Bohemian Rhapsody

Trivia

• Queen fans often colloquially refer to the song as "Bo Rhap" (or "Bo Rap")
• Queen did not feel able to recreate the song's elaborate harmony vocals live on stage. When performing it in concert, they would omit the song's acapella introduction entirely, beginning with the first ballad verse. For the middle 'opera section', the band would either medley into another song altogether (for instance, Killer Queen), or leave the stage, and play a tape of the studio version. When either backing tape or medley were complete, they would then continue Bohemian Rhapsody from the 'heavy rock' section through to the end.
• The song makes reference to the novel and play Scaramouche.
• The title does not appear anywhere within the words of the song.
• The song is the only UK single ever to sell a million copies on two separate occasions
• The song is the only UK single ever to be Christmas number one single twice, and therefore number 1 at least once in four different calendar years - 1975, 1976, 1991 and 1992.
• The song stayed at number one in the British charts (Queen's first of six) for 9 weeks - the longest stay since 1957 - during 1975-1976, and returned again for another 5 weeks during 1991-1992.
• In the USA, the song peaked at number 9 in the 1970s, but after the death of Freddie Mercury and the popularity of the film Wayne's World, the song peaked at number two in 1992.
• Mamma Mia by ABBA was the song that knocked Bohemian Rhapsody off the number one spot in Britain on 31st January 1976. It is one of the very few cases - and possibly the most famous - in which a song is knocked off the number one spot by a song whose title can be found in the lyric of the first song (Bohemian Rhapsody contains the lyric "mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia, let me go").
• The song uses the Arabic word "Bismillah". "Every Surah in the Qur'an begins with the usual formula of 'bismillah' (In the name of Allah)." http://www.iad.org/Quran/volume.html
• The name Beelzebub, the name of a god worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron, is referred to once in the lyrics. It is also an alternate name for Satan or the Devil in Christian writings.
• The song has remarkable similarities or references to Albert Camus' existential novel The Stranger. However, it is not documented that this was done purposely.