Queen

A Queen Bohemian Rhapsody 7” EMI Limited Edition blue vinyl and card bag.

• Queen Bohemian Rhapsody/I’m In Love With My Car 7 inch EMI limited edition vinyl.
• In house blue vinyl single that comes in its original purple picture sleeve.
• This single was released in 1978 and is numbered 163 of only 200 copies ever pressed.
• Both the single and sleeve are hand numbered ‘163’ in black pen. 
• Accompanied by the original EMI Records 1978 card bag.

Side one: Bohemian Rhapsody – EMI 2375 A-3 

Side two: I’m In Love With My Car – EMI 2375 B-1 

This limited edition single was commissioned by EMI’s then General Manager, Paul Watts, to commemorate EMI’s International Division winning the Queen’s Award to Industry for Export Achievement, having beaten competition from numerous other manufacturers. The award ceremony was held on Wednesday 26th July 1978, at a luncheon in the Cotswold Suite at London’s Selfridges Hotel. 

Reflecting the fashion at the time for coloured vinyl, Watts felt it would be an ideal way to present this special release. He recalled: 

“We came up with the band’s original colors—purple and gold, as on the Queen I cover. These colors signified Queen in a way. We decided on a maroon and gold sleeve and a single pressed on purple vinyl.” 

However, the project soon became a corporate event, with EMI’s upper management taking control. Although Watts was forced to relinquish production oversight to a separate team, he insisted that the release be executed correctly. 

His concerns were realised when the records returned from EMI’s Hayes pressing plant – the vinyl was blue, not purple. Due to the extremely limited run of just 200 copies, it was deemed impractical to re-press the single. EMI Hayes production controller, John Tagg, later explained that he had not been informed the vinyl was intended to be purple and, following corporate instructions, pressed the records in blue instead. “The granules were specially formulated for the project,” he recalled. 

Producing a run of only 200 blue vinyl singles – rather than standard large runs of black vinyl – was a significant challenge. Tagg and his team had to isolate the pressing process entirely from the rest of the plant’s production. Achieving a pure blue vinyl compound was particularly time consuming, and the Queen single took approximately three days to manufacture, at a cost of £4–£5 per copy, compared to the usual 50p per unit. 

To complete the release, full-color “A Night at the Opera” crest labels were printed and applied to each disc, with both the vinyl and the sleeve then hand-numbered individually, resulting in one of the most sought-after Queen promotional releases ever produced.