It's an upset: 'Bohemian Rhapsody' tops DVE Memorial Day 500

You might say it was a case of another one biting the dust in WDVE radio’s Memorial Day 500.

The holiday weekend countdown of the top 500 classic rock songs of all time has often seen Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” ascend to the top of the list. It has been either No. 1 or 2 since the countdown returned in 2019. It was the top song in 2020.

Many ‘DVE listeners likely expected it to happen again this year. Instead, a song that had never topped the list before came in at No. 1 — Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” stood at the top of the podium when the music stopped.

“Stairway to Heaven” finished second, followed by Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” rounding out the top five.

Considered somewhat of an oddity when it first hit the pop charts in the fall of 1975, the heavily post-produced “Bohemian Rhapsody” featured soaring vocals by lead singer Freddie Mercury and combined opera, parody and driving guitars to rise to No. 1 by Christmas of that year.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” placed 9^th in last year’s countdown. The track was No. 2 in 2020 and No. 5 in 2019. Still, it had never held its own against the best of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or AC/DC — until now.

Musician “Weird” Paul Petroskey, famous for live Tweeting his reactions as the countdown unfolds each year, Tweeted “YOUR NEW NUMBER ONE SONG: “BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY” by Queen on @DVERADIO 2022 countdown. This song DID NOT EVEN CHART in 1985.”

PITTSBURGH, YOUR NEW NUMBER ONE SONG:
"BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" by Queen on the @DVERADIO 2022 countdown. This song DID NOT EVEN CHART in 1985, but that was the year I made this homemade music video for it, check out me miming that guitar solo! https://t.co/6HVtImBYj4

— Weird Paul Petroskey (@weirdpaul) May 30, 2022

WDVE afternoon drive host Chad Tyson, who announced “Bohemian Rhapsody” as the top song in the countdown Monday, said the song was worthy of being No. 1, although he would not have voted for it.

“You can’t argue that it’s a great song that has really stood the test of time,” he said. “When they recorded it back in the day, it was ahead of its time with how they (produced) it. They didn’t have Pro Tools or digital editing software back in ’75. So there was a lot of cutting and splicing and overdubbing, and there was something like 200 tracks on that song when they put it together.”

The list of the top 500 classic rock songs is compiled by WDVE staffers working largely off top 10 lists submitted by listeners.

WDVE midday host Michele Michaels told the Tribune-Review last week that “Stairway to Heaven” is her all-time favorite rock tune, saying no song has affected her quite like the Zeppelin classic.

Nevertheless, she said Tuesday morning that she wasn’t surprised at the weekend’s result.

“Especially after the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ movie (released in 2018),” said Michaels. “The requests for that song since the Freddie Mercury movie have just grown and grown and the song has had a monster resurgence, so I’m really not surprised.”

Michaels said she was more surprised that Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” didn’t make the list of 500 songs at all.

“There are weird things like that that happen every year,” she said. “I was on the air when we kicked (the Memorial Day 500) off on Friday and The Outlaws’ ‘Green Grass and High Tides’ came in at 496. I take requests every day and I get lots of requests for that.”

Breaking down the top 10 acts with the most songs in the list of 500, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones each had 20, followed by Tom Petty with 14 and AC/DC with 13. The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Van Halen each had 12 while The Who and The Doors showed up with 10 each. And rounding out the list was Guns N’ Roses with nine songs.

Tyson said he would have chosen Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” as the number one song, but it came in at No. 13. Last year’s champion “Back in Black” by AC/DC was only No. 17 this year.

“I’ve done countdowns at other stations before and I don’t think any of them have people live-Tweeting them like Weird Paul. I had Twitter messages all weekend long,” Tyson said.

Michaels said the surprises are what make the DVE Memorial Day 500 fun.

“It’s like how Pittsburghers argue about their sports teams, this has everybody screaming and being happy and arguing with each other and debating things at their picnics. So it’s just a blast.”

The link to the full playlist can be found here.