What did Freddie Mercury almost call “Bohemian Rhapsody”?
Last updated: October 2, 2024
Christopher Hopper; distributed by Elektra Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
No chorus. No hook. A six-minute song that is essentially a suite and which the band referred to as a “mock opera.” And yet, somehow, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a huge hit.
It topped the charts in the UK for nine weeks when it was released, and was a top 10 hit in the USA. But it also saw a resurgence on the charts following Freddie Mercury’s death and the song’s inclusion in 1992’s Wayne’s World.
Like the song structure itself, it seems to keep somehow reinventing itself.
And yet this extremely famous and critically acclaimed song was almost called something else entirely. What title did Freddie Mercury originally give to “Bohemian Rhapsody”?