the moment an unknown Adam Lambert sang “ Bohemian Rhapsody ” at his very first. American Idol audition, before becoming Queen’s official frontman two years later.