The song "Bohemian Rhapsody", written by Freddie Mercury and originally recorded by rock band Queen for their album A Night at the Opera, has been subsequently covered by many different artists.
Contents |
| Year | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Fuzzbox[1] | on their 1987 single "What's The Point"[2] |
| 1987 | Bad News | This spoof rock band (created for the UK Channel 4 TV series The Comic Strip Presents...) also released "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single. It reached number 44 in the UK Singles Chart. It featured on the album Bad News. The cover version was produced by Brian May.. A 12inch version was released as well ending completely different, when during the last guitar brake a false chord was played and the song stops whilst being shouted 'fuck basterds, I played the wrong chord'. The 12inch version then continues with some studio chatter and a 'bad news version' of Pretty Woman. |
| 1988 | Paige, Elaine[1] | The Queen album |
| 1992 | Queen + Elton John and Axl Rose | Elton John and Axl Rose performed "Bohemian Rhapsody" in The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. This version showed John playing the first verse of the ballad section in keyboards, and later singing in the front stage accompanied by Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor (Spike Edney plays the rest of the vamp until the operatic section). After the taped Opera section, Axl Rose appeared using a microphone similar that Mercury used in his live concerts; the Outro section was played in duet showing Rose's appreciation to John. |
| 1993 | Yankovic, "Weird Al" | a polka cover named "Bohemian Polka" on his album, Alapalooza. |
| 1993 | Comic Relief | a parody of the original video by celebrities from major UK TV networks on the BBC telethon |
| 1995 | Dream Theater | On the Album A Change of Seasons is the song "The Big Medley" which consist of several cover versions, including Bohemian Rhapsody. |
| 1996 | Harris, Rolf[1] | This version reached the British charts for one week at #50 |
| 1996 | The Braids | High School High soundtrack album. The San Francisco Bay Area duo recorded an R&B version of this song for the soundtrack to the Jon Lovitz movie High School High. It was produced by Third Eye Blind's lead singer Stephan Jenkins and was also released as a single in the fall of 1996. It peaked at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100, while staying on the charts for 17 weeks. |
| 1997 | Montserrat Caballé with Bruce Dickinson | On album Friends For Life |
| 1998 | Molotov | As "Rap, Soda y Bohemia", on the album Molomix |
| 1998 | Faye Wong | Performed the song on her concert - Faye Wong Scenic Tour 1998-99.[3] |
| 2001 | Ours (band) | Released as a limited edition CD single |
| 2001 | Paul de Leeuw | Dutch singer and TV personality, performed the song during his live shows in Ahoy Stadium in Rotterdam in 2000, released on single and album (zingen terwijl u wacht). The performance however was rather poor and falsely sung. |
| 2005 | DeLisle, Grey | album Iron Flowers. A shortened rendition, covering only the ballad portion of the song to a much slower melody. |
| 2005 | Flaming Lips, The | album Killer Queen. The cover was also performed live. |
| 2005 | G4 | First performed on first series of The X-Factor, released as a single which became #9 in the UK charts. It was included on their self-titled album |
| 2005 | McNeil, Suzie | On the CBS reality show Rock Star: INXS |
| 2005 | Children in Need | a selection of BBC News presenters perform the song on the BBC telethon |
| 2006 | Williams-Fairley Engineering Band | An instrumental version in their album Best In Class[4] |
| 2006 | Londons Horns | An 32 piece instrumental with arrangement by Richard Bissill and Geoffrey Simon conducting.[5] |
| 2007 | CollegeHumor | a parody entitled, "Brohemian Rhapsody", set in a fraternity house |
| 2007 | Moymoy Palaboy | A lip-syncing rendition of the song. It currently has 6,736,033 views on YouTube.[6] |
| 2008 | Autumn, Emilie | recorded on the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun & Bohemian Rhapsody Double Feature EP and frequently performed live in concert. |
| 2008 | Rajaton | recorded on the Rajaton sings Queen with Lahti Symphony Orchestra and on several occasions performed live in concert. |
| 2009 | Muppets, The | see section |
| 2009 | Pink | Funhouse Tour, and subsequent DVD release |
| 2009 | Augusto Enriquez | On Rhythms del Mundo Classics album |
| 2010 | Prince Poppycock | On Americas Got Talent |
