"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera. The song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack of a refraining chorus and consisting of several sections: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of the few songs to emerge from the 1970s progressive rock movement to achieve widespread commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock.
Bad News are a fictional English heavy metal band created for the Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... Its members were Vim Fuego, vocals and lead guitar ; Den Dennis, rhythm guitar ; Colin Grigson, bass ; and Spider "Eight-Legs" Webb, drums. The band continued outside the context of the TV series, with the actors eventually playing a number of live gigs as Bad News, and recording an album and a single that made the UK charts.
A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was reportedly the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release.
The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, but formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema, located in Hammersmith, London. It is an art deco Grade II* listed building.
Live Killers is a double live album by the British rock band Queen, released on 22 June 1979. The album was recorded live during the European leg of Queen's Jazz Tour, between 26 January and 1 March 1979.
Live Magic is the second live album by British rock band Queen. It was recorded at various live shows during The Magic Tour and was released on 1 December 1986. However, it was not released in the United States until August 1996. It received strong criticism from fans, due to the heavy editing of many songs. For example, the opera section was removed from "Bohemian Rhapsody", the second verse and chorus were removed from "Tie Your Mother Down", and "Is This the World We Created...?", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" were reduced to one verse and chorus. In July 2004, Q magazine listed Live Magic as one of the top five disappointing live albums from usually great acts.
No Sleep 'til Hammersmith is the first live album by English rock band Motörhead, released on 22 June 1981 via Bronze Records. It peaked at number 1 on the UK album charts. It was followed by the release of the single "Motorhead" on 11 July, which peaked in the UK singles chart at number 6.
Return of the Champions is a double live album by English rock band Queen + Paul Rodgers. It was recorded in May 2005 during the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield, England and released on 19 September 2005. A companion DVD was released in October, directed by David Mallet.
Queen + Paul Rodgers was a collaboration between Queen and Paul Rodgers; formerly of Bad Company, Free, The Firm and The Law. Guitarist, May, had previously performed with Rodgers on several occasions, including a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
"Liar" is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by the lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1970. The song featured on the band's 1973 debut album Queen. A heavily truncated version of "Liar" was released as a single – backed with "Doing All Right" – in the United States and New Zealand by Elektra Records in February 1974.
Smile were an English rock band based in London, and the predecessor to rock band Queen. The band was formed in 1968 by Brian May, who went on to become Queen's guitarist. It included Tim Staffell as lead singer and bass guitarist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen. They recorded only six songs and disbanded in 1970. These songs were titled "April Lady", "Step on Me", "Polar Bear", "Earth", "Blag", and "Doin' Alright". These songs exist on the vinyl LP Ghost of a Smile. "April Lady" was dedicated to Roger Taylor's girlfriend at the time.
Queen are a British rock band, whose classic line-up consisted of vocalist and pianist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon. Founded in 1970, Queen released their self-titled debut album in 1973. Despite not being an immediate success, they quickly gained popularity in Britain with their second album Queen II in 1974. Their 1975 single, "Bohemian Rhapsody", was No. 1 in the UK charts for nine weeks and is the third-biggest-selling single of all time in the UK. In the US, "Bohemian Rhapsody" hit the Billboard Top 40 charts in three different decades, reaching No. 9 on its original release in 1975, No. 2 in 1992 after being featured in the film Wayne's World, and hitting the Top 40 once more in 2018 upon the release of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. The 1981 compilation Greatest Hits is the biggest-selling album in UK history, with 6 million copies sold by 2014. The 1991 compilation Greatest Hits II is also one of the UK's top ten biggest-sellers of all time, with 3.8 million copies sold by 2012.
"Now I'm Here" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by lead guitarist Brian May, it was the sixth song on their third album, Sheer Heart Attack (1974). The song is noted for its hard riff and vocal harmonies. In the UK, the song reached #11 on the charts when released as a single in 1975. The song was a live favourite, performed at virtually every concert from late 1974 to 1986.
The A Night at the Opera Tour was a concert tour by Queen to promote A Night at the Opera. It spanned 1975 and 1976, and covered the UK, the US, Japan, and Australia. It marked the debut of "Bohemian Rhapsody", which would be played at every Queen gig thereafter.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was an American blues rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and the frontman for the band Double Trouble. During his career he released four studio albums, one live album, and several singles.
Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest is a concert film of the British rock band Queen's performance at the Népstadion in Budapest on 27 July 1986. It was part of the band's final tour with original lead singer Freddie Mercury, The Magic Tour. Queen were one of the few bands from Western Europe to perform in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. The film had a limited theatrical release in Eastern Bloc countries in 1987/1988 and worldwide on 20 September 2012. The concert was released on VHS and Laserdisc in the UK and Japan on 16 February 1987 under the original title Queen Live In Budapest, and on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time on 5 November 2012 worldwide, except in the United States where it was released a day later. The concert title is a play on the Hungarian Rhapsodies by Franz Liszt and one of Queen's most celebrated hits, "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Bohemian Rhapsody is a 2018 biographical musical drama film directed by Bryan Singer from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, and produced by Graham King and Queen manager Jim Beach. The film tells the story of the life of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen, from the formation of the band in 1970 up to their 1985 Live Aid performance at the original Wembley Stadium. The film stars Rami Malek as Mercury, with Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, and Mike Myers in supporting roles. Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor also served as consultants on the film. A British-American venture, the film was produced by Regency Enterprises, GK Films and Queen Films, with 20th Century Fox serving as distributor.
Bohemian Rhapsody: The Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 2018 biographical film of the same name. The soundtrack features several Queen songs and unreleased recordings including several tracks from their legendary concert at Live Aid in 1985. The soundtrack was released by Hollywood Records and Virgin EMI Records on 19 October 2018, on CD, cassette and digital formats. The soundtrack was later released on 8 February 2019, as a vinyl double album specially cut at Abbey Road Studios. A limited and much sought after double picture disc edition of the album, as well as a 7" coloured single featuring the original "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"I'm in Love with My Car" pairing, was also released on Record Store Day, 13 April 2019. The disc artwork features photography by Denis O'Regan. In November 2019 the soundtrack received an American Music Award for Top Soundtrack.
