A Night at the Opera (Queen album)

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Professional reviews
A Night at the Opera
Image:Queen A Night At The Opera.png
Studio album by Queen
Released	November 21, 1975 (Europe) December 2, 1975 (US)
Recorded	August-November 1975 at Lansdowne Studios Olympic Studios SARM Studios Scorpion Studios Rockfield Studios The Roundhouse Wessex Studios
Genre	Rock Progressive rock Hard rock Heavy metal
Length	44:11
Label	EMI/Parlophone (Europe) Elektra Records/Hollywood Records (US)
Producer(s)	Roy Thomas Baker & Queen
All Music Guide Image:5 stars.svg link All Music Guide Image:5 stars.svg link (DTS) Winnipeg Free Press (not rated) link
Queen chronology
Image:Queen Sheer Heart Attack.png Sheer Heart Attack (1974)	Image:Queen A Night At The Opera.png A Night at the Opera (1975)	Image:Queen A Day At The Races.png A Day at the Races (1976)

A Night at the Opera is a rock album by English band Queen originally released in 1975. The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen. It is usually called one of the greatest rock albums ever released.

It was originally released by EMI in the UK and Elektra Records in the US, and re-released in the US on Hollywood Records on September 3 1991 with two bonus remixes. The album peaked at #4 in the US and has been certified Triple Platinum (three million copies sold) in the US.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 230 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Channel 4 named it the 13th greatest album of all time.<ref>100 Greatest Albums. Channel 4. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.</ref> It was also ranked #41 on Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" and #16 on Q's "50 Best British Albums Ever!". In 2006 it was voted the ninth greatest Number One album of all time by the British public.<ref>Beatles' Pepper tops album poll. BBC (2006-08-29). Retrieved on 2006-11-21.</ref> Since its release it has consistently ranked high in many lists.

On 21 November 2005 it was again re-released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album and of the first single off this album, Bohemian Rhapsody. This release is accompanied by a DVD with the same track listing featuring the original videos, old and new concert footage (including "'39" from the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour and Brian May on the roof of Buckingham Palace playing "God Save The Queen") and audio commentary by all four bandmembers.

On the aforementioned commentary (and on In the Studio with Redbeard, which devoted an episode to A Night at the Opera) Brian May stated that had the album not been a success, Queen certainly would have disbanded.

The album, along with the follow-up album A Day at the Races in 1976, takes its name from the Marx Brothers movie of the same name.

[edit] Track listing

Side 1
1. "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To..." (Mercury) - 3:43
2. "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" (Mercury) - 1:07
3. "I'm in Love with My Car" (Taylor) - 3:05
4. "You're My Best Friend" (Deacon) - 2:52
5. "'39" (May) - 3:31
6. "Sweet Lady" (May) - 4:03
7. "Seaside Rendezvous" (Mercury) - 2:15
Side 2
1. "The Prophet's Song" (May) - 8:21
2. "Love of My Life" (Mercury) - 3:39
3. "Good Company" (May) - 3:23
4. "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Mercury) - 5:55
5. "God Save the Queen" (trad.; Arr. May) - 1:18
Hollywood Records CD bonus tracks (US reissue)
1. "I'm in Love with My Car (1991 Bonus Remix by Mike Shipley)" (Taylor) – 3:28
2. "You're My Best Friend (1991 Bonus Remix by Matt Wallace)" (Deacon) – 2:52

[edit] Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To...

"Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To..." was Freddie Mercury's aggressive statement toward Queen's ex-manager, Norman Sheffield. It includes a piano intro that he made endless attempts to record properly^{[citation needed]}. His lead vocals were done in two separate tracks.

[edit] Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

"Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" was another song by Mercury. He played piano and did all of the vocals. The lead vocal was sung in studio, produced through headphones elsewhere in the studio in a tin bucket. A microphone picked up the sound from the bucket, which gave that hollow "megaphone" sound.

[edit] I'm in Love with My Car

"I'm in Love with My Car" is one of Roger Taylor's most famous non-singles. He did a rough demo and showed it to May, who thought he was joking. Taylor wanted it to be "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s B-side so badly that locked himself in a closet until Mercury agreed. Written for the band's roadie, John Harris, who was in love with his car (a Triumph TR4). Taylor drove an Alfa Romeo at the time.

Although Taylor recorded the rhythm guitar in the demo, May replaced it in the definitive version. All the lead vocals were by Roger Taylor, showcasing his unusually high tenor range. At the ending he actually taped the exhaust of his Alfa Romeo.

