Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Makes Rare Third Visit to Billboard Hot 100

The classic joins the likes of Prince's "1999," which has also charted in three decades.

Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" has been a rock classic for over 40 years. Now it adds a rare chart honor on the Billboard Hot 100.

Following the Nov. 2 premiere of the new Bohemian Rhapsody biopic about the band and its late frontman Freddie Mercury, "Rhapsody" re-enters the Hot 100 (dated Nov. 17) at No. 33, as it blasts 36-5 on Digital Song Sales, up 236 percent to 24,000 sold, and returns to Streaming Songs at No. 41, surging by 77 percent to 13.3 million U.S. streams, according to Nielsen Music.

As previously reported, the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack vaults 25-3 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's highest-charting album in 38 years.

"Rhapsody" makes its third visit to the Hot 100 and first since 1992, when it returned amid the success of another film, Wayne's World, and peaked at No. 2. The song originally reached No. 9 in 1976.

The track's three separate Hot 100 runs in three different decades, all including trips to the top 40, is extremely rare, but not unprecedented. As noted by Paul Haney of Joel Whitburn's Record Research, Prince's "1999" has logged four distinct chart cycles in three decades.

"1999" arrived on the Hot 100 in October 1982 and rose to No. 44 that December. After almost five months off the chart, as follow-up "Little Red Corvette" zoomed to No. 6 in May 1983, becoming Prince's first top 10, "1999" re-entered that June and hit its No. 12 high that July. In January 1999, the song returned for a week at No. 40, as people partied not just like it was 1999, but because it finally actually was. Most recently, "1999" spent two weeks on the chart, rising to No. 27, in May 2016 following Prince's death that April.

Beyond those enduring smashes by musical kings Queen and Prince, certain Christmas songs have charted on the Hot 100 in at least three widely spaced campaigns, along with such Halloween-themed hits as Michael Jackson's "Thriller." First rising to No. 4 in 1984, it made its latest visit this year, reaching No. 31, its highest rank since its original run; notably, chart rules put in place this decade have made it easier for decades-old songs to re-enter the Hot 100 with multi-metric gains and if ranking in the chart's top 50.