FEATURE:
Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?
IN THIS PHOTO: Queen in 1975/PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Rock
Celebrating Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody Turning Diamond
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I have discussed Queen’s mega-hit, Bohemian Rhapsody…
PHOTO CREDIT: Queen Productions Ltd
beforehand, but it has just passed a huge landmark in terms of its sales figures. I just had to come back and revisit this phenomenal song. We hear about these songs that reach gold and silver status because of big sales number. Released on 31st October, 1975 and taken from their album, A Night at the Opera, I am not surprised that this titanic song has achieved something incredible. This NME article explains more:
“Queen have become the first ever UK band to have a song certified ‘diamond’, reaching the milestone for their iconic 1975 hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
The certification, awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), comes after a track reaches 10million sales or streaming equivalents in the United States.
Reflecting on the achievement in a statement, Brian May said: “This is incredible news. At times like this I have to pinch myself to be sure it’s real.
“All those wild dreams we had — this is beyond any of them. Huge thanks to all who have believed in us over the years.
The band’s drummer Roger Taylor added: “It’s a wonderful and gratifying thought to know the song has reached out and connected with so many people!”
Bohemian Rhapsody always appears high in those lists of the greatest songs of all time. In terms of its scale, originality and cultural impact, there are few songs that have such a reputation and power. Rather than leave things there and drop the song in this feature, I wanted to bring in some detail regarding its origins and legacy. This article from last year goes deep into a remarkable song:
“I remember Freddie coming in with loads of bits of paper from his dad’s work, like Post-it notes, and pounding on the piano,” May said in 2008. “He played the piano like most people play the drums. And this song he had was full of gaps where he explained that something operatic would happen here and so on. He’d worked out the harmonies in his head.”
Mercury told bandmates that he believed he had enough material for about three songs but was thinking about blending all the lyrics into one long extravaganza. The final six-minute iconic mini rock opera became the band’s defining song, and eventually provided the title of the hit 2019 biopic starring Rami Malek as Mercury.
Queen first properly rehearsed “Bohemian Rhapsody” at Ridge Farm Studio, in Surrey, in mid-1975, and then spent three weeks honing the song at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire. By the summer they were ready to record it; taping began on August 24, 1975 at the famous Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. It was a moment that May described as “just the biggest thrill.”
The innovative song began with the famous a cappella intro (“Is this the real life?/Is this just fantasy?”) before embracing everything from glam-metal rock to opera. A week was devoted to the operatic interlude, for which Mercury had methodically written out all the harmony parts. For the grand chorale, the group layered 160 tracks of vocal overdubs (using 24-track analogue recording), with Mercury singing the middle register, May the low register, and drummer Roger Taylor the high register (John Deacon was on bass guitar but did not sing). Mercury performed with real verve, overdubbing his voice until it sounded like a choir, with the words “mamma mia”, “Galileo” and “Figaro” bouncing up and down the octaves. “We ran the tape through so many times it kept wearing out,” May said. “Once we held the tape up to the light and we could see straight through it, the music had practically vanished. Every time Fred decided to add a few more ‘Galileo’s we lost something, too.”
After the final version was completed – following some refinements at Roundhouse, Sarm East Studios, Scorpio Sound, and Wessex Sound Studios – there was a feeling that Queen had created something special. “Nobody really knew how it was going to sound as a whole six-minute song until it was put together,” producer Roy Thomas Baker told Performing Songwriter magazine. “I was standing at the back of the control room, and you just knew that you were listening for the first time to a big page in history. Something inside me told me that this was a red-letter day, and it really was.”
The song, which appears on the album A Night At The Opera, was finally released on October 31, 1975, and the impact was instantaneous. “I was green with envy when I heard ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.” It was a piece of sheer originality that took rock and pop away from the normal path,” said Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA.
Though the group’s record company were initially reluctant to issue “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a single, Queen were united in insisting that it was the right choice, despite exceeding the three-minute running time expected of most single releases. The band were told the song had no hope of getting airplay, but they were helped by Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett, a friend of Mercury’s, who played it 14 times in one weekend and started the buzz that eventually ended with the single going to No. 1.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” opened their celebrated Live Aid set in July 1985 and it has remained remarkably popular. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, and Mercury’s vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the third best-selling single of all-time in the UK and, in December 2018, “Bo Rhap” – as it is affectionately known among Queen fans – was officially proclaimed the world’s most-streamed song from the 20th Century, passing 1.6 billion listens globally across all major streaming services. A mere seven months later, on July 21, 2019, the video surpassed one billion streams on YouTube.
“It is one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it,” Mercury said. “I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them”.
I am going to end the feature soon. Before then, I want to drop in a little information regarding the chart success and popularity of Queen’s monster hit:
"Bohemian Rhapsody" topped the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks and had sold more than a million copies by the end of January 1976. In 1991, after Mercury's death, it topped the charts for another five weeks eventually becoming the UK's third best-selling single of all time. It is also the only song to reach the UK Christmas number one twice by the same artist. It also topped the charts in countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the Netherlands, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time with over six million copies sold worldwide. In the United States, the song peaked at number nine in 1976, but reached a new peak of number two on the Billboard Hot 100 after being used in the film Wayne's World (1992). In 2018, the release of Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody brought the song renewed popularity and chart success worldwide.
Although critical reaction was initially mixed, "Bohemian Rhapsody" has since become Queen's most popular song and is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time. The single was accompanied by a groundbreaking promotional video. Rolling Stone stated that its influence "cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air." The Guardian named its music video one of the 50 key events in rock music history, helping make videos a critical tool in music marketing”.
I am not sure whether other songs will reach the status of diamond. Through its use in film and T.V., so many people have discovered the song whereas they might not have done before. It is a magnificent song in its own right, yet there is something timeless about it that means we will see Bohemian Rhapsody in films and shows for years to come! This year marks thirty years since Freddie Mercury died. We rightly celebrate him as one of the greatest voices ever but, as a songwriter, I think he had his own style and brilliance that doesn’t get talked about enough. On Bohemian Rhapsody, this was the master…
AT his absolute best.