| 2010 | Jonathan Groff in Glee | Featured on the TV show in the episode "Journey", and released on the EP Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals |
| 2010 | The Fringemunks | Parody that recaps Fringe episode 3.01, "Olivia."[7] |
| 2010 | Never Shout Never | From the album Punk Goes Classic Rock |
| 2010 | Hayseed Dixie | From the album Killer Grass |
| 2011 | William Shatner | From the album Seeking Major Tom |
| "Bohemian Rhapsody (Muppets Version)" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Queen + The Muppets | |
| Released | November 23, 2009 |
| Format | Music video |
| Recorded | 2009 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 4:46 |
| Label | Walt Disney |
| Writer(s) | Freddie Mercury The Muppets (re-worked lyrics) |
| Producer | Roy Thomas Baker, The Muppets, Queen |
The song was performed by characters from puppet group The Muppets in 2009. The cover is perhaps best known for its music video, which was originally posted on YouTube on November 23, 2009 before the release of the track.[8] The video features multiple Muppets characters singing partially modified lyrics of the original song and garnered over seven million hits within its first week of release.
The video and song is an official production of The Muppets Studio. The success of the video caused Walt Disney Records to release the cover as a single on December 13, 2009, where it peaked at #32 on the UK Singles Chart.
The Muppets' version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was directed by Kirk Thatcher, who has been involved with several other Muppets videos.[9] According to studio manager Lylle Breier, the idea of the Muppets singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" had long been an idea that they wanted to do, but only was able to bring the project together within a short time before the video's release.[10] Thatcher noted they had a long list of possible songs they wanted to do with a large group of Muppets, including Don McLean's "American Pie", but "Bohemian Rhapsody" was their ultimate selection.[9] Filming was completed within a day by 20 staffers; Thatcher considered the task to be "epic in scale" considering they normally only use half a dozen Muppets for a single scene.[9] Breier stated that this and other videos that the studio has released to YouTube are part of a promotional push for the Muppets; Breier likened outlets on the Internet like YouTube to the variety shows of the 1970s, and felt that the Muppets easily fitted into that culture.[11]
The video is a montage by about 70 different Muppets characters singing their part of the lyrics against a black screen, in the same style used by Queen for portions of their promotion video of the song and mimicking the four-person layout used for the cover of Queen's second album. After completing the song, which ends up with mosaic of all the characters singing, it is revealed that this was one side of a computer video conference with Kermit the Frog, who laments his decision for that type of meeting to Scooter.
The video presents a shorter version of Queen's song with some lyric alterations to retain appropriateness of the characters for a younger audience.[12] For example within the first stanza of the ballad portion of the song, the lyrics where the singer laments to his mother that he "just killed a man" are replaced by Animal calling out repeatedly for "mama".[10] Other aspects of the lyrics are changed for humorous purposes surrounding the Muppets characters. Pepe the King Prawn starts the opera portion of the song stating that he sees "a little silhouetto of a clam". The back-and-forth lyrics, "Bismillah! No! We will not let you go...let him go!", are replaced with Fozzie the Bear begging "Let me joke" to Statler and Waldorf, who state "We do not like your jokes". The line "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me" is replaced with the remaining muppets who have not been in the video singing "Does anyone know if there is a part for me?" The song ends with Miss Piggy, lounging on Rowlf the Dog's piano, singing "Nothing really matters but moi!"[12]
The video premiered on YouTube on November 23, 2009. Within a week, the video had accrued over 7 million views,[12] and has nearly 15 million views within the following five months.[13] The video was nominated and won the "Viral Video" category in the 14th Annual Webby Awards.[14] The popularity of the video led to the song being distributed through digital download on iTunes in December by Walt Disney Records[15] and EMI.[16] The song reached #32 on the UK Singles Chart for the week of December 26, 2009.[17]