The song was the B-Side of Bohemian Rhapsody, and the fact Taylor made as much money for publishing royalties as Mercury for the single caused a lot of inner fights in the band for years.^{[citation needed]} While the album version ends with the Alfa Romeo exhaust, on the single it is placed at the beginning of the song.

[edit] You're My Best Friend

Main article: You're My Best Friend

"You're My Best Friend" was John Deacon's first single, which he composed while he was learning to play piano. He does piano on the recording and overdubbed two bass lines. The song was written for his wife.

[edit] '39

Main article: '39

"'39" was Brian May's attempt to do "sci-fi skiffle." He sang the lead vocals and jokingly asked Deacon to play double bass. Some days later Deacon dropped by in the studio with the instrument and said he'd already learned how to play it. There are backing vocals by Mercury as well as very high and fairly low harmonies by Taylor, and some falsettos by May. The B-side of "You're My Best Friend" and one of the band's most popular songs, "'39" relates the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realize that a hundred (or possibly a multiple of 100) years have passed, due to the time dilation effect in Einsteinian physics, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead. [1] (Because the "year of '39" resembles 1939, some have speculated that this is actually a song about the beginning of World War II; however this is not the case.) The title was apparently chosen because if the tracks on Queen's original studio albums are numbered in sequential order starting with their first, this would be the 39th song in the sequence.

[edit] Sweet Lady

"Sweet Lady" was another of May's compositions. It was part of his rock side and, for some reason, Mercury was out of tune during the lead vocals, which led him to repeat them several times in order to cover up the "pitchy notes."

[edit] Seaside Rendezvous

"Seaside Rendezvous" was written by Mercury. Mercury and Taylor recorded an entire orchestra (just the two of them) by imitating the sounds of tubas, piccolos, flutes and trumpets with their voices, and by doing tap dancing sounds with their fingers over a board. Mercury played both grand piano and jangle honky-tonk.

[edit] The Prophet's Song

"The Prophet's Song" was composed by May after a dream he'd had^{[citation needed]}, and is the source of some of the lyrics. He spent several days putting it together, and it includes a vocal canon sung first by Mercury, then by Mercury, Taylor and May. The vocal, and later instrumental canon was produced by early reverb devices.

[edit] Love of My Life

Main article: Love of My Life

"Love of My Life" is one of Mercury's most covered songs (there've been versions by many acts like Extreme featuring Brian May, Scorpions and Elaine Paige). Mercury played piano (including a classical solo) and did all of the vocals with startling multi-tracking precision. Brian May played harp (doing it chord by chord and pasting the takes to form the entire part), Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar (which he'd bought in Japan) and his usual Red Special.

[edit] Good Company

"Good Company" was written and sung by Brian May. All vocals are May, as is a genuine Aloha Ukelele. The ukelele was his father's, and was a combination of a ukelele and banjo. The song was reminiscent of his father.

The recording is remarkable for featuring an elaborate recreation of a Dixieland-style jazz band, produced by May using his Red Special guitar, along with various forms of effects processing.

The song is a narrative tale, told by a man who in young age was advised by his father to "take care of those you call your own, and keep good company." In his younger years, the singer follows his father's advice, keeping his friends and marrying a girl named Sally. However, after their marriage, he begins to lose interest in his friends, who gradually disappear. As he grows older, he becomes increasingly skilled at and dedicated to his occupation, working long nights and neglecting his family.

Eventually, the singer's efforts are rewarded, he begins his own Limited company (which is also a pun, since throughout the rest of the song "company" is used in the sense of companions). Even more dedicated to his business, he hardly takes notice as his wife leaves him.

The song finishes with the speaker as an elderly man, puffing his pipe and pondering the lessons of his life, which he has no one left to share with.

[edit] Bohemian Rhapsody

Main article: Bohemian Rhapsody

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is Freddie Mercury's most famous song. He wrote all of it including guitar, bass and drum parts and arranged the vocal harmonies on the back of his father's phonebook (using note names instead of sheets). When Roger Taylor and John Deacon recorded the backing track with Mercury, they didn't know yet that an operatic section was going to be recorded on top. The title came near the end of the sessions; originally they simply referred to it as "Fred's Thing". Despite being twice as long as the average 3-minute single of the day, the song became a worldwide smash.

