Wow. 40 years ago? So that means it was already 17 years old when I was introduced to it in Wayne’s World. Crazy.
I missed it the first time, but Wayne’s World introduced me. In general though I LOVE Queen.
This was fantastic, so many highlights of this video, but maybe my favorite is Brian May’s offhanded and offkey singing of “devil put aside for me … et cetera” at 20:33.
How I loathe that song. I can’t watch the video at work, I was hoping to read something telling me whom to blame.
A favorite mashup:
I remember when local radio stations would play it once a week at most. DJs would tell me, “Nobody wants to hear that. It’s too weird.”
And then Wayne’s World hit and it was on at least once a day.
I’m pretty sure I probably only know it because of Wayne’s World. On bus rides for the marching band, the whole bus would sing along.
I’m interested in the history of this version of the song, which I find quite powerful.
Mama
Mama?
Yeah, mama
I must have missed something. What is groundbreaking about it?
Wasn’t it the first rock song to chart #1 twice, years apart?
For starters, can you think of another song, let alone before it, that combined opera and rock?
After, but Diamanda Galas employs opera techniques in her work, but I’m not sure you can call it opera?
There’s also this:
Ah ha! Hadn’t heard, looking forward to that. Actually, after typing that, I thought of this song, which did come before. I think some of that’s, sort of, opera?
Hmmmm, I bet someone more versed in prog rock could come up with more examples. If they had someone with the right vocal chops, I’m sure there would be proggers delighted to filch some opera vibe.
I think Pat Benatar was an opera singer.
Come on, really?
Really.
