Queen won a losing bet with Bohemian Rhapsody
November 1975, "Bohemian Rhapsody" started a nine-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart.
Written by Freddie Mercury for the Queen’s album A Night at the Opera, this almost six-minute suite seemed to be a sure failure.
The track became Queen's first Top 10 hit in the US. And in the UK, where Queen was already established, it was #1 for 9 weeks, a record at the time.
According to producer Roy Thomas Baker, he and the band bypassed the corporate’s requested to cut the song by playing it for Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett:
"we had a reel-to-reel copy but we told him he could only have it if he promised not to play it. 'I won't play it,' he said, winking..."
Their plan worked – Everett teased his listeners by playing only parts of the song. Audience demand intensified when Everett played the full song on his show 14 times in two days.
(read more here)
Bohemian Rhapsody is generally acknowledged as being the song with the first pop video.
Moreover, the video was shot in 3 hours and produced with a really low budget, different sources say between £3,500 and £5,000.
