| A Night At The Opera (queen Album) |
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''A Night at the Opera'' is a Rock album by British 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 in September of 1991 . The album peaked at #4 in the US and has recently been certified Triple Platinum (three million copies sold) in the US. 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 tracklisting 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 movie of the same name. TRACK LISTING # " Death On Two Legs " - ( Mercury ) - 3:43 # " Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon " - ( Mercury ) - 1:07 # " I'm In Love With My Car " - ( Taylor ) - 3:05 # " Sweet Lady " - ( May ) - 4:03 # " Seaside Rendezvous " - ( Mercury ) - 2:15 # " The Prophet's Song " - ( May ) - 8:21 # " Love Of My Life " - ( Mercury ) - 3:39 # " Good Company " - ( May ) - 3:23 # " God Save The Queen " - (Arr. May ) - 1:18
1991 Hollywood Records bonus tracks (US reissue): # "I'm In Love With My Car (1991 Bonus Remix by Mike Shipley )" - ( Taylor ) # "You're My Best Friend (1991 Bonus Remix by remixed by Matt Wallace)" - ( Deacon ) - 2:52 SONGS' STORY "Death On Two Legs" was Freddie's aggressive statement towards the people he'd been in business with before. It includes a wonderful piano intro that he lasted endless attempts to record properly. His lead vocals were done in two separate tracks. "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon" was another song by Freddie. He played piano and did all of the vocals, the lead being through a series of home-effects to achieve the megaphone sound. Brian liked the song. "I'm In Love With My Car" is one of Roger's most famous non-singles. He did a rough demo and showed it to Brian, who thought he was joking. Roger wanted it to be "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s B-side so badly that locked himself in a closet until Freddie agreed. Roger does the vocals in this track, written for the band's roadie, John Harris, who was in love with his car (a Triumph TR4). Roger drove an Alfa Romeo back then. "You're My Best Friend" was John's first single, which he composed while he was learning to play piano. He does play that instrument on the record by the way, and then overdubbed two bass lines. "'39" was Brian May's attempt to do sci-fi skiffle. He sung the lead vocals and jokingly asked John to play double-bass. Some days later John dropped by in the studio with the instrument and he'd already learnt how to play it. There are some very nice backing vocals by Freddie as well as very high and fairly low harmonies by Roger, and some falsettos by Brian. "Sweet Lady" was another Brian's composition. It was part of his rock side and for some reason Freddie was out of tune during the lead vocals, causing him to repeat them several times in order to cover up the "pitchy notes". "Seaside Rendezvous" was written by Freddie and recorded entirely without Brian. Freddie and Roger recorded an entire orchestra just the two of them, by imitating the sounds of tubas, piccolos, flutes and trumpets with their voices and doing tap dancing sounds with their fingers over a board. Fred played both grand piano and jangle honky-tonk. "The Prophet's Song" was composed by Brian after a dream he'd got where he got ome of the lyrics from. He lasted several days putting it together and includes a vocal canon sung first by Freddie, then by Freddie, Roger and Brian. "Love Of My Life" is one of Freddie's most covered songs (there've been versions by many acts like Extreme, Scorpions and Elaine Paige). Freddie played piano (including a classical solo) and did all of the vocals with startling multi-tracking precision. Brian 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 pedals and amp effects. All of the vocals were by him as well as a geniune Aloha Ukelele. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is by far Freddie'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 and John recorded the backing track with Freddie, 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". Brian recorded the British anthem in 1974 before their Sheer Heart Attack tour. He played a guide piano which was edited out later and played several layers of guitars. PERSONNEL
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