THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

615-Queen-Seven Seas of Rhye.

1974-Number 10 single.

Best Bit-At 1.36. At the very end of the track Queen sample a song from 1907. That is what you call a proper ‘Golden Oldie.’

Freddie Mercury let his imagination run wild on this one.He wrote the lyrics basing them on a fantasy world he called ‘Rhye,’ that he had created with his sister, Kashmira. Mercury and his sister had been brought up on the African island of Zanzibar, and educated in the ‘Zoroastrianism’ religion which was founded in Iran, and this fuelled Mercury’s flights of fancy.The fantasy land of Rhye was a theme running through other early recordings by Queen, including, ‘Lily of the Valley,’ ‘My Fairy King,’ and ‘The March of the Black Queen.’

‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ first appeared in instrumental form, at just 1.25 seconds, as the final track on the bands debut Album ‘Queen’ from 1973, and when Mercury added lyrics it was once again the closing track, this time on the bands second Album ‘Queen 2’ from 1974. At the very end of the song the group break in to the music hall song ‘I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside,’ which was written in 1907 by John Glover-Kind, and first recorded by Mark Sheridan (1864-1918) in 1909. At the start of the opening track,’Brighton Rock,’ from Queens third Album ‘Sheer Heart Attack.’ someone can be heard whistling,’I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside,’ over the opening bars of that song.’I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside’ was probably used tongue in cheek by the band, as ‘Rye’ is a small town in East Sussex, England, with a beach near by.

‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ was Queen’s breakthrough hit, and the song which confirmed Mercury’s future with the band (see also best songs 918-208-126-47 and 3.) Although Mercury is the only person given songwriting credit, Brian May did write the guitar parts.

‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea.’