Bohemian Rhapsody

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen
publication October 31, 1975
length 5:55
Genre (s) Progressive rock
Author (s) Freddie Mercury
Label EMI , Elektra , Parlophone , Hollywood
album A Night at the Opera

Bohemian Rhapsody is a rock song written by Freddie Mercury . The piece was released in 1975 as a release from the album A Night at the Opera by his band Queen . The single sold over five million copies worldwide and became Queen's first number one hit .

History of origin

Musical structure

A rhapsody is not tied to any fixed form; in this piece it is in six parts. The sections are stylistically very different.

Bohemian Rhapsody can - in the version of the album A Night at the Opera - be divided into the following six sections:

1. Intro (0: 00-0: 49) - 14%
2. ballad (0: 49-2: 37) - 31%
3. Guitar solo (2: 37-3: 03) - 07%
4th Opera parody (3: 03–4: 08) - 18%
5. Hard rock (4: 08-4: 55) - 13%
6th Outro (4: 56-5: 55) - 17%

The song ends with a stroke of the gong .

Text interpretation

The text is by Freddie Mercury and poses a few puzzles. “Bohemian” is the English word for “bohemian”, ie an artist (and a member of the “ bohème ”) who defies conventions and lives in disregard of social standards. A rhapsody is a free form of music. Since the title also means Bohemian piece of music , it is also a play on words and a tribute to works of musical romanticism such as Brahms' Hungarian Dances .

The text uses terms from the Koran , Arabic and Hebrew such as Bismillah ("In the name of Allah" is the opening formula of most suras of the Koran and is often found on Islamic tombstones), Scaramouche (a type that appears as a boastful coward) or Beelzebub ( Devil) quotes. Other words cited without any textual context are the repetitive Galileo as well as Fandango or Figaro . Mercury himself stated that it was randomly rhyming nonsense. Andy Davis quotes Mercury as saying: "People should listen to the song and form their own opinion about what the lyrics tell them."

The New York Times felt that the song's most salient feature was its fatalistic lyrics. This has - unusual in pop music - no refrain and also no strophic form. The musicologist Hartmut Fladt writes about the piece: “The whole thing is a declaration of love for the opera of the late 19th century, which is, however, cleverly staged with the means of the 20th century. The song is a very intelligent piece of postmodern pop culture. ”Hartmut Fladt relates the intro with the confession to the mother to have killed someone with a head shot from the aria Mamma, Quel vino è generoso in the opera Cavalleria rusticana , in which Turiddu turns to his mother before he faces a duel for the adultery he committed , in which he is killed.

The explanation of the text can be seen by Mercury's longtime personal assistant Peter Freestone, that Mercury processed his coming out as a homosexual man. Mercury, who kept his relationships with men private, had never officially admitted his homosexuality.

Recordings

The recordings for the music and rhythm track ( backing track ) began on August 24, 1975 in Rockfield Studio 1 near Monmouth (Wales) . For further production, four additional recording studios (Roundhouse, Sarm Studios (East), Scorpio Sound and Wessex Sound Studios) were used, where a total of over 180 overdubs were created. The play was as part of the record A Night at the Opera planned by Roy Thomas Baker produced and three engineers was monitored (Mike Stone, Gary Lyons and Geoff Workman). Baker had already produced Queen's first three albums . The backing track was put together quickly, and for the vocal overdubs, Queen used analogue 24- track technology for the first time . 84 hours of recording time were needed for the vocal harmonies, and 120 vocal tracks were ultimately available for mixing. To achieve this, audio tracks 1, 2 and 3 were used and mixed together on track 4 so that tracks 1–3 were available for further overdubbing.

Baker: “Just for the word Galileo we needed three weeks that you would otherwise need for an entire album.” For guitar and vocal recordings, they moved to Scorpio Studios north of London and to Sarm. The guitar solo alone took Sarm a week. Sometimes it was recorded in three studios in parallel. The opera part also required around three weeks of studio work. The master tapes for all tracks on the LP were only finished in October. The lengthy recordings in the five recording studios devoured around £ 45,000 (today's inflation-adjusted £ 380,100) in production costs for the entire LP, making the song the most expensive rock song of the time.

occupation

The cast during the recording consisted of Freddie Mercury (he sings and accompanies himself on a not well- tuned Bechstein concert grand piano), John Deacon ( Fender Precision Bass ), Brian May ( red special guitar, coin used as a plectrum / vocals) and Roger Taylor (drums / vocals). The audible impression of a larger choir was created by overdubbing the voices of the Queen singers several times .

