Their 6 minute song . . .


"The March of the Black Queen"

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The issue wasn't that Bohemian Rhapsody was 6 minutes long, it was that it was 6 minutes long and the band wanted it to be the single. Radio stations wouldn't play anything over 3 minutes back then.

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That’s not completely true. The full version of The Doors’ Light My Fire got airplay on some stations; but it’s true that songs over 3 minutes did not get as much radio exposure as short songs.

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Some songs had radio edits. In-a-gadda-da-vita was edited down to just under 3 minutes. So was Thick as a Brick.

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Yessss, did not like them either, it just made me want to go home and listen to the true song! lol

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Cutting In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida down to 3 minutes is like trying to cram an African elephant into a steamer trunk.

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Didn't the full version of American Pie also get played on the radio?

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Yes it did, on stations that used the Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) format.

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Yes, "American Pie" got frequent full-length play on the radio. Around 1971, it seemed to be on about twice an hour, and went on (so it seemed) for about fifteen minutes. Same with "MacArthur Park".

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True that, love Santana!

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