We finish off our week of 1970s classic rock tracks with one of the most popular songs of the entire decade, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This almost-six minute epic, released as a single in October of 1975, reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on the Cash Box Top 100; it went all the way to #1 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is actually a conglomeration of song snippets cobbled together by songwriter and lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury. Some reports say he started developing parts of the tune as far back as the late ’60s. Here’s what Mr. Mercury said about the song:
“I always wanted to do something operatic. I wanted something with a mood setter at the start, going into a rock type of thing which completely breaks off into an opera section, a vicious twist and then returns to the theme. I don’t really know anything about opera myself. Just certain pieces. I wanted to create what I thought Queen could do. It’s not authentic… certainly not. It’s no sort of pinch out of Magic Flute. It was as far as my limited capacity could take me.”
The final version of the song we know as “Bohemian Rhapsody” was really a suite with the following sections:
- Introduction, with a cappella five-part harmony musing on whether this is the real life or just fantasy, followed by the entry of the piano accompaniment and the bit about being “just a poor boy”
- Ballad, with the vocals about the protagonist killing a man
- Interlude, featuring Brian May’s legendary guitar solo
- Opera, with those massively overdubbed vocals and all sorts of nonsense lyrics referencing Scaramouche, fandango, Galileo, Figaro, and Beelzebub
- Hard rock, the head-banging section made famous in the Wayne’s World movie
- Outro, with the “nothing really matters” lyrics
The group rehearsed the song for a month before venturing into the recording studio—actually, five different recording studios over the course of August and September of 1975. They kept stacking tracks on top of tracks, especially during the operatic vocal section; because they were limited to the 24-track recording technology of the day, they had to bounce multiple recorded tracks to single-track sub-mixes, over and over again. Some sections consisted of close to 200 overdubs.
Here’s what Queen guitarist Brian May remembers about the recording:
“The vocal harmonies [were] something we wanted to do from the beginning, as we are always keen to do that kind of thing. We wanted to be a group that could do the heaviness of hard rock, but also have harmonies swooping around all over the place. We thought there was some real power and emotion in that combination. The guitar solo was pretty much off the cuff, except I think I had plenty of time to think about that one. I remember playing along with it in the studio for a while when other things were being done. I knew what kind of melody I wanted to play.”
Producer Roy Thomas Baker recalls the sessions thus:
“Bohemian Rhapsody” was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it. It was basically a joke, but a successful joke. [laughs] We had to record it in three separate units. We did the whole beginning bit, then the whole middle bit and then the whole end. It was complete madness. The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more ‘Galileos‘ and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing… It started off as a ballad, but the end was heavy.”
What some (rightfully) referred to as a “mock opera,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” obviously struck a chord (or two) with audiences. Despite the tune’s length, it received massive airplay on both AM and FM stations. The promotional video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was also very popular and helped influence the music videos of the coming MTV era. The recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
One final interesting fact. Mercury originally titled the song “Mongolian Rhapsody.” At some point in development he changed it to “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Now you know.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Wayne and Garth singing along to “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Wayne’s World. Party on, dudes!
