An Oral History of the “Bohemian Rhapsody” Scene in Wayne’s World

Queen’s song “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a hit in 1975, and then was introduced to a whole new generation in 1992 when it was included in the movies Wayne’s World. I was quite surprised to hear the song in such a Gen-X movie. How did that happen? Rolling Stone assembled some of the people behind Wayne’s World to explain how the scene was conceived.   

Mike Myers (writer, "Wayne Campbell"): I grew up in Scarborough, Ontario of British parents. I'd gone to England in '75 with my family and heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the radio. We were obsessed with it. Me and my brother, our friends' car was a powder blue Dodge Dart Swinger that had a vomit stain on the side of it that someone chiseled in the shape of Elvis Presley. We'd drive down the Don Valley Parkway, listening to Bohemian Rhapsody. We would time it to enter the Toronto city limits when the rocking part would kick in. I was "Galileo!" three of five. If I took somebody else's "Galileo!" or somebody took mine, a fight would ensue. It's just something that I always back-pocketed. Wayne's World was my childhood. I knew only to write what I knew.

Penelope Spheeris (director): All of us, it was our first studio movie.

Myers: I wanted it to sort of reflect a kind of spirit, a time in your life before you had to do adult things and pay taxes and all that stuff. If the TV show was restricted to the basement, I wanted "Wayne's World" the movie to be as cinematic and in the world as possible. I thought "Bohemian Rhapsody" would be a great way to introduce everybody.

Spheeris: I thought it was an odd choice because if you are headbangers that wouldn't be your first choice to slam to in the car when you're cruising.

The guys who played Garth, Phil, and Terry all joined in to give their recollections of the BoRhap scene, as you can read at Rolling Stone. Oh yeah, Brian May is in there, too. (Link contains autoplay video) -via Digg


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