When you look back at bands of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, one might stand out amongst the rest. Queen was revolutionary when it came to sounds and styles. The band never stuck with just one genre or theme of music, preferring to tell a story in the way that worked for them. People continue to listen to their songs, but just how well do you know each track? What if we gave you just three words from the lyrics?
How did you do? If you got 8/8, we’re impressed. While there were certainly some tracks that would immediately get stuck in your head from those three words, there were others that were on the harder side. If you got them wrong, this is a great excuse to put on the Queen discography. If you got them all right, share with your friends and see who gets the most bragging points!
The Song That Shouldn’t Have Worked
When you think about Queen songs, you probably think about one in particular first. “Bohemian Rhapsody” doesn’t make a whole world of sense when you really start listening to the lyrics. It also completely changed the way that rock music worked, setting the stage for many other bands to follow suit.
Rules such as catchy verse-chorus structures and no operatic vocals were completely ignored. Since being released in 1975, it’s broken records, making it clear that people don’t necessarily want to follow rules when it comes to music. They want tracks that intrigue and challenge them.
Freddie Mercury helped with that success. Despite label EMI’s hesitations to release the song, Mercury took the track to DJ Kenny Everett, a friend who did him a favor. Everett played the track 14 times over the course of one weekend, despite it not being an official single, and listeners’ ears perked up.
Then there came another problem: the length of the track was too long for Top of the Pops and other broadcast shows at the time. So, Mercury and his bandmates figured out another solution. They filmed a promotional video, creating the blueprint for the MTV generation. The music video we now know today was just supposed to be for promotion, and it’s now an epic masterpiece that showcases the track perfectly.
In the end, “Bohemian Rhapsody” spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the UK charts. It would become one of the best-selling singles from any band at that time, and proved that sometimes, you just need to be daring.
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