Freddie Mercury began developing the song in the late 1960s while playing parts of it on a piano. One early piece known as The Cowboy Song contained lyrics that ended up in the final version produced years later, specifically Mama just killed a man. Producer Roy Thomas Baker recalled how Mercury once played the opening ballad section on the piano for him in his flat. He played the beginning on the piano then stopped and said And this is where the opera section comes in! Then they went out to eat dinner. Guitarist Brian May stated that the band thought Mercury's blueprint for the song was intriguing and original worthy of work. According to May much of Queen's material was written in the studio but this song was all in Freddie's mind before they started. Queen spent a month rehearsing at Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey in mid-1975. Recording began on the 24th of August 1975 at Rockfield Studio 1 near Monmouth South Wales after a three-week rehearsal at Penrhos Court near Kington Herefordshire. During the making of the track four additional studios Roundhouse Sarm Studios Scorpio Sound and Wessex Sound Studios were used. Mercury used a C. Bechstein concert grand piano which he played in the promotional video and the UK tour. The piano was allegedly the same one Paul McCartney had used to record the Beatles' song Hey Jude as well as the same one Rick Wakeman used on David Bowie's 1971 album Hunky Dory.
Recording Logistics
The entire piece took three weeks to record and in some sections featured 180 overdubs. In multiple interviews May recalled how Mercury's vocal overdubs were so exquisitely precise that he would create a natural phasing effect. Since the studios of the time only offered 24-track analogue tape it was necessary for the three to overdub themselves many times and bounce these down to successive sub-mixes. In the end eighth-generation tapes were used. The various sections of tape containing the desired sub-mixes had to be spliced cut and assembled in the correct sequence. May recalled placing a tape in front of the light and being able to see through it as the tape had been used so many times. Baker said Every time Freddie came up with another Galileo I would add another piece of tape to the reel. Baker recalls that they kept wearing out the tape which meant having to do transfers. May stated that his better material stems from this way of working in which he thought of the tune before playing it: The fingers tend to be predictable unless being led by the brain. According to Baker the end of the song was much heavier because it was one of the first mixes to be done with automation. If you really listen to it the ballad starts off clean and as the opera section gets louder and louder the vocals get more and more distorted. You can still hear this on the CD. They are clearly distorted.