Bohemian Rhapsody - Simply Three & William Joseph (Queen Cover)

THE STORY
We first met with William Joseph in April of this year. We have wanted to work with him for quite some time, and we were finally able to meet together to discuss what song we could do together. You would think that adding a piano would be an easy endeavor for us. But we found that it was more difficult than we expected. We went over numerous songs, but none of them really felt right. We wanted to really hit hard with this collaboration, and it wasn’t until we remembered one of the most iconic songs, if not the most iconic song, Bohemian Rhapsody, that we really felt it was the perfect song for us. Queen is one of the most famous bands of all time. Beloved and known worldwide, what better way to make a splash than by performing arguably their most famous song. Truthfully, this song is really three songs in one. A beautiful ballad, followed by an opera, followed by a heavy rock song. It has the best of everything. We came out of that meeting really pumped to be doing this song. We went to work on the arrangement immediately, trying our best to stay true to the original sound and feel but also making sure to put our own spin on it. Once the arrangement was done, we went to work recording - which took longer than expected, but we made sure to give this song its due justice.

The music video was such an ambitious project for us. No other video of ours has had so many moving parts. We knew we wanted a story line and William suggested that we pay homage to the movie Wayne’s World. He really wanted to get the same car that was in the movie, so Dave, our Executive Producer, went to work to find a Pacer online. Luck would have it, he found one! Only problem was that it was in Maine...But it seemed to be the only one online that we could afford - so we bought it. We shipped it over to Arizona, and Dave and his team got to work to modify the car so it could tow a piano. They spent weeks on the car making sure it was safe and drivable. They added extra steel to fortify the frame, a new brake system, modifications to the roof so Nick could stand on it, a trailer to tow the piano, a process trailer to tow the car with the piano attached...just to name a few. If it wasn’t for Dave and William’s dad, who happens to be one of the best welders in the country, none of this would have happened.

We shot the video over two very long days, totaling 35 hours of shooting. By the end of it we were completely exhausted, but when we looked at the footage we were all so excited that we had actually captured what we had thought of in our minds. It made it all worth it. We hope you enjoy his video because we put A TON of work into this one. It was definitely the most demanding music video we have ever done, but we think it came out great! Thanks for watching. :)

THE VIDEO
Executive Producer: Dave Christensen
Director: Bret Kalmbach
DP: Bret Kalmbach
Welder and Custom Fabricator: Bailey Baker
Gaffer: Jarrod Wilson
1st AC: Jacen Sievers
Key Grip: Lee Lusby
Grip & Electric: Mike Rea
Production Lead / Grip: Terry Mitchell
Production Assistant: Danny Stone
Production Assistant: Nicole Christensen
Production Assistant: Brody Cuzick
Hair / Makeup: Skyler Gardner
Drone footage by Apairus Company and King Digital Marketing
Edited and colored by Zack Clark

Many thanks to Derek Wright with Suntec Concrete for the Production Site and Heavy Equipment Crew.

Special thanks to Flaco, the lift operator.

Thank you to Mike Hanson for meeting us with your '67 Camaro for the intro dash shots.

THE SONG
'Bohemian Rhapsody' written by Freddie Mercury
Arranged and produced by Simply Three and William Joseph.
Recorded and performed by Simply Three, William Joseph, and JR Robinson
Mixed by Jesse String
Mastered by Nathan James

LINKS

#SimplyThree #WilliamJoseph #BohemianRhapsody #Queen #Cello #Bass #Violin #Piano

[codygiron]

So many covers of Bohemian Rhapsody out there, but very few as beautiful as this!

[socialpiranha]

Cop: "What are you doing? That's reckless endangerment."
Simply Three + William Joseph: "We're playing Queen."
Cop: * drops all charges *

[kolakage]

Went to watch the Bohemian Rhapsody movie for the second time yesterday and now I found this. My heart just exploded with feelings.
Amazing job guys!

[kathrynvincent]

Picture this: you're driving home from work, tired of the ol 9-5 and you see this. Three grown men rocking out to Queen on strings and a piano at a red light.

[grantgalgey]

Phrasing, delivery, musicianship, everything .... BRILLIANT. Freddy would have been ecstatic!

[shakypirate]

Couldn't resist opening after I saw the title! Queen and Simply Three both rocks! 🤘

[IndyMuttProductions]

This song quite literally sent shivers down my spine. Great job you guys.

[mmomj]

Oh my God.. I haven't been impressed in such a long time, and I'm someone who holds Bohemian Rhapsody sacred! I do not accept tampering with it, yet still listen to covers and cringe every so often. However, you guys, and thanks to OneRepublic for bringing me to you, you did yourselves proud, the whole vision of the video is just incredible, every little detail, the rock spirit was fire! Freddie would've approved! Hang on this needs more than one viewing!

[Isti]

How does this not have over a million views??? Looking at the quality of the video and the music it deserves much much more! Thanks for this amazing piece of entertainment! :)

[Sylwinka]

Guys, thank you so much for that. This is beautiful masterpiece. Today I was in cinema on "Bohemian Rhapsody" movie and I cried so hard at the scene when Freddie started singing first "part" of this song at Live Aid concert because he and we knew that he was on death sentence from AIDS so his "goodbye" was so heartbreaking. :( When I heard this first part in your version I started crying again. You're so talented!❤

[topsecret]

You guys gotta do a Piano Guys collab. I mean you’re already kicking butt on the top of a car!

[WallaceGneiss]

Wow! Absolutely superb production & composition. You guys rock. Thanks for sharing.

[rickhalemusic]

WE'RE NOT WORTHY!! WE'RE NOT WORTHY!!!!

[AmberCara_Music]

AWESOME, JUST AWESOME... AMAZING MUSICIANSHIP... Came across this today & I've just added it to my playlist... thank-you for making the world a better place, music should rule the world... (& maybe humour too!)...🎶🎇🎶🎇🎶🎇🎶

[alyssajoyblack]

Freddie told the executor of his will that he didn't care what he did with his legacy, 'just don't make me boring'.... on those grounds I think mr Mercury would approve

[teglord]

You guys have the power of a whole orchestra

[ravenprince]

These guys are legit me when I'm listening to music.
Well, maybe not the playing instruments in/on a car while driving, but certainly the headbanging
Love this so much - you guys are legends

[yxoxnip]

you can really hear the instruments singing💕💓💕💓💕💓

[wamb]

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a music video this much. Thanks guys, very awesome!

[tfisjulia]

Can we talk about THE AMAZING ELECTRIC BASS GUITAR RIFF. It’s amazing!! Great work you guys!!