[edit] God Save the Queen

"God Save the Queen" - Brian May recorded the British anthem in 1974 before their Sheer Heart Attack tour. He played a guide piano which was edited out later and added several layers of guitars. After the song was completed it was played as an outro at virtually every concert Queen played. When recording the track May played a rough version on piano for Roy Thomas Baker. He called his own skills on the piano sub-par at the time.

A song written by May and Mercury called "And Baby will Fall" was originally slated to end the album until it was decided that 'God Save The Queen' be the conclusion. Further, songs titled "Woe" (written by May and Mercury), "All for Nothing" (written by Deacon), and "Any Given Day" (written and sung by May) were also recorded.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Personnel

As it appeared on the album.

Freddie Mercury: Vocals, Vocals, Bechstein Debauchery, and more Vocals
Brian May: Guitars, Harp, Genuine Aloha Ukelele, Vocals, and Orchestral Backdrops
Roger Taylor: Percussion, and Vocals
John Deacon: Electric Bass, Double Bass, and Electric Piano
No synthesizers!

[edit] Singles

"Bohemian Rhapsody"/"I'm in Love with My Car" (December, 1975)
"You're My Best Friend"/"'39" (June, 1976)

[edit] Miscellanea

This album was the most expensive album to the date of 1975 when it was produced and finally made.<ref>All Music Guide - Queen</ref>
The engineer was Mike Stone ("the unsung hero of this whole thing" according to Brian May).<ref>. (2006). Classic Albums - Queen: A Night at the Opera [Television series]. </ref>

[edit] Sales notes

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was a number one hit in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK. It was also number 2 in South Africa, number 4 in Sweden and Norway, number 7 in Germany and 9 in United States. In UK, it has sold over 2,130,000 copies and more than 2 million copies in the United States.
In UK, the album spent 4 weeks at number one between 1975 and 1976, and sold more than 500,000 copies in its first 8 weeks. It sold, according to several sources, more than 1 millions copies in the UK alone.
In USA, the album peaked at number 4, and stayed on the charts for 56 weeks. It was one of the best selling album of 1976, and has sold more than 900,000 copies since 1991. Sales are estimated about 3,500,000 copies, and it reached triple-platinum in 2002.
In Germany, it reached number 5 and made Platinum for more than 500,000 copies.
In Australia, It was at number one at the end of 1975, and stayed several weeks on the charts during 1976. It was the fourth best selling album of 1976.
In Netherlands, it spent 9 weeks at number one during 1976, and remained on the charts for 24 weeks.
In Finland, it also peaked at number one, and sold 20,000 copies.
In Spain, according to several press articles, it was the best selling album of 1976.Some sources claim it was at number one, and others that it peaked at number 2.

[edit] Charts

Country	Charts			Sales
	Peak position	Weeks	Certification
Australia	1
Finland	1			20.000
Netherlands	1			250.000
United Kingdom	1	50	Platinum	1.300.000
Spain	2
Norway	4
United States	4	56	Triple Platinum	3.300.000
Germany	5		Platinum	700.000
Austria	9		Gold	25.000
Japan	9		Gold	150.000

[edit] Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
BPI – UK	Gold	December 1 1975
BPI – UK	Platinum	January 1 1976
RIAA – USA	Gold	March 9 1976
RIAA – USA	Platinum	November 14 2002
RIAA – USA	Triple Platinum	November 14 2002
Germany	Gold	1980
Germany	Platinum	1993

[edit] See also

Classic Albums

[edit] References

Discography
Queen
John Deacon \| Brian May \| Freddie Mercury \| Roger Taylor History \| Live performances \| Songs
Studio albums: Queen \| Queen II \| Sheer Heart Attack \| A Night at the Opera \| A Day at the Races \| News of the World \| Jazz \| The Game \| Flash Gordon \| Hot Space \| The Works \| A Kind of Magic \| The Miracle \| Innuendo \| Made in Heaven
Live albums: Live Killers \| Live Magic \| Live at Wembley '86 \| Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl \| Return of the Champions
Compilation albums: Greatest Hits \| At the Beeb \| Greatest Hits II \| Classic Queen \| Queen Rocks \| Greatest Hits III \| Stone Cold Classics
DVDs: We Will Rock You \| The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert \| Greatest Video Hits 1 \| Live at Wembley Stadium \| Greatest Video Hits 2 \| Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl \| Return of the Champions \| Super Live in Japan
Related Articles
Queen + Paul Rodgers \| Smile \| The Cross
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