LANE: Once, a guy in our town named Kirk was practicing “Bohemian Rhapsody” with his band, the Kirk Gleason Five, and my mom shut them down so fast that the band fled without their instruments and never came back for them. To this day, Kirk can’t listen to Queen without tearing up.
“Bohemian Rhapsody”, a 1975 song by English rock band Queen, previously discussed, released as a single from their fourth album, A Night at the Opera. Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it is a complex six-minute suite, one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s with mainstream appeal that to achieved widespread commercial success.
Initial critical reaction to the song was mixed, with the UK music press disdainful or indifferent. Several of them, even ones who disliked it, did predict it would be a hit, and it went to #1 in the UK, and several other countries. It went to #9 in the US. It is now one of the most revered rock songs in history, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004. It is consistently voted in by the public as a favourite song, and is regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” enjoyed renewed popularity after it featured in the 1992 comedy film Wayne’s World, and went to #2 in the US (most popular in the Netherlands at #1). Chances are that Kirk and his band discovered the song through the movie.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 