Single, October 1975
From the album A Night At The Opera
(November 1975)

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?”

Freddie Mercury brings opera to the masses in one of the most remarkable Number 1 singles ever. Hours of recording time, dozens of overdubs and the impressive vocal range of Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor made this epic six-minute single legendary, spending nine weeks at the top, thanks to one of the first “high-concept” music videos ever made.

The meaning of Mercury's lyrics remains unknown, but Brian May later said: "Freddie was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood. I think he put a lot of himself into that song."

Radio X presenter and Queen fanatic John Robins naturally picks this as his Best British Song. "Complex, audacious, unique, catchy and mercurial. Bohemian Rhapsody is the Ronnie O'Sullivan of rock songs. It has a hold on the national consciousness like no other piece of music. Regardless of the result it stands alone as The Best Of British."

Photo: Topham Picturepoint/ Press Association