--- ---  # Rock Critics Really Blew Their Reviews of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 30, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  (L-R) Brian May, John Deacon (standing), Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury of British rock group Queen at Les Ambassadeurs where they were presented with silver, gold and platinum discs for sales in excess of one million of their hit single 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which was No 1 for 9 weeks, on Sept. 8, 1976 in London (L-R) Brian May, John Deacon (standing), Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury of British rock group Queen at Les Ambassadeurs where they were presented with silver, gold and platinum discs for sales in excess of one million of their hit single 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which was No 1 for 9 weeks, on Sept. 8, 1976 in LondonAnwar Hussein—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 30, 2015 4:00 PM UTC The song “Bohemian Rhapsody”–which was released 40 years ago, Oct. 31, 1975–did not appear destined for the hit parade. It was, in TIME’s words, “a six-minute cut that mingles introspection with Gilbert and Sullivan operatics” by a band with little public profile. Yet it quickly topped the charts in England and propelled Queen on a 21-city U.S. tour. The critics never saw it coming. “Unfortunately,” TIME opined, “Queen’s lyrics are not the stuff of sonnets.” The New York _Times_, [reviewing](http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/11/18/112812471.html?pageNumber=12) a 1978 appearance at Madison Square Garden came down equally hard: “Lyrically, Queen’s songs manage to be pretentious and irrelevant. Musically, for all the virtuosity—though it was cheating a bit to turn over the complex middle portion of their ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to a taped version, with empty stage and flashing lights—the songs still sound mostly pretty empty, all flash and calculation.” _Rolling_ _Stone_ didn’t mention the song in its [review](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/a-night-at-the-opera-19760408) of the album _A Night at the Opera_ (“The Prophet’s Song” got top billing as the best track) but later [referred](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/the-game-19800918) to the song as a “brazen hodgepodge.” But that skepticism is long gone. _Rolling Stone_ eventually put “Bohemian Rhapsody” on its [list](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/queen-bohemian-rhapsody-20110526) of the 500 greatest songs ever, and it also has pride of place on TIME’s own [list](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/24/the-all-time-100-songs/slide/bohemian-rhapsody-queen/) of the greatest songs since 1923. **_Read more about the rise of Queen, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Hail to Queen](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-02-09/page/71/) ### Musicians on the Cover of TIME  The Dixie Chicks (May 29, 2006) JILL GREENBERG FOR TIME  Kanye West (Aug. 29, 2005) KWAKU ALSTON FOR TIME  Ricky Martin (May 24, 1999) TIME  Lauryn Hill (Feb. 8, 1999) TIME  Jewel (July 21, 1997) HERB RITTS  Pearl Jam (Oct. 25, 1993) NEAL PRESTON  Garth Brooks (March 30, 1992) JAMES SCHNEPF / GAMMA LIAISON  Madonna (May 27, 1985) FRANCESCO SCAVULLO  Michael Jackson (March 19, 1984) ANDY WARHOL  David Bowie (July 18, 1983) TIME  The Who (Dec. 17, 1979) TIME  Linda Ronstadt (Feb. 28, 1977) MILTON GREENE  Paul McCartney (May 31, 1976) RICHARD E. AARON  Elton John (July 7, 1975) DON WELLER  Cher (March 17, 1975) RICHARD AVEDON  Joni Mitchell (Dec. 16, 1974) BOB PEAK  James Taylor (March 1, 1971) J. H. BRESLOW  The Band (Jan. 12, 1970) BOB PEAK  Aretha Franklin (June 28, 1968) BORIS CHALIAPIN  The Beatles (Sept. 22, 1967) TIME  Joan Baez (Nov. 23, 1962) TIME  Frank Sinatra (Aug. 29, 1955) TIME  Rosemary Clooney (Feb. 23, 1953) BORIS CHALIAPIN  Louis Armstrong (Feb. 21, 1949) BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF  Bing Crosby (Apr. 7, 1941) ERNEST HAMLIN BAKER Bohemian Rhapsody at 40: What Critics Said About the Song ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4083880/bohemian-rhapsody-queen-1975/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4083880/bohemian-rhapsody-queen-1975/"},"headline":"Rock Critics Really Blew Their Reviews of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'","datePublished":"2015-10-30T16:00:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:10.958Z","description":"The Queen song was originally released 40 years ago, on Oct. 31, 1975","url":"https://time.com/4083880/bohemian-rhapsody-queen-1975/","keywords":["Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd94eb9b39900bf5/6988696d5f570f0622b1dfa7/queen.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd94eb9b39900bf5/6988696d5f570f0622b1dfa7/queen.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Anwar Hussein Collection","caption":"Anwar Hussein Collection","creditText":"Anwar Hussein—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4083880/bohemian-rhapsody-queen-1975/","name":"Rock Critics Really Blew Their Reviews of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'"}}]}] ```