Publication and Success

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

When those responsible for EMI heard the long piece, they doubted whether it would even get airplay from the BBC , for example . EMI demanded the deletion of the entire middle section including the opera passage. Without further ado, they sought advice from radio DJ Kenny Everett at Capital Radio near Scorpion Studios . Everett played the song 14 times over a weekend and the response was overwhelming.

Bohemian Rhapsody / I'm In Love With My Car (EMI 2375) was released in advance as an uncut single on October 31, 1975 from the LP A Night at the Opera , the album itself was not released until November 21. Thanks to intense airplay , the song quickly became a hit. In Great Britain it was number 1 for nine weeks since November 23, 1975, a British record at the time. It was the group's first number one hit . At the end of January 1976 there were over a million copies sold. Overall, the single sold 2.176 million copies in England and one million in the USA, initially more than three million copies worldwide. It is still the third best-selling single in the UK today. It was replaced from first place by ABBA's title Mamma Mia .

After Mercury's death, the single reached number one hit status again on December 15, 1991 and sold another million copies, so that around five million singles with the title have now been sold. The proceeds from the republication went to an AIDS foundation. In the USA, another single version was released in early 1992 with The Show Must Go On as the second title.

Music video

The music video produced on November 10, 1975 in four hours after the performances of the band members by Bruce Gowers and put together in five more hours is considered the first pop video to accompany the success of a single. It is classified as the beginning of the music video era and at £ 4,500 (£ 38,000 adjusted for inflation today) cost about a tenth of the cost of the LP to produce. On November 20, 1975, it was featured on the BBC music show Top of the Pops . Since the EMI did not believe in the success of the single, they wanted to offer a visualization for sales support with the video.

The success of this promo video established the common practice of record companies to produce promo videos in order to boost record sales. In 1992 the video was expanded to include scenes from Wayne's World . As a result, the song reached number two on the US charts almost two decades after its first release.

The video begins with a shot in which the silhouettes of the band members can be seen in almost complete darkness. At the end of the a cappella part the lights go on and the camera setting is identical to the cover photo of the album Queen II . In the further course of the scene, a close-up of Mercury is faded over the picture. As the ballad begins, the video shows the band members playing their instruments. At the beginning of the opera section there are again variations of the cover photo, but this is shown distorted or duplicated by effects . However, these effects were not achieved through post-processing, but through special film techniques - such as filming a monitor. The image returns to the band on stage from the hard rock part. The video ends with drummer Taylor a big fanfare strikes. The video reached 1 billion views on YouTube in July 2019, making it the oldest music video to have such a number of views on the platform.

Chart placements

The single reached the following top positions in the charts :

1975/1976:

1991/1992:

  • # 2 - USA (platinum)
  • # 5 - Australia
  • # 8 - Austria
  • # 15 - France

Awards

The single received two platinum and several gold records worldwide . Mercury received the Ivor Novello Award for his composition in January 1976 . The original was named "Best Single of the Last 25 Years" on October 18, 1977 by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It can be heard in the movie Wayne's World , which premiered on February 14, 1992. Bohemian Rhapsody is the only British single to hit number 1 twice for Christmas (1975, 1991). The track was selected as "Nation's Favorite Number One Single".

Cover versions

The song, which is dynamically structured like an opera for a pop song, is difficult to cover . The following is a selection of artists who released cover versions of Bohemian Rhapsody :

Awards for music sales

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Country / Region Award Sales
Awards for music sales
(country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA) Australia (ARIA) Platinum record icon.svg 6 × platinum 420,000
Denmark (IFPI) Denmark (IFPI) Platinum record icon.svg platinum 90,000
Germany (BVMI) Germany (BVMI) Gold record icon.svg gold 250,000
Italy (FIMI) Italy (FIMI) Platinum record icon.svg 4 × platinum 200,000
Canada (MC) Canada (MC) Platinum record icon.svg 7 × platinum 560,000
New Zealand (RMNZ) New Zealand (RMNZ) Platinum record icon.svg 2 × platinum 60,000
Spain (Promusicae) Spain (Promusicae) Platinum record icon.svg 3 × platinum 120,000
United States (RIAA) United States (RIAA) Septuple platinum record icon.svg7 × Platinum (Digital)
+ Gold record icon.svgGold (Physical) 		5,445,000
United Kingdom (BPI) United Kingdom (BPI) Double platinum record icon.svgDouble platinum (2019)
+ Platinum record icon.svgplatinum (1991) 		2,550,000
All in all Gold record icon.svg2 × gold
Platinum record icon.svg32 × platinum
 9,695,000

