“Bohemian Rhapsody” is not only a hotly anticipated biopic about the popular 70’s british rock band Queen, but is also the most popular song the band has ever released. The song became one of the best selling singles worldwide and is still widely listened to today. The song itself is pivotal to the soundtrack of the upcoming movie, which is a wide window into the discography of the band and also into the world-famous lyrics of Freddie Mercury.
However, the soundtrack is very interesting in its own right as it features not only some of Queen’s greatest hits, but also some live recordings which have been remastered for the movie. The soundtrack is also being curated by Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor and Queen’s lead guitarist Brian May, which is very intriguing, as the song choice is sure to show an accurate representation of the birth and evolution of their sound.
The movie, which depicts Queen’s rise to fame, and especially focuses on Freddie Mercury’s life, shows recreations of live shows that the band had performed, and uses live recordings of the original shows. Five new live recordings are being remastered for the soundtrack, which include the songs “Radio Ga Ga,” “Ay-Oh,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are The Champions” and “Hammer to Fall,” all performed at Live Aid in 1985. All of these recordings have never been published on a public platform before and are being showcased for the first time on this soundtrack.
However, the crown jewel of the album is the song “Doing All Right … revisited” which is performed by the band Smile, the band widely known to be the predecessor to Queen. The three members — guitarist May, lead singer and bass guitarist Tim Staffell and drummer Taylor — reunited to re-record the song for the movie. This is a never-heard-before rendition of the song, and is a beautiful tribute to the late Freddie Mercury by his bandmates. The movie will presumably show the band Smile being disbanded to form Queen.
The soundtrack itself has a vast selection of some of their best known works, including “Killer Queen,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Under Pressure” and the titular “Bohemian Rhapsody.” These songs are classic rock and create a well-rounded album that fans of any genre can enjoy. However, each song, as per press release, has been chosen in order to match up with their narrative purpose within the movie. This allows for a nostalgic look into the history and evolution of Queen as a band.
Queen has been a massive part of the classic rock revolution, and have been critically acclaimed for years, including winning the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. Their guitar riffs, strong beats and Freddie Mercury’s smooth voice all make Queen’s music so lovable to so many people. This soundtrack allows for people to not only revisit music they may have grown up listening to or listened to as an adult but also allows people who have never listened to them before to learn about them and their music style. The “20th Century Fox Fanfare” was even re-done in the style of Queen for this movie in order to further showcase this. The movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” looks to be a beautiful rendition of Queen’s story, and its soundtrack is a great reintroduction of their classic rock-and-roll on to the modern music scene.
The movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” will be released Nov. 2, 2018.
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