Is This The Real Life? Behind the third best selling single in UK history…

On this day 40 years ago, 5 minutes and 55 seconds of one of the most popular songs of all time became the UK number one single. Today, it is the third biggest selling single of all-time in this country.

That is, of course, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Written by Freddie Mercury on his own (take that, modern day pop artists), the song consists of multiple sections: The opening, ballad, guitar solo, opera, hard rock and the closing. It was unlike anything before – and quite frankly – any attempts to replicate anything like it since has been a poor failure. Amazingly enough, due to the length of the track, many record executives told the group it was too long and would never be a hit. What better way to prove them wrong by saying, four decades on, only two songs in the UK have ever sold more:

1. Elton John – Candle In The Wind ’97/Something About The Way You Look Tonight
2. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas?
3. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

In 1975, Bohemian Rhapsody would stay at #1 for nine consecutive weeks, making it that year’s Christmas Number One single as well. In January 1976, they reached the iconic milestone of 1,000,000 sales (a target only achieved by 163 songs in chart history to this date).

Two legends of the music industry: Michael Jackson alongside Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, wearing a “Wear West Hollywood” t-shirt.

That wouldn’t be its only stint at the top, however – following Freddie Mercury’s tragic passing in 1991, it became #1 again for another 5 weeks at the end of the year (and thus, becoming Christmas Number One once again). Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is the only song to have ever achieved this feat of being Christmas Number One on more than one occasion (while Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been Christmas number one on three separate occasions, the group changed every time).

And while, at the time, it was the most expensive record to produce (presumably to the length and differing styles), the music video certainly wasn’t – costing a mere $5,000 – and despite that, to this day it’s still considered one of the greatest of all time. Shows what can be done with a creative mind.

It’s been covered numerous times – from Kanye West basically butchering it at Glastonbury earlier this year, to comedian singer “Weird” Al Yankovic  performing a polka version. But the most famous has to be a YouTube classic courtesy of The Muppets. Released in 2009, the cast of the puppet show performed their own version (with slightly altered lyrics for comedy/family-friendly purposes), which itself reached #32 in the UK charts in the run for the 2009 Christmas Number One battle (the infamous year where Rage Against The Machine beat X-Factor winner Joe McElderry to the top of the chart).

And they said it’d never be a hit. Shows what can be done by just one. Single. Man. Remember that the next time you listen to your modern hits.

Ashley Redman
Nothing really matters… to me…