Queen rocked the music world 50 years ago with their creation Bohemian Rhapsody.
Number one in the UK for nine weeks between November 1975 and January 1976, it’s the epic that turned the group into global superstars and household names.
It’s the third-best selling single in British history and until Wham! reached the top spot in 2024 with the 40-year-old Last Christmas, it had been the only single to be the UK Christmas number one twice in its original form.
It still is, if you don’t count streaming. However, in Britain it’s the most-streamed song that was released in the 1970s, and by September 2025 it had amassed more than 4.4 billion plays globally.
Queen guitarist Brian May thinks of how Freddie would celebrate if he were alive today.
He grins and says, “I think he’d probably open a bottle of Cristal. He would be very, very happy, and I can see that kind of wicked smile on his face, like, yeah, we did it after all, didn’t we?”
“Bohemian Rhapsody” was first released during the economic downturn of the mid-70s, a period of high inflation, energy crises and industrial unrest. Described as the “sick man of Europe,” the UK was crying out for a bit of theatrical escapism. But Queen were still surprised at its impact.
“We thought, this is going to be a nice track for our new album [A Night at the Opera],” Brian mentioned, adding, “which hopefully is going to save us, because we’re seriously in debt and in a very bad situation as regards management.”
“We certainly weren’t thinking in terms of number ones, we just felt it was the best song on the album,” adds Taylor. “It was the most arresting, unusual thing.”
“When times are tough, music really can save you, raise your spirits. I’ve had so many letters over the years that have said that one of our songs has lifted people out of depression and given them a new feeling of purpose,” Brian revealed.
“So maybe the time was right for Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s a mystery, though, and I’m kind of glad it’s a mystery, because nobody really knows where ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ came from. Nobody could have predicted that it would fall upon the general public’s ears at that moment and have such an incredible effect. So I suppose I think ‘Rhapsody’ would have done well at any point but was certainly well timed in a sense of the way people felt,” he added.
“That’s true right now, there’s a lot of despondency too. I look at the wars that are going on again, and I think, well, maybe I should be doing something about it. Then I think, Brian, basically just get on with doing what you can do. You can’t solve every problem. So I remain a musician,” Brian May concluded.
