At almost six minutes in length with bizarre lyrics, Bohemian Rhapsody was a huge risk for Queen.
Elton John said at the time, “Are you f***ing crazy? That will never be a hit. It’s too long!”
The recording sessions for their new album, A Night at the Opera, took place 50 years ago at Rockfield Studios in Wales and were recreated in the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Settling in, doubts over the singer’s new song were also rife within the band, with Roger Taylor reflecting: “It seemed to go on forever.
“The way we would do it, all three of us would sing every part, which gave it a real thickness, a body.”
Only the drummer could manage the highest “Galileos” and his patience for the specifics of Freddie’s direction soon fizzled out. Speaking with Rolling Stone, assistant engineer Gary Langan recalled: “He really did lose it. He was furious. It was up a few notches from what you see in the movie… You had Fred, who was staunchly holding out for six minutes, of course. And a faction of the band going, ‘You know what, Fred? I think you’ve gone one step too far here.’”
Roger says Deacon even tried an edit to get the time down, but this didn’t go down well with the rest of the band. Luckily for Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody massively paid off. The track topped the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks, plus five more after Freddie’s death in 1991. To date, it is Britain’s third best-selling single of all time and the band’s signature song.
