Bismillah! They will not let you go… Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody continues to break records as it enters its 44th year.
The song has just become the oldest video to reach 1 billion views on YouTube.
It is the first music video released in the 1970s, or any year prior to the 1990s, to reach the milestone.
Psy’s Gangnam Style was the first video to manage the feat in 2012. It now has 3.3bn views.
However, that pales in significance next to Luis Fonsi’s Despacito, which hit 6.3bn plays earlier this year – making it the most-watched video on the site.
In fact, Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t even make the Top 100 most-played videos on YouTube.
However, Queen’s achievement is not to be sniffed at. Before Monday, the only other 20th Century song to reach 1 billion views was Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain.
Bohemian Rhapsody has seen a surge in streams since the release of the Freddie Mercury biopic, also called Bohemian Rhapsody, last year.
Queen’s two remaining members, Brian May and Roger Taylor, celebrated the song’s YouTube success by uploading a newly-remastered, 4K version of the video – which originally premiered on BBC One’s Top Of The Pops in 1975.
“I still enjoy hearing it,” May told BBC News in 2015, as the song marked its 40th anniversary.
“If it comes on the radio, I’ll turn it up and listen. But no air guitar. I’m too old for air guitar now.”
