"He played the beginning on the piano, then stopped and said, 'And this is where the opera section comes in!' Then we went out to eat dinner."

He = Freddie Mercury. He was talking about "Bohemian Rhapsody," which was released 40 years ago today.

Marking the occasion in the news:

1. NPR: "8 things you didn’t know about ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’" The most interesting thing is: "Mercury was listening to the soundtrack for 'Cabaret'... while he worked on the song’s musical composition in 1975." And: "In his London home, where he did most of the work, Mercury slept in front of a piano, which doubled as his bed headboard."

2. The UK Telegraph: "Why we still can't get enough of Queen": "Resolutely uncool, their music heaved with pretensions, and their lyrics were often pure nonsense... they seldom if ever tried to 'say' anything..."

3. Entertainment Weekly: "How well do you know Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'?" A quiz. 

4. The Mirror: "On 40th anniversary of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody enjoy 40 fascinating facts about Freddie Mercury hit": "The 120 overdubbed tracks in Bohemian Rhapsody took more than 70 hours to complete. The tape had almost disintegrated by the time they were perfected.... It was knocked off the top spot by Abba’s Mamma Mia – a song which echoed the famous line 'mamma mia let me go' from ­Bohemian Rhapsody’s chorus.... Some think 'Galileo' is a reference to Brian May, who holds a PhD in astrophysics...."

5. BBC: "Brian May on 40 years of Bohemian Rhapsody: 'I still listen to it in the car'": "There's a layer of humour in Queen songs - and Mike Myers [in 'Wayne's World'] managed to find it in Bohemian Rhapsody. It made it into a different kind of classic, and propelled it to a second life in the States. There's a huge irony there - because there was a time when we completely owned America and we would tour there every year. It seemed like we couldn't go wrong - and then we lost America for various reasons....  Freddie had a very dark sense of humour. And he used to say: 'I suppose I'll have to die before we get America back.' And, in a sense, that was what happened. And it was Wayne's World - which came completely out of nowhere - that made it happen."

6. Rolling Stone: "Party On: Queen's Brian May Remembers 'Bohemian Rhapsody' on 40th Anniversary": "We had an unwritten law that whoever brought the song in would have the final say in how it turned out... Probably the most unusual thing was, John [Deacon] said to him, 'What are you going to call it then, is it called "Mama?"' And Freddie went, 'No, I think we'll call it 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' And there was a little silence, everybody thought, 'Okaaay…' I don't think anybody said, 'Why?' but there it was. How strange to call a song 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' but it just suits it down to the ground and it became a milestone. But nobody knew."