Songoftheday 4/23/18 - Is this the real life or is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide no escape from reality...
from the albums A Night At The Opera (1975) and Wayne's World (Original Soundtrack) (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (two weeks, 1976), #2 (one week, 1992)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17 (1976), 13 (1992)
Today's song of the day comes from the classic rock group Queen, who by the 1990s had passed their glory days, with their last top-40 pop hit in America being "Radio GaGa" in 1984 (they came close in 1989 with "I Want It All"). However, by the end of the decade, Freddie Mercury was becoming progressively sicker from AIDS, which he had since 1987 but didn't come out with it until right before his death in November of 1991. At that time, former Saturday Night Live comics Mike Myers and Dana Carvey filmed the adaptation of their SNL skit Wayne's World, and took one of Queen's classics, "Bohemian Rhapsody", for a key scene in the movie. The 6-minute epic suite, which was a revelation on the radio back in 1975, reached the top ten back from its original release from the Night At The Opera album...
While the movie edited the track so it took up a little over 3 minutes, it still brought an unforgettable scene...
Re-released as a physical single, "Bohemian Rhapsody" re-entered the pop chart in America, rising all the way to #2 in May of 1992. The song also went to #16 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart as well. Internationally, where it was re-released on the death of Mercury, the song topped the chart in the UK for five weeks, and reached #5 in Australia, #15 in France, and #18 in Canada. With Disney's Hollywood Records taking ownership of Queen's past catalog, there was a huge resurgence of interest in the band, with two platinum-selling hits compilations, Greatest Hits and Classic Queen, released. Another former hit, "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions", also came back to the American pop chart, peaking at #52. The band, without Freddie, would make one more appearance on the chart with George Michael redoing "Somebody To Love".
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
There was also an edit of the music video expanding to the original six minutes that included Wayne's World footage for MTV...
Besides Queen, female hip-hop group the Braids covered "Bohemian Rhapsody", and nearly hit the American top-40 at #42 in 1996...
In 2010, the cast of Glee also brought the song back to the chart, reaching #84 in the U.S. Broadway star Jonathan Groff sang lead...
Finally, a stunning live performance from Queen...
Up tomorrow: These ladies are definitely refusing you.
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