Images may be subject to copyright
On this day, 24th August 1975, legendary rock band Queen started recording 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at Rockfield studio's in Monmouth, Wales, (the song was recorded over three weeks).
Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack of a refraining chorus and consisting of several sections: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. It is one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s to achieve widespread commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.
Mercury referred to "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a "mock opera" that resulted from the combination of three songs he had written.
Mercury had mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout the sessions. May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.
According to Guitarist Brian May, much of Queen's material was written in the studio, but this song "was all in Freddie's mind" before they started.
Although critical reaction was initially mixed, retrospective reviews have acclaimed "Bohemian Rhapsody" one of the greatest songs of all time, and it is often regarded as the band's signature song. The promotional video is credited with furthering the development of the music video medium. It has appeared in numerous polls of the greatest songs in popular music, including a ranking at number 17 on Rolling Stone's 2021 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. A Rolling Stone readers' poll ranked Mercury's vocal performance as the greatest in rock history.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" topped the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks (plus another five weeks following Mercury's death in 1991) and is the UK's third best-selling single of all time. It also topped the charts in countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the Netherlands, and has sold over six million copies worldwide. In the United States, the song peaked at number nine in 1976, but reached a new peak of number two after appearing in the 1992 film Wayne's World. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Following the release of the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, it became the most streamed song from the 20th century.In 2021, it was certified diamond in the US for combined digital sales/streams equal to 10 million units, and is one of the best selling songs of all time
