A To Z Challenge, Music Blog

That’s Entertainment – Letter Q

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Welcome back to “That’s Entertainment!” –
The A To Z Challenge.
I hope you enjoy my musical selections.
Let’s see what’s up today!

© NAR
Artwork by Ernest Federspiel

QUEEN – A fusion of heavy metal, glam rock, and camp theatrics made Queen one of the most popular groups of the 1970s. Although generally dismissed by critics, Queen crafted an elaborate blend of layered guitar work by virtuoso Brian May and overdubbed vocal harmonies enlivened by the extravagant performance of frontman and principal songwriter Freddie Mercury. Queen was formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor, later joined by John Deacon. They are nothing short of legend. When we think of Queen, one song invariably comes to mind …. “Bohemian Rhapsody” – Britain’s top single for nine weeks. Written by Freddie Mercury, the song is actually a six-minute suite which he described as a “mock opera” that resulted from the combination of three songs he had written. Mercury first started developing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the late 1960s; one of his earlier pieces, known simply as “The Cowboy Song“, contained lyrics that ended up in the completed version produced years later, in 1975, specifically, “Mama … just killed a man”. Italian operatic phrases include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo Galilei, Figaro, and Beelzebub, with cries of “Bismillah!” Although critical reaction was initially mixed, retrospective reviews have acclaimed “Bohemian Rhapsody” one of the greatest songs of all time and is often regarded as Queen’s signature song. In 2018, the biographical music drama film also called Bohemian Rhapsody was released; the movie focused on the formation of the band in 1970 to their 1985 Live Aid performance in Wembley Stadium. The role of Freddie Mercury was played by Rami Malek, who won an Academy Award for his performance.  However, Malek did not sing the voice of Freddie; that job went to Marc Martel, a Canadian musician living in Nashville, TN, and performing with the Queen cover band, One Vision. While Rami Malek lip-synced and performed some singing in the film, the majority of the vocal tracks were an amalgamation of Martel’s voice, Freddie Mercury’s original recordings, and some parts of Malek’s own voice. In 1990, Queen received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. On November 23, 1991, in a prepared statement, Freddie Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS. Within 24 hours of the statement, he died of bronchial pneumonia, which was brought on as a complication of the disease. His funeral service on November 27 in Kensal Green, West London was private, and held in accordance with the Zoroastrian religious faith of his family. On April 20, 1992 (33 years ago tomorrow), The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at Wembley Stadium to a crowd of 72,000. The concert was televised to over 1.2 billion viewers worldwide and raised over £20,000,000 for AIDS charities; it is listed as “the largest ever rock star benefit concert“. Queen was inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 2001. As of 2005, Queen albums have spent a total of 1,322 weeks …. 26 years …. on the UK Album Charts, more time than any other act.

This is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen


Please join me again Monday for more of “That’s Entertainment” and the A To Z Challenge!

I’m Nancy and I’ll see you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

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38 thoughts on “That’s Entertainment – Letter Q”

  5. Queen was so over the top and made no excuses about it…that was a big part of their charm. This song is incredible because of the many overdubs….the tape was almost translucent. That is mind blowing…it is a masterpiece.

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    1. The only one who came even remotely close was Quincy Jones, but that would be Letter J, not Q.

      As I told Jim, the only part of Wayne’s World I’m familiar with is the scene in the car singing this song; I’ve never seen the entire movie so I’m guessing it’s a lot like Bill & Ted.

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  15. Ah, bring it on, Nancy, …Freddie’s voice, …omg, …when he sang, you were transported, ….and I remember Live Aid, … Queen were head and shoulders above any act singing live, … I’ll be listening on Alexa again, ,..💫🤗💫

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