Bohemian Rhapsody is a six-minute long rock smash unlike any other song ever made. Featuring operatic crescendos, a cacophony of instruments and the belting voices of Freddie and the rest of the band Roger Taylor, Brian May and John Deacon, the musical piece has become one of the greats of modern music. But it turns out, Zanzibari singer Freddie wasn’t actually that keen on his own creation at the beginning. The quotes come from the book Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words (compiled and edited by Greg Brooks and Simon Lupton, with Adam Unger), and reveals all sorts of funny anecdotes from the singer’s time in the band.
Queen had already achieved three successful albums, titled Queen, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack in the early 1970s.
But it was the group’s 1975 album that changed everything.
A Night At The Opera was an utter masterpiece and featured Bohemian Rhapsody, a six-minute experience that would become one of the biggest songs of all time.
But Freddie “almost rejected the song” at the time, unsure of its worth, before later saying the single prompted a new era for the already hugely-popular band.
“That was really when the Queen volcano erupted,” he shared. “When it suddenly just went bang!”
“That single sold over a million and a quarter copies in Britain alone, which is outrageous.
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“Imagine all those grandmothers grooving to it!”
Freddie also revealed how he came up with the name for the band.
“I thought up the name Queen early on,” he recalled. “It couldn’t have been King; it doesn’t have the same ring or aura as Queen.
“It was a very regal name and it sounded splendid. It’s strong, very universal, and immediate.
“It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations.”
“I feel that the name Queen actually fitted that time,” the star went on. “It lent itself to a lot of things, like the theatre, and it was grand.
“It was very pompous, with all kinds of connotations. It meant so much.
“It wasn’t just one precise label.
I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it,” the star added.
Bohemian Rhapsody is available to watch on digital, Blu-Ray and DVD now.
