Liner Notes · No. 011
"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen: the B-side
Quick hall pass: a six-minute song with no chorus got a second life in the back seat of a car nobody wanted to be seen in. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- "Bohemian Rhapsody" passed 2 billion Spotify streams in December 2022. (Blabbermouth)
- The Yamaha piano Freddie Mercury finished the song on sold at Sotheby's in September 2023 for about $2.2 million. (Blabbermouth)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
The Pacer, the cassette and the sore neck
Mike Myers fought to get the Pacer headbang into Wayne's World, and the 2018 biopic made it the 20th century's most-streamed song.
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The scene: Wayne's World, February 1992, directed by Penelope Spheeris. Wayne pops a cassette into the tape deck of Garth's AMC Pacer, and the whole car headbangs through the song. The Pacer: a car shaped like a fishbowl that got its driver's license. Every kid in America learned the opera part from the back seat of the least cool car ever built.
The fight: Mike Myers had to battle for it. He said he had no jokes for a Guns N' Roses song and lots for this one, and that he didn't want to make the movie without it. Spheeris thought it was an odd pick for a car full of headbangers. Myers says his neck hurt during the long shoot. Art is pain. Specifically, cervical pain.
The phone call: Brian May says Myers called him to ask for approval, and that he showed the scene to Freddie Mercury before Freddie died, and that "he loved it." Spheeris questioned that timeline in a 2022 interview, so that one is May's account. After the song's new video won its VMA, May said Freddie "would be tickled."
The sequel: The 2018 biopic, with Rami Malek as Freddie, ends on a recreation of the 1985 Live Aid set, and lost Best Picture to Green Book. Afterward the song became the most-streamed song of the 20th century: 1.6 billion streams across services by December 2018. A song that was "too long for radio" outlasted radio.
Now, about that phone call Mike Myers didn't want to make. Quiz time.
For the Wayne's World car scene, which band did Lorne Michaels suggest instead of Queen?
No Googling. We'll know. (If you watched the pop-ups, this one's a freebie.)
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- Live moments: Live Aid 1985, Elton John and Axl Rose at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, and the Live Aid set replayed in 2020.
- Covers: Weird Al's 1993 polka, the Muppets' 2009 version that went viral, and Panic! at the Disco's Suicide Squad cover.
- Where Queen are in 2026: a touring question, a Sphere-style rumor, and a giant Queen II box set.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
Wembley, twice, and a replay in Sydney
21 minutes at Live Aid, Elton and Axl at the Freddie tribute, and the whole 1985 set replayed in Sydney in 2020 for bushfire relief.
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The set: Live Aid, Wembley Stadium, July 13, 1985. Queen walked on at 6:41 p.m. and played about 21 minutes: "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Radio Ga Ga," "Hammer to Fall," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions." Six songs, zero filler, and a stadium doing the hand claps in perfect time. Your school assembly could never.
For the 40th anniversary in 2025, Queen streamed the whole set on YouTube for 24 hours, starting at 6:41 p.m. BST. Same time, 40 years later. Somebody on that team is a details person.
The tribute: April 20, 1992, back at Wembley for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Near the end of the show, Elton John and Axl Rose sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" together. The concert launched the Mercury Phoenix Trust, which raises money for AIDS causes in Freddie's name.
The replay: In February 2020, at Fire Fight Australia in Sydney, Queen + Adam Lambert played the full 1985 Live Aid set again, opening with this song, to raise money for bushfire relief. Most bands can't remember last week's setlist. Queen ran back one from 35 years earlier.
And in late October 2025, the single turned 50. Queen marked it with a five-part YouTube series and the single reissued on vinyl and cassette. Yes, cassette. Garth's tape deck is ready.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
A polka, the Muppets and Panic!
A polka from Weird Al, Animal on drums for the Muppets, and Panic! braving the falsetto. Play them below, then vote.
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- 1993 · "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Bohemian Polka." The whole song as a polka, closing his album Alapalooza. The Washington Post said it "doesn't sound all that different" from the original. That is either the meanest review of 1993 or the nicest. Possibly both.
- 2009 · The Muppets. Posted November 23, 2009, on the brand-new Muppet Studios YouTube channel, and it passed 10 million views in its first two weeks. Animal handles the headbanging. Garth would approve. Garth may have been a Muppet all along.
- 2016 · Panic! at the Disco. Recorded for Suicide Squad: The Album, and debuted at #64 on the Billboard Hot 100. Brave of anyone to attempt the falsetto parts without a prism and a fog machine.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Bohemian Rhapsody" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where Queen are now
Brian May says "50 years may be enough" for touring but hasn't ruled it out. Meanwhile, a Queen II box set and a Sphere-style show rumor.
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The road: This month, Brian May told The Times he had decided about 18 months ago to stop touring, saying "50 years may be enough." On October 7 he clarified that he has not ruled out Queen touring again. No new dates are announced. Roger Taylor says he'd tour if they both wanted to.
The rumor: May and Taylor are reportedly exploring an immersive Queen show inspired by the Sphere in Las Vegas. May has voiced concerns about using AI in it. Nothing is announced. A giant glowing ball in the desert playing Queen songs. Honestly, that's just Live Aid with a bigger lighting budget.
The box: On March 27, 2026, Queen released the Queen II Collector's Edition, with May and Taylor as executive producers: 5 CDs and 2 LPs, a new 2026 mix, session recordings, BBC recordings, a live set from the Rainbow and a 112-page book. That's the album whose cover the "Bohemian Rhapsody" video copied. Fifty-two years later, the cheekbones get a box set.
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