Main article: Queen (band) / Music Sales Awards

Panic! at the Disco - Bohemian Rhapsody

Country / Region Award Sales
Awards for music sales
(country / region, Award, Sales)
United States (RIAA) United States (RIAA) Gold record icon.svg gold 500,000
All in all Gold record icon.svg 1 × gold
 500,000

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kai Sichtermann: Kultsongs & Evergreens . Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86964-029-7 , p. 280.
  2. ^ Bohemian Rhapsody. In: Queen Songs. Retrieved January 18, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a reference to Mercury's childhood in Muslim Zanzibar
  4. ↑ Johnny Black: The Greatest Songs Ever! Bohemian Rhapsody . 2002
  5. ^ Andy Davis, Record Collector 167, 1993, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody , p. 20
  6. ↑ a b Tarik Ahmia: "Freddie Mercury would have fundamentalists on his neck today" . In: Spiegel online , November 24, 2011. Accessed June 28, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Mama, just killed a man, put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead"
  8. ↑ Oliver Rustemeyer: In private, rather very shy . In: deutschlandfunk.de , November 24, 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  9. ↑ Mark Cunningham: Roy Thomas Baker & Gary Langan: The Making of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody ( Memento June 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: SoundOnSound , October 1995 (English).
  10. ↑ Mark Blake: Is This The Real Life? The Untold Story of Queen . 2011, p. 172 ( limited preview in Google Book Search, accessed June 28, 2017).
  11. ↑ Chris Smith: 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music , 2009, p. 124 f. ( limited preview in Google Book Search, accessed June 28, 2017).
  12. ↑ CD Queen A Night At The Opera 30th Anniversary Edition , March 2011, Liner Notes.
  13. ↑ Mark Blake: Is This The Real Life? The Untold Story of Queen . 2011, p. 173 ( limited preview in Google Book Search, accessed June 28, 2017).
  14. ↑ Kai Sichtermann: Kultsongs & Evergreens . Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86964-029-7 , p. 282
  15. ^ The Best Selling Singles Of All Time . In: EveryHit.com . Retrieved June 28, 2017 (English).
  16. ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records from the 1900s to the 1980s . Arco Pub, 1985, ISBN 978-0668064590 , p. 406 (English).
  17. ↑ Elton John Diana tribute tops best-selling single chart . In: BBC News , November 5, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  18. ↑ Tim Rice, Joe Rice, Paul Gambaccini: The Guinness Book of Number One Hits . Guinness World Records, 1982, ISBN 978-0851127699 , p. 147 (English).
  19. ↑ Felix Holtschoppen: Clips: A collage . 2004, p. 34, footnote 54 ( limited preview in Google Book Search, accessed June 28, 2017).
  20. ↑ a b clip, clip, hurray! How Queen turned off . In: einestages.spiegel.de . Retrieved September 10, 2012
  21. ↑ film music of Wayne's World in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  22. ↑ a b Bohemian Rhapsody in the US singles charts. On: billboard.com (English). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  23. ↑ Official music video on YouTube . Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  24. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Flemish charts. On: ultratop.be. Retrieved September 7, 2012
  25. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the British charts. On: chartarchive.org (English). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  26. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Irish charts. On: irishcharts.ie (English). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  27. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Canadian charts. On: collectionscanada.gc.ca. Accessed August 30, 2018.
  28. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the New Zealand charts. On: charts.org.nz (English). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  29. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Dutch charts. On: dutchcharts.nl (Dutch). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  30. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Norwegian charts. On: norwegiancharts.com (English). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  31. ↑ Queen in the Swiss charts. On: swisscharts.com. Retrieved September 7, 2012
  32. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the German single charts. In: officialcharts.de . Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  33. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Swedish charts. On: swedishcharts.com (English). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  34. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Australian charts. On: australian-charts.com (English). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  35. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the Austrian charts. On: austriancharts.at. Retrieved September 7, 2012
  36. ↑ Bohemian Rhapsody in the French charts. On: lescharts.com (French). Retrieved September 7, 2012
  37. ↑ Official Charts Company of July 16, 2012, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody voted Nation's Favorite Number One single
  38. ↑ Nielsen SoundScan charts - Digital Songs - Week Ending: 09/14/2017. defjampromo.com, accessed September 19, 2017 .
  39. ↑ Justin Myers: The Official Top 20 bestselling Christmas Number 1s. In: Official Charts Company. December 5, 2018, accessed January 6, 2019 .
  40. ↑ Distinction in the United States