10 Best Hard Rock Songs Of The '70s

Since this songs release, music scholars have spent the subsequent decades trying to fathom just exactly what Freddie Mercury was singing about. Some have speculated this was Mercury's attempt at dealing with his closeted sexuality, others claim it was a way of expressing past trauma. But, regardless of the true meaning, the song is unlike any other. It's the song's unique structuring that made it such a standalone example of musical innovation.

Incorporating operatic vocals, nursery rhyme style jingles and hard rock guitar into one huge swirling power ballad, was one of the riskiest moves a band like Queen could have done. It was inconceivable that this single could ever make the radio, let alone sell as many units as it ultimately did.

Despite the record label refusing to put the single out, the band managed to smuggle a tape to several radio DJs, both in the UK and across the pond. The resounding buzz eventually caused the stuffy executives to relent, and the single was released just in time to make it to Christmas number one.