Crowd Singing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (Video)

Post Summary: Bohemian Rhapsody is one of rock's greatest songs, still captivating millions worldwide over 40 years after its 1975 release. The track took three weeks to record with 180 overdubs on its famous opera section, nearly destroying the tape from repeated playback. A rare blue vinyl pressing from 1975 now sells for over $5000. The song's cultural staying power was recently demonstrated when 65,000 Green Day fans at Hyde Park spontaneously sang it together.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is one of my favourite rock songs of all time. This classic rock song was released in October 1975 (more than 40 years ago) and is still being listened to and sung by millions of people around the world.

Here are a few things you might not have not know about the song:

• Freddie Mercury started writing this song in 1968. He referred to his work-in-progress as “The Cowboy Song”.
• In 1975, “state-of-the-art” recording meant 24-track analogue tape. The harmonies on the opera section (all sung by Mercury, drummer Roger Taylor, and guitarist Brian May) required 180 separate overdubs, and eventually the tape had been run over the recording heads so many times that it became almost transparent. In the end it took three weeks to record because Mercury was always adding “another ‘Galileo’ (according to producer Roy Thomas Baker). Five different studios had to work on the track to complete it.
• The video for the song only took 4 hours to film, but the classic scene featuring the song in the 1992 film Wayne’s World took 6 hours longer (because Dana Carvey didn’t learn the lyrics ahead of time). The actors actually complained of neck pain after headbanging through the various takes.
• There were 200 copies of a 7-inch limited edition of “Bohemian Rhapsody” that was pressed in blue vinyl by record company EMI. Bona fide copies from this original pressing are currently selling for more than $5000.

These facts just add to the “classic” status of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and one can understand just why music fans of all ages around the world have grown to love this song over all the years. Green Day played a show at Hyde Park in the UK on the 1st of July and before they played, the sound guys played the song over the PA at the show, this is how the 65,000 strong crowd responded:

This is one of the coolest things that I’ve seen in 2017 and I’m pretty sure that music fans will be talking about this moment for many years to come.

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