Editing Bohemian Rhapsody (section)

==History and recording==
{{quote box
| salign = left
| quote = It was basically three songs that I wanted to put out, and I just put the three together.
| source = — Freddie Mercury<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Freddie Mercury – interview in Sydney, 1985 |format=1080p video |date=6 January 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2RoYpUoRkY |via=YouTube |access-date=4 December 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200302013439/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2RoYpUoRkY |archive-date=2 March 2020}}</ref>
| align = left
| width = 18em
}}
According to Mercury's friend Chris Smith (a keyboard player in [[Smile (band)|Smile]]), Mercury first started developing "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the late 1960s; Mercury used to play parts of songs he was writing at the time on the piano, and one of his 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."<ref>{{cite AV media | first = Chris | last = Smith | title = Queen: Days of our Lives | work = BBC | year = 2011}}</ref> Producer [[Roy Thomas Baker]], who began working with Queen in 1972, related how Mercury once played the opening ballad section on the piano for him in Mercury's flat:

<blockquote>He played the beginning on the piano, then stopped and said, "And this is where the opera section comes in!" Then we went out to eat dinner.</blockquote>

Guitarist [[Brian May]] said the band thought that Mercury's blueprint for the song was "intriguing and original, and worthy of work".{{Sfn|Chiu|2005}} According to May, much of Queen's material was written in the studio, but this song "was all in Freddie's mind" before they started.{{Sfn|BBC|2004b}}

[[File:Queen A Night At The Opera (1975 Elektra publicity photo 02).jpg|thumb|1975 publicity photo of Queen]]
Queen spent a month rehearsing at [[Ridge Farm Studio]] in [[Surrey]] in mid-1975, and drummer [[Roger Taylor (Queen drummer)|Roger Taylor]] recalled that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was one of the songs the band worked on while they were there.<ref>{{cite news |first=Jessica |last=Salter |date=26 February 2011 |title=Roger Taylor remembers rehearsing with Queen in 1975 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/8344914/Roger-Taylor-remembers-rehearsing-with-Queen-in-1975.html |url-status=live |access-date=12 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712023743/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/8344914/Roger-Taylor-remembers-rehearsing-with-Queen-in-1975.html |archive-date=12 July 2017}}</ref> Recording began on 24&nbsp;August 1975 at [[Rockfield Studios|Rockfield Studio 1]] near [[Monmouth]], [[South Wales]], after a three-week rehearsal at [[Penrhos, Herefordshire|Penrhos Court]], near [[Kington, Herefordshire]]. During the making of the track, four additional studios – [[Roundhouse Recording Studios|Roundhouse]], [[Sarm East Studios|Sarm Studios]], [[Scorpio Sound]], and [[Wessex Sound Studios]] – were used.{{sfn|Cunningham|1995}} According to some band members, Mercury mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout.{{Sfn|BBC|2004b}}

Mercury used a [[C. Bechstein]] concert grand piano, which he played in the promotional video and the UK tour. Due to the elaborate nature of the song, it was recorded in various sections.{{Sfn|Hodkinson|2004|p=192}} The piano was allegedly the same one [[Paul McCartney]] had used to record [[the Beatles]]' song "[[Hey Jude]]",<ref name="Horton"/> as well as the same one [[Rick Wakeman]] used on [[David Bowie]]'s 1971 album ''[[Hunky Dory]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pegg |first=Nicholas |title=The Complete David Bowie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqFkDQAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Titan Books]] |location=London |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-78565-365-0 |edition=Revised and Updated |page=347}}</ref>{{dubious|Trident piano|date=June 2020}}

Baker recalled in 1999:

{{Blockquote|"Bohemian Rhapsody" was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it. It was basically a joke, but a successful joke. [laughs] We had to record it in three separate units. We did the whole beginning bit, then the whole middle bit and then the whole end. It was complete madness. The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more ''"Galileos"'' and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing ... It started off as a ballad, but the end was heavy.<ref name="mix1999">{{cite magazine |title=Roy Thomas Baker: Taking chances and making hits |first=Rick |last=Clark |magazine=[[Mix (magazine)|Mix]] |date=1 April 1999 |url=http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_roy_thomas_baker/ |access-date=28 August 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050426041352/http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_roy_thomas_baker/ |archive-date=26 April 2005}}</ref>}}

[[File:Bohemian Rhapsody Track Sheet (replica) (edit) 1975.jpg|thumb|Recording track sheet (replica)]]

May, Mercury, and Taylor reportedly sang their vocal parts continually for 10 to 12&nbsp;hours a day.{{sfn|BBC|2004b}} The entire piece took three weeks to record, and in some sections featured 180 [[Overdubbing|overdubs]].{{sfn|Hodkinson|2004|p=192}} In multiple interviews, May recalled how Mercury's vocal overdubs were so exquisitely precise that he would create a natural [[Flanging|phasing effect]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ym7X_wCsPQ |title=What Makes This Song Great? "Bohemian Rhapsody" QUEEN (Feat. Brian May) |date=2021-09-09 |last=Rick Beato |access-date=2024-07-03 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z85YsUAU6pA |title=Queen - The Making Of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' [Greatest Video Hits 1] |date=2011-09-17 |last=ovolollo91 |access-date=2024-07-09 |via=YouTube}}</ref>

Since the studios of the time only offered 24-track analogue tape, it was necessary for the three to overdub themselves many times and "bounce" these down to successive [[Stem mixing and mastering|sub-mixes]]. In the end, eighth-generation tapes were used.{{sfn|Cunningham|1995}} The various sections of tape containing the desired sub-mixes had to be [[Reel-to-reel audio tape recording|spliced]] (cut and assembled in the correct sequence). May recalled placing a tape in front of the light and being able to see through it, as the tape had been used so many times.{{sfn|Classic Albums|2006}}

A similar story was told in 1977 by Taylor regarding the elaborate overdubs and sub-mixes for "The March of The Black Queen" for the album ''[[Queen II]]''. At that time, the band was using 16-track equipment.<ref name="TDIMGTQ">{{cite book |last=Chapman |first=Phil |author-link=Phil Chapman |date=July 2019 |title=Guide to Queen |series=This Day in Music's Guide |publisher=This Day in Music Books |isbn=978-1-9995927-8-3 |page=209}}</ref>

Producer Baker recalls that May's solo was done on only one track rather than recording multiple tracks. May stated that he wanted to compose "a little tune that would be a counterpart to the main melody; I didn't just want to play the melody". The guitarist said that his better material stems from this way of working, in which he thought of the tune before playing it: "The fingers tend to be predictable unless being led by the brain."{{sfn | BBC| 2004b}} According to Baker,

<blockquote>... the end of the song was much heavier because it was one of the first mixes to be done with [[mix automation|automation]] ... If you really listen to it, the ballad starts off clean, and as the opera section gets louder and louder, the vocals get more and more distorted. You can still hear this on the CD. They are clearly distorted.<ref name="mix1999"/></blockquote>

In May 2023, an early handwritten draft unearthed from an auction of items that belonged to Mercury, courtesy of his friend Mary Austin, revealed that Mercury originally considered the song to be titled "Mongolian Rhapsody". It was explained that he wrote the title along with the lyrics in 1974 on a page of stationery from defunct airline [[British Midland International|British Midland Airways]], but crossed out the word "Mongolian" in place of "Bohemian".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/arts/music/queen-freddie-mercury-bohemian-rhapsody.html|author=Marshall, Alex|title=Was Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Originally 'Mongolian Rhapsody'?|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=31 May 2023}}</ref>