A Day at the Races
Studio album by Queen
Released	10 December 1976
Recorded	July-November 1976 The Manor Sarm East Wessex
Genre	Hard rock Pop Progressive rock Heavy metal
Length	44:24
Label	EMI, Parlophone (Europe) Elektra, Hollywood (USA)
Producer	Queen
Professional reviews
The Washington Post - link (Queen Archives) (Favourable) AMG link
Queen chronology
A Night at the Opera (1975) A Day at the Races (1976) News of the World (1977)

A Day at the Races is a rock album by English band Queen released in December of 1976. Image File history File links Queen_A_Day_At_The_Races. ... A studio album is a collection of previously unreleased, studio-recorded tracks by a recording artist. ... Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining the following year. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 21 days before the next year. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Hard rock is a variation of rock and roll music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and psychedelic rock. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The EMI Group (LSE: EMI) is a British music company comprising of the major record company EMI Music which operates several labels, based in Kensington in London, England, and EMI Music Publishing, based in New York. ... Parlophone is a record label which was founded in Germany prior to World War I by the Carl Lindstrom Company. ... Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, and today operates under Atlantic Records Group. ... Hollywood Records is a record label owned by Disney. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining the following year. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 3. ... Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining the following year. ... A Night at the Opera is a 1975 album by English rock band Queen. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Monarch Queen Elizabeth II... Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining the following year. ...

A Day at the Races was the band's first self-produced album after co-producing their first four albums with Roy Thomas Baker (for Queen, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera) and John Anthony (Queen). Roy Thomas Baker is a English record producer who helped create a number of extremely popular pop and rock records in the 1970s and 1980s. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A Night at the Opera is a 1975 album by English rock band Queen. ...

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 albums are titles of films by the Marx Brothers. Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Monarch Queen Elizabeth II... Mike Stone (a. ... Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Frenchy (father), Chico and Harpo. ...

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. The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with RIAA certification. ... The description Gold Album is applied to recorded music albums that have sold a minimum number of copies (in the US, currently 500,000 sales). ...

Track listing

• Side one
  1. "Tie Your Mother Down" (May) - 4:47
  2. "You Take My Breath Away" (Mercury) - 5:08
  3. "Long Away" (May) - 3:33
  4. "The Millionaire Waltz" (Mercury) - 4:54
  5. "You and I" (Deacon) - 3:25
• Side two
  1. "Somebody to Love" (Mercury) - 4:56
  2. "White Man" (May) - 4:59
  3. "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" (Mercury) - 2:54
  4. "Drowse" (Taylor) - 3:45
  5. "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" (May) - 5:57
• 1991 Hollywood Records bonus tracks
  1. "Tie Your Mother Down" (1991, Remix by Matt Wallace) – 3:44
  2. "Somebody to Love" (1991, Remix by Randy Badazz) – 5:00

Tie Your Mother Down

Main article: Tie Your Mother Down

"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. Tie Your Mother Down ( ) is a Queen song, written by guitarist Brian May, which features one of rock musics most recognizable guitar riffs. ... Flag of Tenerife Tenerife in the Canary Islands chain. ...

The song is preceded by a one-minute instrumental intro, which is actually a reprise of the ending of "Teo Torriatte": this was intended to create a "circle" in the album, typical, for example, of Pink Floyd's albums. Pink Floyd are an English rock band that earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their avant-garde progressive rock music. ...

You Take My Breath Away

"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 Mercury) regenerating in reverse, which gradually reintegrates into "you take my breath away." A minor scale in musical theory can be viewed as the sixth mode of the major scale. ... Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time[1]. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating...

Long Away

Main article: Long Away

"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. Long Away is a song by the band Queen; it is the third track on the first side of the 1976 album A Day At The Races. ... The twelve string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with twelve strings, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six string guitar. ... Left: Rosa Hurricane, a heavy metal-style solid body guitar. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Mod revivalist band The Jams Bruce Foxton (left) on a Rickenbacker bass and Paul Weller on a Rickenbacker guitar Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker (IPA pronunciation: ) [1]), is an electric guitar manufacturer, notable for having invented the first electric guitar during the 1930s. ... John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), (born John Winston Lennon, known as John Ono Lennon) was an iconic English 20th century rock and roll songwriter and singer, best known as the founding member of The Beatles. ...

The Millionaire Waltz

"The Millionaire Waltz" was written about John Reid (Queen's and Elton John's manager at the time) ^{[citation needed]}. 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. The guitar solo resembles Maurice Jarre's Lara's Theme and the Little Black Rain Cloud song from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. ^[1] John Reid is a Scottish manager and music industry figure currently living and working in Australia. ... Sir Elton Hercules[1] John CBE[2] (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a five-time Grammy and one-time Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. ... Bohemian Rhapsody is a song written by Freddie Mercury and originally recorded by the band Queen for their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. ... Maurice Jarre (born in Lyon, France, September 13, 1924) is a French composer of film scores, noted for his use of the Ondes Martenot, and for the scores of many films including a series of David Lean films, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (1965), Ryans Daughter (1970) and A... Laras Theme is the generic name given to a recurring musical cue written for the film Doctor Zhivago (1965) by composer Maurice Jarre. ... Little Black Rain Cloud is a song from the 1966 musical film featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. ... This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion. ...

