2000 Great Songs #1437: Seven Seas Of Rhye

The song so nice, they recorded it twice!

While I'll always be somewhat ambivalent about Queen--I'm not a fan of their bombastic hard rock, and even the undeniably great pop singles are kinda tied up in the baggage of being among the Top 40 songs popular when I first got into music as a kid and soon tried to cast aside--I'm a sucker for this cheery little slice of operatic glam. Those rollicking pianos dueling with Brian May's distinctive guitar acrobatics first showed up on their 1973 debut as an unfinished instrumental tacked on to the end of the LP; they re-recorded it with vocals (oooh, those harmonies!) for 1974's Queen II and it became their first hit single. But it never got the same level of radio saturation as later singles, which may be why I'm able to enjoy it so much today.

Live 1974:

Impressive School of Rock cover!

Iron Tyger (Queen tribute band):

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