On November 23rd 1991, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury released a statement announcing that he was HIV positive, and had developed AIDS, confirming years of speculation about his ailing health. Barely one day later another announcement followed: Mercury was dead, aged just forty-five.
Bohemian Rhapsody / These Are the Days of Our Lives, by Queen (their 4th of six #1s)
5 weeks, from 15th December 1991 – 19th January 1992
Which brings us to the final #1 of the year – the Christmas Number One – and the first time a song has re-topped the charts. How to deal with this? Write about ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ all over again? I’d rather not… Or just provide a link to my original post on the song, back when it was a nine-week chart-topper (and another Xmas #1) back in 1975-76? Neither seems the perfect solution… ‘Bo Rap’ may well be one of the best-loved, most innovative, outré pop songs of all time; but it has been played to death. We all know what it sounds like. Luckily, Queen twinned it with a song from ‘Innuendo’, their latest album, and gave us something else to talk about!
‘These Are the Days of Our Lives’ couldn’t be more different from its re-released partner. A lounging, glossy soft-rock tune, with a gentle Bossa nova beat. It’s not classic Queen – it sounds more like a Freddie Mercury solo record – until Brian May’s trademark guitar come chiming in towards the end. Lyrically, though, it’s the perfect swansong.
It was written by Roger Taylor, but lines like You can’t turn back the clock, You can’t turn back the tide, Ain’t that a shame… are sung ruefully by Mercury, in what many have claimed were the final vocals he ever recorded. It’s unashamedly sentimental, and usually that would have me running a mile, but when lyrics like Those days are all gone now, But one thing is true, When I look, And I find, I still love you… are sung by a dying man then they hit much harder.
The video – filmed in black and white to hide just how gaunt Mercury was – is certainly the last thing he filmed, six months before his death. Ever the showman – behold the cat waistcoat! – he asked for the closing shot to be re-filmed, in which he chuckles to himself, looks down, then whispers I still love you… Not a dry eye left in the house.
The lyrics shift from ‘those were’ the days of our lives to ‘these are…’, in a positive message, a sign that even in the shadow of death each day is a gift. Again, this is something I might balk at if it weren’t for the fact that a dying man is singing it. If he believes it then who am I to judge? Personally, I’d have liked ‘The Show Must Go On’ as the posthumous single – much more dramatic, much more Queen – but that had been released a couple of months earlier, making #16.
For sure ‘These Are the Days of Our Lives’ wouldn’t have made number one on its own, without either Mercury’s death or ‘Bo Rap’s re-release. A certain run-of-the-mill Elton John song will suffer a similar fate a few years later, caught up in another famous death, becoming one half of the highest-selling single ever in the process. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ meanwhile added five more weeks in top spot to its original nine, becoming the third longest-running #1 ever. And this isn’t the end of the chart-topping story for either Queen or Freddie. But it is the end for 1991, one of the more interesting years for chart-topping singles, with Gregorian chants, rapping cartoon characters, sixteen-weekers, Bono in character as ‘The Fly’, Vic Reeves (because why not?), and it all ending on a farewell to the greatest frontman who ever strutted the stage.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
‘The Show Must Go On’ never really did it for me, somehow – all bombast and style, but melodically rather hollow. But it was impossible not to be moved the first time ‘TATDOOL’, song and video, appeared on our screens.
No doubt “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been played to death. It’s one of the weirdest, ridiculously over-produced yet most brilliant songs I can think of. I can still listen to it, though I can see why folks might be tired of it.
Freddie Mercury was an incredible vocalist. This doesn’t mean I like each and every song he did. “These Are the Days of Our Lives” is fairly pleasant, though no “Bohemian Rhapsody”, not even close.
I’m one of those who can now take or leave Bohemian Rhapsody, though I can appreciate its brilliance.
TATDOOL is a fairly low key finale for such a great singer and huge presence, but lyrically it is very fitting
Rating: “Bohemian Rhapsody” (5/5); “These Are the Days of Our Lives” (3/5)
Of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a goddamn classic. Amazing song. Maybe the most famous rock song ever? Yes, absolutely overplayed, and the movie did not help. I consciously avoided the song between 2019-2022 so now when I hear it there has been a degree of separation for me to enjoy and appreciate the song again.
“These Are The Days of Our Lives”, I’ll admit I’ve never heard this one before. It’s alright. Beside’s Freddie’s voice, I wouldn’t have pegged this for a Queen song. Sounds like a late-80s AOR ballad. Goes through one ear and right out the other. It’s okay. RIP to a legend. The loss is still felt to this day.
In my opinion, 1992 is when the 90s really began, especially in the US with grunge exploding onto the mainstream thanks to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, R&B’s meteroic resurgence in popularity, gangsta rap making inroads thanks to Dr Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog and alternative rock as a whole really widening in commercial appeal, due to the aforementioned Nirvana and Pearl Jam, as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and R.E.M. It’s a great period for music, especially rock and hip hop, though that’s not necessarily reflected on the pop charts.
I still love Bohemian Rhapsody… I can still listen to it…and some of the other huge songs like A Day in the Life, Freebird, and Stairway to Heaven…although the last one takes a bit for me to listen.
These Are the Days of Our Lives…it did fit the time because of the situation…but you are right…it didn’t really sound like Queen except for Freddie. May’s solo is drowned with delay… It did fit but now it seems a bit anti climatic but it works.
Warren Zevon had a “last song” because he knew he was dying…it always brings a tear to me…and I don’t say that alot. “Keep Me In Your Heart”… it still works because it sounded like him all the way through.
In some ways as an artist it must be a ‘good’ thing, knowing the end is near, to have a chance to have a final say and polish off your legacy. Best case being David Bowie and ‘Blackstar’.
Yes…to resolve matters…but it must suck in other ways…the knowing…but for an artist…yea I guess it would be a good thing.
Bo Rap once one of my all-time faves, and I do try and turn off the radio when it inevitably pops up weekly, but enough is enough for me now. These Are The Days is very pleasant, and was very touching after Freddie died. We’d been expecting it a while, he’d not been looking well for most of the year so it was more like “damn” when he died, rather than “OMG!”. Innuendo is his goodbye masterpiece though, for me, and all of the band co-wrote it, but you can see it’s all about the darkness and injustice of dying.