You and I

"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. This song was never performed on stage. Acoustic guitar can refer to the following musical instruments: Nylon and gut stringed guitars: Renaissance guitar Baroque guitar Romantic guitar Classical guitar, the modern version of the original guitar, with nylon strings Flamenco guitar Steel stringed guitars: Steel-string acoustic guitar, also known as western, folk or country guitar Twelve...

Somebody to Love

Main article: Somebody to Love (Queen song)

"Somebody to Love" is the hit single of the album. It was Freddie Mercury's own favourite song.^{[citation needed]} This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... A song which has charted in one of the worlds music charts, or (if a specialist genre of music) had proven popularity. ...

Like "Bohemian Rhapsody", the major hit from Queen's previous album, this song has a complex layering of vocal tracks, this time based on a gospel choir arrangement. It was the first single off the album A Day at the Races. It is a rock ballad on which band members Mercury, May and Taylor multi-tracked their voices to create the impression of a 100-voice gospel choir. The lyrics, especially combined with the gospel influence, create a song about faith, desperation and soul-searching; the singer questions both the lack of love experienced in his life and the role and existence of God. Staying true to Queen's guitar-driven style, it was also filled with intricate harmony parts and a solo by May. Mercury recorded a huge range of notes, going from a G2 (in the last choral verse) to a D5 (at the peak of his melisma on "ooh" over the choir break). It went to number 2 on the UK charts and number 13 on the U.S. singles chart. Bohemian Rhapsody is a song written by Freddie Mercury and originally recorded by the band Queen for their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. ... Gospel music is a musical genre characterized by dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) referencing lyrics of a religious nature, particularly Christian. ... In music, melisma (commonly known as vocal runs or simply runs) is the technique of changing the note (pitch) of a syllable of text while it is being sung. ...

White Man

"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. The song is one of Queen's heaviest works. An independent origin and development of writing is counted among the many achievements and innovations of pre-Columbian American cultures. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" was written by Mercury. The song starts with a piano and vocal introduction by Mercury, then continues, with the bass and drums adding on, at the start of the chorus. The second verse is sung, followed by another chorus. At this point, the drums, bass and guitar drop out, which then leads into the bridge, sung by Freddie Mercury and Mike Stone. Following the Brian May guitar solo, another verse is sung, and then the chorus ends the track.

Multi-tracked vocals enhanced the song as well as May's guitar choirs. The song was once performed live on Top of the Pops sometime between late 1976 and early 1977, with Roger Taylor singing the Mike Stone part. Most of the track was a concert staple on the "A Day at the Races" and "News Of The World" tours. Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, was a long-running British music chart television programme, made and broadcast by the BBC. It was originally shown each week, mostly on BBC One, from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ...

Drowse

"Drowse" was Roger Taylor's song in 6/8 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). Rhythm guitar is a guitar that is primarily used to provide rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment for a singer or for other instruments in an ensemble. ... Example of a bottleneck, with fingerpicks and resonator guitar. ...

Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)

Main article: Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)

"Teo Torriatte" was Brian May's tribute to the Japanese fans. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together) is a song from the 1976 Queen album A Day at the Races and is written by guitarist Brian May. ...

The song is notable for having two verses sung in Japanese; it is one of only two Queen songs (the other "Mustapha", from the album Jazz) in which an entire verse is sung in a language other than English. The song features a piano, a plastic piano, and a harmonium, all of which are played by Brian May. It is the only point in the album in which Mercury does not play piano. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A Harmonium is a free-standing musical keyboard instrument similar to a Reed Organ or Pipe Organ. ...

The album’s closing guitar melody is also its opening melody; the sequence was attached to the beginning of "Tie Your Mother Down", the first track on the album. May described it as "a never-ending staircase", otherwise commonly known, musically, as a Shepard tone. Figure 1: Shepard tones forming a Shepard scale, illustrated in a sequencer A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. ...

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. 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 exclusively in Japan. is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 63rd day of the year (64th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 21 days before the next year. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Personnel

• Freddie Mercury: Lead Vocals, Piano, Backing Vocals
• Brian May: Electric Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Piano, Plastic Piano, Harmonium, Slide Guitar
• Roger Taylor: Drums, Percussion, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Electric Guitar
• John Deacon: Bass, Acoustic Guitar

Charts

References

1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL6uJzQQ8Xo