{"id":373658,"date":"2025-08-26T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373658\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T00:46:11","slug":"the-one-song-that-kept-bohemian-rhapsody-off-the-top-of-the-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373658\/","title":{"rendered":"The one song that kept \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 off the top of the charts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Freddie<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Elektra Records)<\/p>\n

Tue 26 August 2025 0:00, UK <\/p>\n

\u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 is a song that you couldn\u2019t imagine the world without.<\/p>\n

These songs are few and far between. With over 100,000 tracks uploaded to Spotify daily, they\u2019re getting fewer too as we drown in a chorus of noise. But every now and then, a song breaks through the static, and has you head-banging as though your back is made of rubber, and the world simply feels as though it wouldn\u2019t quite be the same without it.<\/p>\n

In 1975, Queen<\/a> delivered a classic for the ages of this unlikely ilk. \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 is a rock opera in miniature. You couldn\u2019t imagine the world without not because it has perpetuated profound influence. Instead, the inverse is true. Nobody has been mad enough to ever attempt a song like it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It roves through a wild west of imagery, musical choices, and, well, chaos. But upon release, perhaps it was simply too original to be fully reconciled. It might now be one of the most heard classic rock songs of all time. <\/p>\n

But when it first hit the charts, it brought to mind the classic Hunter S Thompson quote: \u201cThere he goes. One of God\u2019s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, it proved too unique to seal the top spot in the US. It ran it close, but the public wasn\u2019t quite ready to send it to the stratosphere, choosing to carefully study it for a hot second before adding it to every wedding playlist or school disco in modern history.<\/p>\n

But what song kept \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 from topping the charts?<\/p>\n

Upon initial release, the song only rose to ninth in the US charts. While it might have sealed the top spot in the UK, America seemingly wasn\u2019t quite ready for the roving beast to ascend. You can almost see why that was the case by studying what was number one at the time.<\/p>\n

For most of the song\u2019s run in the Billboard Hot 100, Diana Ross was leading the way with \u2018Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You\u2019re Going To)\u2019. The track was far more familiar. It was backed by Motown, bolstered by its association with a major motion picture, and perfectly catchy to boot. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, radio presenters weren\u2019t sure what to do with \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019. How could you even introduce it? \u2018Here\u2019s a murder ballad where someone may or may not get murdered\u2019, that doesn\u2019t quite roll off the tongue for a quipping disc jockey. Neither does, \u2018Here\u2019s about eight rock songs in one about god knows what\u2019.<\/p>\n

So, it actually only got a fraction of the airtime you\u2019d expect upon initial release. And in a strange twist of fate, it was another movie that saw the song mount a charge all the way to second place in 1992 after Wayne\u2019s World gave it a rebirth<\/a>. On that occasion, \u2018Jump\u2019 by Kris Kross proved victorious.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Elektra Records) Tue 26 August 2025 0:00, UK \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 is a song that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,4575,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-373658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-queen","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115092310628780409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}