ONCE voted the greatest rock song of all time, Bohemian Rhapsody entered the charts 50 years ago this month – and became a huge No1.
The six-minute track — which has sold more than 6million copies worldwide — climbed to top spot in the charts and stayed there for nine weeks while Queen were on the road touring.
That meant its first Top Of The Pops airing in November 1975 was accompanied by a rushed video which had taken the band just four hours to make on a budget of £4,000.
In fact, singer Freddie Mercury was terrified of performing the fan favourite live, and almost caused a riot by once leaving it off their setlist.
The song even divided opinion over whether it was about his sexuality.
The incredible tale of one of the most famous singles in UK history is now told for the first time in an interview with Peter Freestone — one of Freddie’s closest friends.
Peter was also his housemate and personal assistant of 12 years.
‘Genius move’
Today, he gives an intimate insight into Freddie’s life and the song that will forever be linked to him.
He tells The Sun: “For most people, if you mention Queen, the first thing they say is Bohemian Rhapsody.
“But the reality was that Bohemian Rhapsody was the one song that he hated playing on the piano.
“He was scared every single time.
“He didn’t enjoy it live because there is a section when it is just the piano, which you couldn’t hide among banging drums and thrashing guitars.
“Even some years after its release, he dreaded playing the piano solo in it.
“He was petrified of playing the wrong notes, and that everybody would laugh at him.”
Peter, 70 — who lived with Freddie at his Garden Lodge home in Kensington, West London — went on: “Just as iconic as the song is the video, but the truth is that it was filmed in a rush at Elstree Studios just so it could be given to Top Of The Pops while the band were away on tour.
“Freddie was very much a man of today and tomorrow.
“He likened his music to tissues — you pick them up, use them and throw them away.
“But I know he’d be proud of Bohemian Rhapsody’s relevance, 50 years on.”
The song topped the charts in November and December 1975 and had sold more than a million copies by the end of January the next year.
It peaked for another five weeks after Freddie’s death in 1991 and became the UK’s third best- selling single ever, also topping Greatest Hits Radio’s Top 500 songs of the 70s, 80s and 90s in 2020.
It was basically three songs in one going around in Freddie’s head, but he couldn’t finish anything off. In the end, they sort of pitched it all together. It was a genius move from the band.
Peter Freestone on how the iconic song came to be
Queen guitarist Sir Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor performed Bohemian Rhapsody with a full orchestra and chorus at the Last Night Of The Proms in September.
Brian — who stumbled over his guitar solo at the end — once said: “I think Bohemian Rhapsody is something you can never get bored with.”
But Peter reveals the mega-hit is actually a mash-up of tunes the band struggled to make work individually, so they were merged into a rock- opera epic.
He says: “It was basically three songs in one going around in Freddie’s head, but he couldn’t finish anything off.
“In the end, they sort of pitched it all together.
“It was a genius move from the band.”
The true meaning of the song has long remained a mystery.
In 2015, lyricist Sir Tim Rice suggested it was about Freddie’s battle with his sexuality.
He said: “It’s fairly obvious to me this was Freddie’s ‘coming out’ song.
“I’ve spoken to Roger Taylor about it.
“There is a very clear message in it.
“This is Freddie admitting that he is gay.
“In the line ‘Mama, just killed a man’, he’s killed the old Freddie — his former image.”
‘Crowd went mad’
But Peter revealed he has his doubts that Freddie would have written a song being so frank about his sexuality amid fears over what his parents would think.
He said: “Being gay was illegal until the Sixties, so he was fighting against his background.
“His parents were very religious and I don’t think he would have thrown it in their face like that.
“Bohemian Rhapsody was about love, though.
“All his songs are either about finding it or losing it.”
Peter says Queen’s performance of the song for Live Aid in 1985 was one of his favourite live memories of the band.
He also revealed that the only time they left it out of a live show — on a 1980s tour date in Canada — it left the crowd fuming.
Peter says: “It was the start of the tour, and the only time in the 12 years I knew them that they left it out — and the crowd went mad.
“When the encore finished, the crowd started chanting for it.
“But the show had finished.
“It was back in the setlist the next night.”
Yet for many, it is the ground-breaking video — showing the band performing, featuring close-up shots of their faces and portraying them in silhouette — that made the song so memorable.
It was first aired on BBC One’s Top Of The Pops on November 20, 1975 — ten days after it was filmed.
Peter said: “It was pioneering for its time.
“It was a product of its time.
“It was influenced by Doctor Who, which at the time had used silhouettes moving like in the video.
“It was put together very quickly.
“The band were on tour at the time and needed to record a video for Top Of The Pops as they couldn’t be there in person.”
It was through a ballet performance to Bohemian Rhapsody that Peter, who was working in costume for the Royal Ballet at the time, became Freddie’s personal assistant.
He would watch Countdown every day, religiously. He loved playing Scrabble, too
Peter on Freddie
The pair met when the Queen frontman was performing a charity gala in 1979.
Peter said: “I never had a contract because they could never create a job description.
“My job was basically living Freddie’s life alongside him.
“I did normal, day-to-day things like answer the telephone, answer the door, go shopping, do some cooking, do cleaning, so that he could concentrate on creating the music.”
Peter also got to know the off-stage Freddie through sharing his home.
He recalled: “He loved laughing.
“He always enjoyed himself.
“He would wake at 9am every morning, even if he’d got into bed at 2am.
‘I’m white trash’
“He’d have a cup of tea and loved to go to the garden at look at the koi carp.
“The Sotheby’s and Christie’s catalogue and the Architectural Digest were always in the house.
“He would watch Countdown every day, religiously.
“He loved playing Scrabble, too.
But Peter revealed there were also fun nights out — including one when Freddie flung model Samantha Fox around on stage.
Peter said: “I will never forget it, and I don’t think she will either.
“It was at a party after the Wembley shows in 1986, on a roof garden in Kensington High Street.
“Freddie grabbed Samantha and was swinging her around.
“And they were singing, and howling with laughter.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh God, don’t drop her’.”
On another occasion, Peter had to pluck Freddie out of a bin following a 1980s booze session in a US bar with pop act The Village People after his drink was spiked.
He said: “They were having a great time in this big American bar.
“Freddie was enjoying himself.
“I went to the toilet then one of our friends came to get me and said, ‘You better come quick’.
“I headed back in and I could hear raucous laughter.
“There was Freddie in white singlet, jeans and trainers, jumping up and down in this big, netted bin, full of beer cans and plastic cups . . . jumping up and down, and shouting, ‘I’m white trash. I’m white trash’.
“We later found out his drink had been spiked, but he was okay.”
Peter told how he misses Freddie “every day” and feels proud whenever he talks to others about him.
He now does tours and shares memories of the singer’s life.
Peter lives in the Czech Republic and runs an Aids foundation there.
He has talked to more than 70,000 people across the country about the illness, which Freddie had before his death from pneumonia in 1991.
Peter said: I feel proud that one of his great pieces of work, Bohemian Rhapsody, carries his legacy half a century on.”
- To find out about Peter’s work, see peterfreestone.com.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he’s dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters