Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody

01/31/2011
. (Gibson) It was on this day in 1976 that Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," the first rock-opera song in history with the cheeky gumption to utter the phrase "mama mia, mama mia!", was actually knocked out of the top spot by, interestingly enough, ABBA's "Mamma Mia." Gibson takes a look back: Freddy Mercury wrote the bulk of his rock-opera masterpiece "Bohemian Rhapsody" at his home in Holland Road, Kensington, in west London. The nearly six-minute-long song was included on the band's groundbreaking 1975 album A Night at the Opera, and it would go on to sell well over a million copies on its way to become Queen's most successful song.

The song's producer, Roy Thomas Baker, spoke about how Freddie initially played him the opening ballad of the song on the piano: "He played the beginning on the piano, then stopped and said, 'And this is where the opera section comes in!'" Queen had a history of writing much of their material in the studio, but with "Bohemian Rhapsody," guitarist Brian May said that the song was "very much in Freddie's mind" before they started playing with it in the studio. May felt that the epic song was "intriguing and original, and worthy of work."

Intending the song to be something of a "mock opera," Mercury wanted it to fall well outside the bounds of traditional rock song structure, and he succeeded. After a three-week rehearsal in Herefordshire in the summer of 1975, recording for "Bohemian Rhapsody" began at Rockfield Studio 1 near Monmouth on April 24, 1975. Four additional studios were used to complete the song, including Roundhouse, SARM (East), Scorpion and Wessex. Mercury had such a clear vision of the song during its recording that he was able to direct the band throughout the sessions. Numerous sections were recorded separately with a drum click being the only glue holding it together. more on this story

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