10 Greatest Queen Songs
1. Bohemian Rhapsody
What else did you expect? All these years on, Bohemian Rhapsody remains a cultural touchstone and a staggering artistic achievement. It took the rock opera, a concept to which bands like The Who would dedicate an entire album, and condensed it into a single song. It also has one of the most iconic music videos ever.
It’s staggering to think that the band’s record company didn’t even want the song released as a single. It wasn’t embraced by the music press either. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to laugh at the single’s awful reviews.
Ray Fox-Cumming of Record Mirror opined that the song, “has no immediate selling point whatsoever... there’s scarcely a shred of a tune.”
Rolling Stone completely ignored the track when they reviewed its parent album A Night At The Opera. In a later article they referred to it as “a brazen hodgepodge.”
None of which stopped Bohemian Rhapsody becoming a massive hit that would soon be recognised as a classic. It’s not just Queen’s biggest hit but one of the most unique and memorable pop songs of all time.