A Night at the Opera
A Night at the Opera is a hard rock album, and the fourth studio album by Queen. It was produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, and published by EMI and Electra on 1975-11-21 on vinyl and cassette. The album uses a variety of musical genres including rock, progressive rock, hard rock, music hall, twee pop, Dixieland, and even a classical song arranged for hard rock.
The graphic design of the album features the Queen coat of arms originally designed by Freddie Mercury which includes the astrological symbols of each band member. The layout carries on the black and white tradition seen during the release of Queen II — this album uses a white motif — which would be later contrasted with a black motif for the follow-up album, A Day at the Races.
Contents
Personal
If I recall correctly, this was around the fourth Queen album I bought, no doubt because it contained Bohemian Rhapsody, so I assumed the rest of the songs would be equally as amazing. Ironically, my appreciate for Bohemian Rhapsody has actually fallen over the years, and some other songs from this album have overtaken it. Although this album is often ranked as the best Queen album, I actually find it to be one of their weaker albums. Don't get me wrong, I still adore all the quirks, camp, and strangeness of the progressive rock and music hall songs, but these don't really resonate with me on an emotional level. I think it needed to be reigned in a bit as the only real pop song on the entire album is Roger Taylor's You're My Best Friend.
I own the album on vinyl, the Hollywood Records CD release, and an original master in the Crown Jewels.
Track Listing
There are hundreds of different releases of this album many with alternate bonus tracks, but this is the track list of the original vinyl release.
| Track | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Rank | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...) | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 6 | 
|
| A2 | Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 8 | 
|
| A3 | I'm in Love with My Car | Roger Taylor | Roger Taylor | 4 |
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| A4 | You're My Best Friend | John Deacon | Freddie Mercury | 1 | 
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| A5 | '39 | Brian May | Brian May | 2 | 
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| A6 | Sweet Lady | Brian May | Freddie Mercury | 11 | 
|
| A7 | Seaside Rendezvous | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 9 |
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| B1 | The Prophet's Song | Brian May | Freddie Mercury | 5 |
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| B2 | Love of My Life | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 10 |
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| B3 | Good Company | Brian May | Brian May | 7 |
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| B4 | Bohemian Rhapsody | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 3 |
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| B5 | God Save the Queen | Traditional, Brian May | Instrumental | 12 | 
|
The album's total score is 387.
Gallery
The original vinyl cover art.
The back of the vinyl album.
The CD versions usually increase the size of the coat of arms in order to take up the majority of the cover.
Links
