(Credits: Far Out / NASA / Uwe Conrad)
Sun 14 December 2025 16:45, UK
50 years feels definitively like one of those stretches of time where you can look back and feel like the world really has changed. Societies are different, people think in altered ways, but through it all, the spirit of classic rock was as alive in 1975 as it ever was.
In that sense, the true artistic flair of the moment was only just coming to life, but at the same time, the world was bound to be forever changed as soon as Freddie Mercury played the opening notes of his magnum opus tune. Somehow, even without having magic eyes that could have predicted the future, they knew something had been created that would last forever.
Released as a late frontrunner for the year, on October 31st, 1975, and subsequently spending nine weeks at the top in total, leading it into the start of 1976, it goes without saying that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was like nothing ever heard before. The masses were so blown away by the orchestral suite that it even sustained to be that year’s Christmas number one.
This is a fittingly festive time to acknowledge that half a century anniversary, but knowing that the song also took up such a seismic place in the year it was released is testament to how its legacy has traversed down the ages. Nine weeks is, of course, a long spell, but it pales in comparison to the rest of a lifetime.
In many ways, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was not just a staple of 1975, but a symbol of how the whole decade played out at large. It was all about the pomp, flair, and theatrical glamour, with Mercury and the rest of the band evidently possessed in spades. Put simply, the song was only the manifestation of all their inner thoughts.
What were the statistics behind the success of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in 1975?
Naturally, as much as the UK was Queen’s homeland, pride and joy, it wasn’t the only place where their rock opera masterpiece shot straight to the top. It also hit number one in a further seven countries on top of that, including in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands.
Oddly enough, despite the band being as popular in the US as they were anywhere else in the world, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ only went to number nine across the 50 states. It was hardly a bad effort, of course, but it displayed a bit of a misfire in terms of the American audiences not quite cottoning on to a pivotal piece of history in the way they should have.
Nevertheless, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ continued its reign at the top of the UK charts without a single care in the world for a golden nine weeks, solidifying only what Mercury and his bandmates had known all along: that they were fiery, and inimitable, forces to be reckoned with. Ironically, as one of their other biggest hits foretold, there was no stopping them now.
Much of the folklore of the song has been passed down through generation after generation, with even Brian May candidly admitting that it is the one riff he still finds a challenge to fully master, even to this very day. In a way, the mountainous battle of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ came back to bite them, because they knew they’d have to keep playing it forever.
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