A Night at the Opera is a rock album by English band Queen originally released in 1975. The album was recorded at Trident Sarm, Roundhouse, Olympic, Rockfield, Scorpio and Lansdowne Studios, United Kingdom, and engineered by Mike Stone.
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 31991 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.[link] It ranked #41 on Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" and #16 on Q's "50 Best British Albums Ever!".
On 21 November2005 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 the 2005 tour in "'39" and Brian May on the roof of Buckingham Palace with "God Save The Queen") and audio commentary by all four bandmembers.
The album, along with the follow-up album A Day at the Races in 1976, takes its name from the Marx Brothers movies of the same names.
At the time Queen was suffering economically, and poured all of their resources (and some they did not have) into the album. Had A Night at the Opera not done so well, Queen may have disbanded in 1975.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
"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.
"'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.
"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."
"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.
"The Prophet's Song" was composed by May after a dream he'd had, 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.
"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.
"Good Company" was written and sung by Brian May. He played a jazz band using just his Red Special guitar, doing some trombone sounds note by note via the "Deacy Amp" and his treble booster. All vocals are his, as is a geniune Aloha Ukelele. The ukelele was his fathers, and was a combination of a ukelele and banjo. The song was reminicent of his father.
"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".
"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 in 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.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Personnel
Freddie Mercury – lead vocals on 1 2 4 6 7 8 9 11, piano on 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 (piano solo on 9, jangle piano on 7), backing vocals on 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 11; operatic vocal arrangements and vocals (bass, "soprano") on 11; vocal arrangements on 7
Roger Taylor – drums, gong, tympani, tambourine, lead vocal on 3, guitar effects, backing vocals on 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 11, operatic vocals (bass, "soprano") on 11
John Deacon – bass on 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 11 12, double bass on 5, piano on 10, backing vocals on 1 2 4 5 6 8 11
Singles
"Bohemian Rhapsody"/"I'm in Love with My Car" - Elektra E45297; released December, 1975
"You're My Best Friend"/"'39" - Elektra E45318; released June, 1976. You're My Best Friend had a bit of competition with Bohemian Rhapsody, but became a world-famous lilting, gentle melody. It was written by Deacon for his wife, whom he had married that year.
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 55 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.
