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A Day at the Races is a rock album by English band Queen released in December of 1976. The A Day at the Races album was the band's first self-produced album after co-producing their first four albums with Roy Thomas Baker (for Queen I, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera) and John Anthony(Queen I). A Day at the Races was recorded at Sarm West, The Manor and Wessex Studios in England and engineered by Mike Stone. The title of the album was a reference to the band's immediately preceding album, A Night at the Opera. Both A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races were titles of films by the Marx Brothers. A Day at the Races peaked at number 1 in the UK, in Japan and in the Netherlands. It reached number 5 on the US Billboard album chart and was Queen's first US album to ship Gold in the U.S.. It subsequently reached Platinum status in sales in the U.S..
Track listing Indicates a ogg audio sample. For information on how to play the samples, see . Side 1 1991 Hollywood Records bonus tracks (US re-release): Songs story "Tie Your Mother Down" was written in Tenerife, when Brian May was earning his PhD in Astronomy in early 1975. He wrote it on Spanish guitar and thought he'd change the title and chorus later on, but Mercury liked it and they kept it that way. The song was performed live before recording. The album and single versions include Roger Taylor hitting a high E without falsetto in the last chorus. "You Take My Breath Away" was written by Freddie Mercury and based on the harmonic minor scale. All of the vocals were done by him as well as the piano, and he performed it by himself at Hyde Park before recording it. There is a vocal interlude between this song and the next one that begins with a wash of vocals created by echoes (of a multitracked Freddie) regenerating in reverse, which gradually reintegrates into "you take my breath away." It is often considered to be one of Mercury's better ballads and developed somewhat of a cult following among a number of fans. "Long Away" was composed and sung by May. He used a Burns Double Six 12-string electric guitar for the rhythm parts instead of his Red Special. He'd been wanting to use a Rickenbacker because he admired John Lennon, but he didn't get along well with the thin neck of the instrument. "The Millionaire Waltz" was written about John Reid (Queen's and Elton John's manager). It's another multi-key and multi-metre song like Bohemian Rhapsody, using abrupt arrangement changes and including Brian May doing multi-tracked guitar choirs. "You And I" is John Deacon's song in the album. It features him on acoustic guitar and Mercury playing Elton John-esque piano parts. "Somebody To Love" is the hit single of the album. It was Freddie Mercury's own favourite song and he wrote it with Aretha Franklin in mind. The band emulated a gospel choir via multi-tracking, and Mercury recorded a huge range of notes, going from a low A-flat (in the introduction) to a high E-flat two octaves and a fifth above it (at the peak of his cadenza before the end tag). "White Man" was written by May about the suffering of Native Americans at the hands of European immigrants. Its riff was used for the album intro, similarly to "Father To Son" and "Procession" some years before. This song would be the focal point for a Freddie Mercury vocal solo on the A Day at the Races tour and would serve as both a Mercury vocal solo spot and a Brian May guitar solo spot on the 1977/78 News Of The World tour. "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" was written by Mercury and featured Mike Stone (sound engineer and co-producer) taking over the lead vocals for one line. ("Hey, boy, where'd you get it from? Hey, boy, where did you go?") Multi-tracked vocals enhanced the song as well as May's guitar choirs. "Drowse" was Roger Taylor's song in 6/4 having him playing rhythm guitar and timpani and doing all of the vocals. May played slide guitar during this and "Tie Your Mother Down" (the second guitar solo in the middle of the song). "Teo Torriatte" was Brian May's tribute to the Japanese fans. He played grand piano, plastic piano and harmonium as well as guitar. The title is a mistranscription of "Te (w)o toriatte", meaning "Hold hands" in Japanese. Singles In the UK the first track to be released as a single was Somebody to Love on November 12 1976 (EMI 2565). It reached number 2. It is a good example of Queen's multi-layered vocal arrangements. Tie Your Mother Down followed on March 4 1977 (EMI 2593), reaching number 31. In the US, Somebody to Love was released on 10 December 1976 ( Elektra E45362) and reached number 13. It was followed by Tie Your Mother Down (Elektra E45385) in March 1977, which reached number 49. Both of these were released in Japan: in addition, Teo Torriatte was also released in Japan. Miscellanea During the recording of the album, the Sex Pistols were recording their album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in the next studio and Johnny Rotten was eager to meet Mercury, so he crawled on all fours through Queen's studio, up to the side of the piano where Mercury was playing, and said "Hello Freddie!" before crawling out. Personnel Charts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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