Queen’s 43-year-old epic, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the most streamed 20th century song on Apple Music, Spotify, and other streaming platforms. The song has been given a huge boost by the biographical film of the same name.
Universal Music Group (UMG):
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” the iconic single by British rock legends Queen, officially became the world’s most-streamed song from the 20th Century, as well as the most-streamed Classic Rock song of all time…
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is regularly cited as one of the greatest songs ever recorded. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and Freddie Mercury’s vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history.
The instantly recognizable anthem also has been buoyed by the success of the biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody, which tells the incredible story of the band’s storied career. In just five weeks on release the film has become the highest grossing music biopic in history.
Brian May, Queen’s guitarist and founding member said, “So the River of Rock Music has metamorphosed into streams! Very happy that our music is still flowing to the max!”
Digital Trends reports the Queen song has knocked Nirvana’s 1991 grunge classic Smells Like Teen Spirit down to second place.
The hit song from Queen’s A Night at the Opera album jumped ahead of Nirvana’s 1991 grunge classic Smells Like Teen Spirit — now in second place with more than 1.5 billion streams — and two Guns N’ Roses tracks, namely Sweet Child O’ Mine and November Rain, in third and fourth spots, respectively.
Queen member Brian May told the BBC that the song almost never made it onto the radio, due to its lengthy running time.
“We were told it was going to be a hard sell,” May said. But the guitarist said things took a turn when a prominent radio DJ “took it upon himself to go out and play it to death. That made everybody else sit up. All the rest of the radio outlets thought: Oh God, we’d better get on this quick or else we’ll be left behind.”
As noted by 9to5Mac, a new tool for Apple Music allows users to view their own most-streamed songs. Let us know in the comments section what your most streamed songs are.