Queen’s Freddie Mercury felt that the band’s track ‘Somebody To Love’, was “better” than the megahit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
This claim was made by a former roadie who worked for the band, Peter Hince, who made these comments when he spoke to Greatest Hits, after ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was named as the ‘greatest song of all time’ by over 6,5000 listeners.
“The band were recording [album] ‘Night At The Opera’ and we were going around all these different studios in London and doing bits in each place so I was hearing bits and pieces of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, but I didn’t hear the whole thing for quite some time”, Hince said.
“I remember hearing the opera bit and thinking it’s going to be an introduction tape for the live show – I had no idea it was a song!”.
“very emotional”
Speaking about the video for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Peter Hince called it one of Freddie Mercurys “legacies”.
“The video is arguably what helped it become so huge in Britain…and the other thing is that, sadly, Freddie isn’t around anymore and it’s one of his legacies that piece of music so is still something people find very emotional”, stated Hince.
He continued, “Also, nothing really had been done like it before and probably nothing since – with all the technology now it is easier to get certain studio effects whereas with Queen it was all about spending enormous amounts of time and being incredibly innovative”.
“So I think part of [it’s appeal] is in the fact that it took so long to do and it was this real labour of love for Fred”.
It was at this point that Peter Hince insisted that Mercury felt ‘Somebody To Love’ was a better track than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
“…Freddie actually said ‘Somebody To Love’ was a better piece of songwriting than Bo Rap. He felt that as a pure piece of songwriting it was better”.
Overall, Queen had 20 entries in the ‘greatest song of all time’ polls, including ‘Under Pressure’ among others.
Back in August, some possessions which were owned by Mercury went on display in Sotheby’s, London as part of a major auction. Find out more on this here.
