Executives reportedly worried the song\u2019s six-minute runtime would doom it on the radio and pushed for edits. Mercury<\/a> refused.<\/p>\n At the time, a six-minute song with opera sections, dramatic tempo changes, and no traditional chorus sounded like it would be destined for failure.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were adamant that it could be a hit in its entirety. We have been forced to make compromises, but cutting up a song will never be one of them,\u201d Mercury said at one point.<\/p>\n The song was released as Mercury envisioned it, and to the surprise of Queen\u2019s record executives, it became a huge success.<\/p>\n Queen performs in Toronto. ZUMAPRESS.com \/ MEGA<\/p>\n Fans make it clear they think it would have been tragic had \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d never been shared with the world.<\/p>\n A fan declared<\/a> it was \u201cThe greatest rock song ever written. It blew my mind when I first heard it in full (aged 8 for the rerelease in 1991) and I listened to it to death on single.\u201d<\/p>\n Someone else wrote<\/a> that they think the song is \u201cso iconic and ground breaking,\u201d adding, \u201cThey put OPERA in a ROCK song. It is the greatest because of the meaning behind it and the story behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n Five decades later, fans cannot imagine a world where \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d<\/a> had been shortened, or even worse, shelved entirely. What once seemed too risky to release became one of the most beloved songs in rock history, proving Mercury\u2019s instincts were right all along.<\/p>\n This story Queen\u2019s Most Iconic Song Almost Never Happened<\/a> first appeared on Closer Weekly<\/a>. Add Closer Weekly as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queen\u2019s \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d is widely considered one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded, but it almost never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[15586,664,671,96148,672,9,24,63,96147,24732,122,124,123,673],"class_list":["post-246133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-bohemian-rhapsody","tag-brian-may","tag-freddie-mercury","tag-greatest-rock-songs","tag-john-deacon","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queen-frontman","tag-queen-guitarist","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-roger-taylor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8858411121d77619056e014fc82e2cfe.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n