August 23, 1975
Roy Thomas Baker must have thought Freddie Mercury was completely mad when he brought him the song that would eventually be the single for Queen’s 1975 album, A Night at the Opera. Baker told the BBC that Mercury sat down at the piano and played him the gorgeous, tragic opening and then stopped abruptly and said, “And this is where the opera section comes in!”
And indeed, the “opera section” helped make “Bohemian Rhapsody” unlike anything ever recorded. When the band convened (on this date in 1975), they were given a song in three basic movements: an opening ballad, a comic-tragic operatic middle and a thunderous rock ending.
“‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was totally insane,” Baker later told MIX, “But we enjoyed every minute of it. It was basically a joke, but a successful joke. [Laughs] We had to record it in three separate units. We did the whole beginning bit, then the whole middle bit and then the whole end. It was complete madness. The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more ‘Galileos’ and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing.”
Brian May recalled in Q, “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. 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.”
For their part, Mercury, May and Roger Taylor spent 10 to 12 hours a day recording 180 separate vocal overdubs at a total of five different recording studios. The result was a three-man choir of angels and demons battling for a “poor boy’s” soul. Because they were bouncing tracks and editing with razor blade splices, the tapes nearly didn’t hold. Fortunately, they just did. The result was the most expensive single ever recorded at the time.
All the energy and money the band put into the recording clearly paid off. The song went to #1 on the U.K. charts, despite its nearly six-minute running time, and stayed there for nine weeks. The song reached #9 in the U.S., and then hit #2 16 years later, after a Wayne’s World re-release. The song also charted again in the U.K. after Mercury’s death, climbing once more to #1. The track remains one of the most requested on rock radio and a testament to one of the great singers – and bands – in the history of rock.
Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.
And indeed, the “opera section” helped make “Bohemian Rhapsody” unlike anything ever recorded. When the band convened (on this date in 1975), they were given a song in three basic movements: an opening ballad, a comic-tragic operatic middle and a thunderous rock ending.“‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was totally insane,” Baker later told MIX, “But we enjoyed every minute of it. It was basically a joke, but a successful joke. [Laughs] We had to record it in three separate units. We did the whole beginning bit, then the whole middle bit and then the whole end. It was complete madness. The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more ‘Galileos’ and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing.”
Brian May recalled in Q, “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. 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.”
For their part, Mercury, May and Roger Taylor spent 10 to 12 hours a day recording 180 separate vocal overdubs at a total of five different recording studios. The result was a three-man choir of angels and demons battling for a “poor boy’s” soul. Because they were bouncing tracks and editing with razor blade splices, the tapes nearly didn’t hold. Fortunately, they just did. The result was the most expensive single ever recorded at the time.
All the energy and money the band put into the recording clearly paid off. The song went to #1 on the U.K. charts, despite its nearly six-minute running time, and stayed there for nine weeks. The song reached #9 in the U.S., and then hit #2 16 years later, after a Wayne’s World re-release. The song also charted again in the U.K. after Mercury’s death, climbing once more to #1. The track remains one of the most requested on rock radio and a testament to one of the great singers – and bands – in the history of rock.
Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.
