Bohemian Rhapsody Interesting Facts
Created | Updated Feb 7, 2005
Bohemian Rhapsody was written by Freddie Mercury and produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen. The song featured on the album “A Night At The Opera”. The vocals were overdubbed using a 24 track tape machine. Apporoximately one hundred and twenty vocal tracks were dubbed together.
The original cut of the song was over seven minutes long, but was cut to nearly six minutes for release. The record company leaked the song to a London radio stations, in order to build up anticipation for it's official release. It was released as a single in October 1975 and was at Number 1 for nine weeks, receiving almost continuous airplay on radio stations.
In 1992, Bohemian Rhapsody featured in the film “Wayne’s World”, and the subsequent single reached Number 2 in the USA charts. It was re-released in the UK in 1991 in aid of the Terrence Higgins Trust, and reached Number 1. It is the first single to have reached the Number 1 position on two separate occasions. Polls have also voted it the best British song of all time.
“Scaramouch” means a boastful, yet cowardly person. “Fandango” could be one of two things – a Spanish dance for two people that involves a tambourine or castanets, or foolish nonsense or a purely ornamental thing. In this song, it is more likely to be the second definition. “Bismillah” is the first word of the Qu’ran (the Koran) and means “in the name of Allah”. “Beelzebub” is another name for Satan.
Queen produced a video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” to show on “Top of The Pops” as they were unable to attend live. This started a trend with many artists to have a video to accompany their songs. Queen shot the video in three hours and it cost £3500. Prisms and camera feedback were used to give the visual effects.
[Information obtained from Song Facts and the Queen Greatest Hits album sleeve.]
