Bohemian Rhapsody is undoubtedly Freddie Mercury’s best song ever. It is an endearing and eclectic mix of opera, a cappella, and rock. It has also been considered to be the precursor of modern music videos as before this, songs only had short promotional videos shot for it. It was released (finally) for the album “A Night at the Opera”.

Interestingly it stayed in the top slot of the UK Charts for nine weeks in Christmas of 1975 when it first was released, and made the top of the charts once again, nearly two decades later in 1991 when it re-released that Christmas. after the death of Freddie Mercury. It stayed in the number one position once again for five weeks making history in that it was the first ever song to have been the Christmas number one in the UK with the same version.

And while this in itself is a groundbreaking fact, it should also be noted that recording executives believed the song to be ‘too long’ at a whopping 5 minutes and 55 seconds. They also believed that it would never be a hit. The band members decided to bypass such narrow-mindedness and instead went straight to the radio stations, in this instance to DJ Kenny Everett. The upshot of the whole situation was that radio stations on both sides of the Atlantic were playing the song over the airwaves to receptive audiences who didn’t find the length of the song to be inhibitive in any way. The recording companies also had to scramble to cover their mistake when fans came looking for the single and were informed that it had not been released yet.

So what makes Bohemian Rhapsody one of the all time greatest songs ever to hit our airwaves? Well, it could be the lyrics, it could be the music, the operatic parts, the rock, the a capella, or…which is more likely, it is a combination of all of those things, making this one of Freddie Mercury’s and Queen’s, greatest hits.

Related posts:

1. Ronan Keating
2. Rhythm and Blues